Prep-work continues

OK, so looking back at my last post I think it may have been slightly "extreme".  I didn't need to purchase/pack absolutely everything my entire family and pets will need for 12 months.  North Mart and Ventures (the two department stores) do have essentials, and Amazon.ca is amazing in that it doesn't charge any extra to have items shipped to Iqaluit (as long as those items are sold "by amazon.ca" and not one of the many other online retailers that sell on amazon, and so long as those items aren't large or heavy). And a lot of things can be purchased online as long as you don't mind paying exorbitant shipping. (Ikea website quotes a billion dollars to ship couch to Iqaluit)

Yours for a cool billion dollars.

One thing that is tricky is a vehicle.  We could take one of our own, but both our cars are 8 years old.  To ship one via sealift would be roughly $3000-$4000, and would have meant being without a vehicle for weeks (to months) before we left, and for weeks after we arrived in Iqaluit.  Unless we somehow were unlucky enough to miss the last sealift delivery due to early ice in the harbour. (The sealift is the big ol' delivery ship that comes up several times during the spring/summer as long as there is no ice. If ice stays late or arrives early, the sealift can be cancelled.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/ice-prevents-iqaluit-s-last-sealift-ship-from-offloading-all-its-cargo-1.3297748

Vehicles shipped via sealift. (Courtesy CBC)

If we missed the last sealift, we would have NO car. Add to that the difficulty in finding replacement parts or having to wait for said parts to be shipped in if need be, plus unpaved Iqaluit roads being notoriously hard on vehicles, PLUS having an 8 year old car sitting outside in -40 degree weather for weeks on end.....and it just seems silly.  We will be leasing a car while we are there.  Lucky for us there is a Ford dealership in Iqaluit!  Wahoo!!! We have a vast array of choices for our new vehicle. Those choices are: Ford Explorer or Ford Escape.  (Unless we want a pickup truck.)

Sealift

And that's pretty much how I expect life will be in Iqaluit.  You want a car?  You can get one.  You want canned veggies?  Need underwear? No problem. Just don't be choosy. And be prepared to pay through the nose.

The other way to get things is through the Iqaluit sell/swap Facebook Group.  I joined this (with some difficulty-more on that later) after our visit to the north last fall.  The people of Iqaluit use this group to sell any number of things: jewelry, used clothing and household items, freshly killed caribou, polar bear skins, etc. (I am not kidding.) You can think of it as a giant Facebook yard sale, but in addition to your usual yard sale items you'll find canned goods, meat, fur, and narwhal tusks. (For those of you who don't know what a narwhal is, imagine a whale crossed with a unicorn. Seriously. Look it up.)

As seen on Iqaluit sell/swap Facebook Group