My cousin Greg Kite flew into Yellowknife today from Holman Island which is north and east of Tuktoyuktuk, which is located where the Mackenzie River empties into the Bering Sea, it is really far north in other words. After some confusion on my part as to which hotel he was registered in, we found him and had him over for dinner. It was great to catch up on his family's news and share some stories. At the moment he is working for a company which is surveying from the air, he flies a Navajo PA 31, I think he said, and the surveying is being done for the Canadian government in part to prove that we have a presence in the Arctic as well as possibly identifying kimberlite pipes, which are an indicator of diamonds.
Greg has flown all over the Arctic over the years, cruising around over Iqualuit, Cambridge Bay, and he was recently doing a survey in our old hunting grounds around Uranium City. In order to do this survey Greg has to fly this plane at 500 feet, carefully following the contours of the ground. He has some super duper GPS on board to help him do this but he said that after a 6 hour flight at this height he is exhausted. He had some great stories to tell about the accommodations and muskox meals he was getting at the Arctic Char Inn, but apparently he has not had a meal of Char yet, how does that work?

After we had dinner we headed off for a trip to Walmart and Canadian Tire. Greg wanted a push broom so he could clean off the gravel from the runway so they didn't spew gravel all around when they started up the plane. He let us into the hanger so we got a chance to see his fancy plane. He had helped change the oil earlier in the day. Apparently the plane needs to be serviced every 50 hours, so Greg figured if the weather held in Holman he would be back in Yellowknife every 10 days or so. We finished off the evening with a sight seeing tour, showing off the boat yard and the house boats as well as the float plane base. Hopefully if he is able to come back this way he will bring a couple of Char with him and I could cook it up for him.