I Come From the Land Down Under

Dear Readers,

We recently returned from a 12 day trip to Australia and New Zealand. Sadly I heard today that Christchurch, the biggest city of the southern island of New Zealand was leveled again by an earthquake. We just missed it.

Our trip began on a Saturday afternoon when we got on a Quantas plane bound for Sidney. This was a seven hour flight (overnight) and we were to arrive in the Australian morning at 6 am. It was a terrible flight and we were literally at the back of the plane with a whole team of sports boys. They never shut up. Half way, over Australia, we hit rough weather (remember a hurricane had just passed through the area a few days before). The plane shook all the rest of the way there and the kolas weren't the only ones who hated Quantas before it was over. We never did figure out why the plane didn't go above it. I was very glad to land-never mind the lack of sleep. We were picked up at the international airport by an old man and lots of other people. Our plane had arrived late and so everyone was out of sync. He went back and forth from the domestic and international airports trying to find people before he finally gave up and took us to our hotel, the Swisshotel. It was great but our room wasn't ready. We had to leave our luggage and walk around town.

It felt like 90 degrees. I was amazed at the heat because I had on jeans and long sleeves. We walked around in the heat looking at the churches, parks, flowers, and even went into a museum of dinosaurs. They had an exhibit of the ancestors of some of Australian animals and we were amazed at the large versions. Luckily they were extinct!

We got checked in and then were off on a bus tour of Sidney. Unfortunately, I had changed into shorts and it was now raining, blowing, and the temperature had dropped thirty degrees. I heard this was normal for Sidney. We rode around looking at the Sidney harbor, climbing rocks for photo shots, listening to a droning bus driver, and finally ended up at Bondi Beach. The weather was so bad that no one was on the beach and I got sand in my eyes. Bummer! Back to the hotel.

That very night was a parade for the Chinese New Year. I had missed that in Singapore so we got to see a delightful display of weirdly dressed Asian people and balloons of horoscope creatures. You see, there are alot of Asians in Australia. They have to import workers and until recently, immigration was greatly encouraged. Now they are closing the border shut and turning boat loads of Indonesians and Sri lankians away. They have tightened the immigration of Singaporeans also. Medical students can't do their residences there anymore. They have to come back to Singapore.

Finally we made it back to our hotel, armed with postcards and the camera. It continued to rain off and on. We had an early day the next day so we went to bed Stay tuned.