If you happen to have enough space outdoors for an igloo and enough time to build one, you’ll just need to start collecting several hundred cartons. That’s how New Zealanders Daniel Gray and his girlfriend Kathleen Starrie have spent the past five weeks of their visit to the Canadian city, Edmonton.

Starrie’s mother suggested building the igloo as a way of keeping her daughter’s boyfriend, Gray, from sitting around twiddling his fingers in boredom. “Once I started building it, it was something I just really wanted to finish, because you can’t just leave something like that unfinished,” said Gray.

To prepare for the couple’s visit, Starrie’s mom began collecting milk cartons in October, which she filled with colored water and frozed to make ice blocks.

Gray’s original plan involved cutting the ice blocks to create a perfect fit. He changed courses though and instead created “snowcrete” of snow and water to hold the bricks together.

150 hours and 500 ice blocks later, stacked one by one with a little help from family and neighbors, they completed colorful igloo.

via Collosal, Global Edmonton.