This morning we woke to the sun coming up over the island. The resort we were staying at was on the sunrise side, so we knew we would wake to the sun. Though Chris leapt out of bed to get a photo, he was about 40 seconds to late to capture the best shot.

After breakfast we headed into town to take a carriage ride through the island (by horse and buggy of course). Starting with the downtown area we travelled down a few of the streets and saw such things as the police station, fire station, older buildings etc. Our guide was very knowledgeable and said that he lived on the island all year around.

Only about 600-800 live on the island all year around, and that is because the island basically shuts down over the winter months. The lake will freeze in January, meaning the ferry can’t cross and the only way off is by flight. Until the ice comes. When the ice is thick enough the coast guard will drill holes in the ice and when deemed thick enough, will plant Christmas trees in those holes, making a track from the island to St Ignace on the mainland for the islanders to cross by snowmobile. Most of the horses are shipped back to the island before the lake freezes and only around 20 of the 800+ are left over winter.

Our tour continued past the grand hotel where guests will pay a minimum of $500 US a night for a room in summer. Then up to Surry Hills to view the butterfly conservatory (which we didn’t do).

Instead we continued on another horse and buggy through the state park. We visited Arch Rock on the eastern side of the island and enjoyed our tour guide’s knowledge of the island and local area (a different guide this time). We decided to get off at the governor’s house, where it was a 5 minute walk down the hill back to the centre of town

Back to the hotel to collect our bags, back to the ferry to go to the mainland and back to our car. We picked up lunch on the way and started our drive north.

Our drive up to Sault St Marie (pronounced Soo St Marie or otherwise known as the Soo) was very quick and very quiet! There were no other vehicles on the road (weird!) and the hour long journey travelling 91km went very quickly.

Once at the Soo, we checked into our hotel and then relaxed until dinner. For dinner we caught up with our Minnesota friends Mike and Dorothy who had very kindly driven over to meet us (over 900KMs!!!). It was lovely to catch up again since our last time in 2018 (thanks Covid!). We had a lovely dinner and a lovely catch up. Once again we tried to tempt them to travel to NZ!

Tomorrow we explore the Soo.

Chris and Dan