Good Day from Australia

We have learned that Australian’s usually say good day instead of hello. Other word differences we have learned are: Motorway instead of expressway and give way instead of yield (same as in the UK).

Last night we went downtown. We got directions from our hotel and they were much better than our GPS. I hate our Hertz GPS! It is not like our Garmin at home. However, Australia has many toll roads, some even without tollbooths. You need to have to buy a pass and cannot pay in cash. We learned that yesterday. We had to go online and order a visitor pass (roam.com.au). Other toll roads still have booths and allow you to pay cash as you leave the toll road. We got downtown without any problems. We parked on the street and paid a meter. It worked out well.
We booked a Ghost Tour at the Rocks in Sydney. It was a 2½ hour tour. It was good but it was $36 per person and we are not sure it was worth that price but too late now. Tripadvisor.com had great reviews for the tour. It was good but not great. Then afterwards, it was about 10:00pm and we were hungry for pizza but unfortunately we could not find a reasonable priced pizza at a place still open. A plain cheese pizza cost $22 at the Rocks. We decided to pass and just go back to the hotel and get some sleep. Granola bars for dinner for us.

We woke up early again this morning. We did not have to but our bodies are not letting us sleep in past 7:00am (which is actually 3pm the day before back home). We are packing up this morning since we will not be back to our hotel until 1-2am. Our flight to Cairns tomorrow is at 7:10am so need to be at the airport a little after 5:00am. We will not be getting much sleep tonight. Once in Cairns tomorrow, we are going on the Skyrail and Kuranda Wildlife Tour. We have a busy two days ahead.

We will be heading downtown Sydney in the next few hours. We are taking a bus downtown. Per the news, they are expecting over a million people in Sydney tonight for New Years (larger than New York City, London and Paris). The current prediction is for 1.25 million. The pictures on the news of previous years of New Years Eve are spectacular so we are excited to be part of that this year.

Happy New Year to all!

Sydney Day 2 - Blue Mountains

We went to bed last night at 7:00pm. We were tired and wanted to get off to an

early start the next morning. Lying in a bed never felt so good! Because we went to bed so early, I was awake at 4:00am. I waited until 4:45am before I got up which then woke Brian up. We left for Blue Mountains at 5:30am.

We arrived in the city of Katoomba around 7:30am. We stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast along the way. When we got there, it was foggy. We went to Echo Point. Not many people were there yet. They charged $4 an hour for parking and we were not sure how long we where going to stay so we decided to find free parking farther away. We did and it worked out well.

First we walked down steep stairs towards Three Sisters (three pillars in the picture below). We did not want to hike the entire trail but wanted to get some good pictures. Then we went on a two hour walk to Leura Falls. It was a beautiful day. The scenery was spectacular. We stopped at all the lookout points to get pictures. (Oh, I am in so much trouble for my scrapbook. I will have way too many pictures to go through. Oh well, it is worth it).







While on our walk, we saw many lizards. Of course, I would scream. I got better

as I kept seeing them everywhere. Also there were many beautiful birds. The birds would make some unique noises.

Once we got back to Echo Point, we went into the town of Katoomba. There we found a grocery store (Coles). We were excited about that. It was hard this morning, not having any food at all. (I am already sick of McDonalds). We went shopping. We got some cold drinks, dried fruits, pizza crackers, chocolate chip cookies, pears, bananas, strudel cake for the morning (I could not find regular muffins), fruit juice for the morning, and granola bars. We will be set for today and tomorrow now. Oh, I forgot. We wanted ice cream after our 3 ½ hour hike and the cones were expensive so we passed on them at the gift shop. At the grocery store, we bought a package of 4 ice cream cones (they did not have a package of two). So for lunch, I ate 2 ice cream cones. (After all the walking I did, I am okay with that. Per my pedometer I walked 15,000 steps today).

Now we are back at our hotel getting cleaned up before we go to downtown Sydney for the evening. Off to McDonald’s to upload this post. The extra photos are sponsored by McDonalds and their free wifi. It is nice that it is across the street. Our hotel charges $10 per hour. Once we get on the ship, we’ll be charged by the minute for internet so posted pictures will be more limited.

Arrival in Sydney, Australia

We made into Sydney around 12:30pm (Sydney time). We were on the same plane that we took from LAX to Fiji. Again had a good flight but we were glad when it was over. Once in Sydney, we had to go through customs (absolutely no food allow through). Luckily we ate all that I had packed. Then get our luggage and went to the rental car place. Brian checked currency conversion. Sydney is better than LAX.

We have an automatic hatch back Toyoda Corolla. Brian realized having the car set up backwards from what we are use to and driving on the left side of the road can be quite a challenge. Our GPS that I rented through the rental car agency is also not that great! Its favorite phrase is “Turn left whenever possible.” It is a GPS. It should know when what streets are coming up! It gives us new appreciation for our Garmin back at home.

It took us twice as long as it should of to get to our hotel. It did not help that the hotel was not easy to find either! I was hoping to get to our hotel around 2:00pm but it was almost 3:30pm after we checked in. I am grateful we are here.

The plan for tonight was to go back downtown and see the city. We are both really tired and need to relax a bit. This trip is like all our others, we want to see and do as much as possible but starting off exhausted is not a good thing.

I knew the flight getting here was going to be terrible. I was dreading it! Part of me could not be excited for this trip because I kept thinking of the flights. Now that we are here, it was not a bad as I was thinking but I am really tired! There really is no room on planes to sleep. Unless you can sleep sitting up, you cannot sleep on a plane. Our flight to Sydney was pretty full. We did not have an extra seat and I was trying to nap and that did not work too well. Good thing we are finally here and the flight home will be a little shorter.

The weather is party sunny around 80. Ever since we left Fiji, we have been hot. Like my last post said, we were in winter clothes so that did not help. We finally took showers. I don’t know if I have ever had the same clothes on the amount of time I did. I felt really disgusting. I am much better now.


Our hotel has a McDonald’s across the street with free WiFi. We are happy about that. The plan for tonight is plan out the next two days here and get some sleep. We will eat dinner at McDonald’s so we can post this entry. I think we are going to Blue Mountains early tomorrow morning and then downtown Sydney in afternoon/evening but we will confirm that later.

Nearly in Sydney

I am typing this up at Fiji airport although it will not be posted until we arrive in Sydney. We arrived to LAX on time. Our Continental flight was good. We got a cheeseburger and salad on the plane. We stayed awake the entire time and read our books but that was the plan.

When we arrived in LAX we had a 6 hour layover. We got our luggage quickly and then had to find the International Terminal. They have a free LAX shuttle bus (bus A) that takes you to the different terminals. In retrospect, we could of walked but we did not know that. Then we found a currency exchange place and had to decide if we wanted to exchange our money there. It was quite a decision. We finally decided to get Australian Dollars so we would not have to worry about that once we got there. There was a $6 service charge plus the exchange rate they offered was only 0.76 instead of the official rate of 0.68 so it cost us $18 USD to convert $120 USD to $150 AUD. We hope this will be enough cash for the whole trip (mainly planning to use credit cards: the exchange rate is much better). The Australian money is very colorful and bright. It is the prettiest money we have ever seen.

We were early to check in for the Air Pacific flight. Unfortunately there were no emergency exit rows seats left. We were a little sad but at least Brian had an aisle seat. Air Pacific was an hour late boarding our flight to Fiji due to the late arrival of that plane. We were on a double decker 747 jet. Our seats were on the first level row 44. There were 69 rows total.

Once we finally boarded we realized that no one had the window seat next to us. Lucky us! The plane was set up with 3 seats on each side and 4 seats in the middle aisle. Our seats were the 3 on the left side of the plane. The window seat was open and that made us very excited. Once we got into the air, I moved to the window seat. After dinner I was able to get some sleep. I think I got about 4 hours of sleep and Brian thinks he got about 3 hours. Not bad for us. It really helped having that extra seat. Brian said the sleeping pill helped him noticeably too. He got most of his sleep after taking it.

We feel okay right now but have another 4 ½ hour flight to go. Fiji is really hot and humid. I think too humid but that is my opinion. Remember it is only 7:00am here and it is that hot. We are still wearing pants and long sleeves though and last week was 1 degree Fahrenheit (-17 degrees Celsius) back home so maybe it is just us. The airport reminds us a lot of the airports in Hawaii: it is open air with the terminals covered but outside.

We will be boarding our final flight to Sydney soon. Right now it is 8am Monday morning in Fiji. Our laptop says it is 3pm Sunday. It is confused.

32+ Hours of Traveling

We leave for the airport shortly. Last night we got a good night sleep. We won't be able to go to bed again until Monday morning at 4am EST (which is 8pm Monday night in Sydney). That is 44 hours away! In the past we have never been able to sleep on a plane. Hopefully some sleeping pills will help fix this. Even just a couple of hours would help. We will see!

Here is a listing of our flight times and layovers. The time back home (EST) and the local times for our location are given for each.

Leave Cleveland for Los Angeles
2:20 PM Saturday - EST
2:20 PM Saturday - Local Time in Cleveland (EST)

Flying time: 5 hours 4 mintues

Arrive in Los Angeles
7:24 PM Saturday - EST
4:24 PM Saturday - Local Time in LA (PST)

Layover: 6 hours and 6 minutes

Leave Los Angeles for Fiji
1:30 AM Sunday - EST
10:30 PM Sunday - Local Time in LA (PST)

Flying time: 10 hours 45 minutes

Arrive in Fiji
12:15 PM Sunday - EST
5:15 AM Monday - Local Time in Fiji

Layover: 3 hours 45 minutes

Leave for Sydney, Australia
4:00 PM Sunday - EST
9:00 AM Monday - Local Time in Fiji

Flying time: 4 hours 30 minutes

Arrive in Syndey, Australia
8:25 PM Sunday - EST
12:25 PM Monday - Local Time in Sydney

We leave tomorrow

We leave tomorrow! Yes, tomorrow! I think we are both a little shocked about how quickly it has come. I have learned that going on vacation during the holidays adds a little more stress to everything. Especially, since this is such a big trip. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! It was nice to spend time with family. We planned everything that we needed to do around Christmas, so we could spend time with our family.

I want to thank Dad and Bill for helping Brian with taking down all of our Christmas lights today. We did not want to take down lights after we got back, so we did that today. Thanks for your help!

For the past week, we have been living by our list of things to do. When I think we have it all done, we add more to the list. We have most everything done expect what has to wait until morning. I hope that I packed everything I was suppose to.

My travel binder is all together. We have our passports and ETA for Australia plus all of our confirmations of excursions, hotels, flights, etc. I really don’t know how I could of done this trip without my binder. I have tabs for every city with all the info I need for each one. I have to be organized and it really works out great!

The plan for tonight is to get some sleep! We cannot go into this trip exhausted. Hopefully we can sleep on the plane although we are still skeptical we will be able to. Since the Cavs played last night, we did not get home until midnight and we up at 0500. (No Cavs game for us until January 19th). Please send us Cavs updates! We are both a little tried right now.

After I get everything packed in the morning, I will upload a picture of our luggage. I think you will be impressed. I did not do as good as I did for Northern Europe, but definitely not as bad as Alaska (I had 8 bags for a 2 week trip for Alaska).

If you have any questions about the trip, please ask and I will try and respond. During our sea days on the cruise, I will make sure all questions are answered. The first week of the trip, is going to be busy but I think once we get on the ship, I will have a little more time.

Our itinerary

I wanted to have a post of our itinerary. I have made post in paragraph form but this will be a list of our itinerary only.

December 27, 2008: Leave Cleveland, fly to Los Angles then to Fiji
December 28, 2008: Cross international date line, continue flying to Australia
December 29, 2008: Land in Fiji for layover, fly to Sydney. Explore Sydney
December 30, 2008: Visit Blue Mountains
December 31, 2008: Spend day in downtown Sydney for New Years Eve
January 1, 2009: Fly to Cairns, Australia. Visit Rain forest
January 2, 2009: Spend day in Cairns
January 3, 2009: Snorkel Great Barrier Reef
January 4, 2009: Fly back to Sydney to board the Celebrity Millennium for our cruise
January 5, 2009: Sydney Bridge Climb
January 6, 2009: Newcastle, Australia (Beach Dunning)
January 7, 2009: At Sea
January 8, 2009: Phillip Island, Australia (Penguin Parade)
January 9, 2009: Melbourne, Australia (explore city on our own)
January 10, 2009: At Sea
January 11, 2009: At Sea
January 12, 2009: Cruising Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound and Dusky Sound
January 13, 2009: Dunedin, New Zealand (bike and kayaking)
January 14, 2009: Akaroa, New Zealand (kayaking)
January 15, 2009: Wellington, New Zealand (explore city)
January 16, 2009: Cruising Volcanic White Island, New Zealand
January 17, 2009: Tauranga, New Zealand (zorbing)
January 18, 2009: Auckland, New Zealand (Sky Tower) Fly back home - Arrive in LAX
January 19, 2009: Back home

Thanks Brian

As you may of noticed, my blog homepage looks different. We now have a map of Australia/New Zealand and as we travel the map and weather will update automatically. (On our last trip we had to update our weather daily which was a little bit of a pain). Brian wrote a program so it will change based on the date. The website will also show you the local time where we are once we get there. There is also a countdown until we leave. How exciting! Thanks to Brian for doing that because we all know I could not have done that.

Celebrity does not offer a cruise cam like NCL did for our last cruise. I was sad about that but I think the map will be just as nice. NCL's Jade cruise cam is now off my blog too.

Things are coming along. Brian is done with school for this semester so now he is doing a lot for this trip too. He has gotten our music collection together. We have CD's to listen to while in the rental car driving around and our MP3 players are set up for the plane ride. Brian is also getting all of our electronics together (that is his only responsibility of packing). I have started to pack (kind of). All of my clothes are in our spare bedroom ready to pack. Since we are going to summer, it is easier to pack a little early. I have not started packing for Brian yet.

We practice last night with Skype. We called our family and now everyone knows how it works. It is a really neat program. I am looking forward to calling home while we are on this trip.

I plan on packing our suitcase this weekend and see how heavy they are. Remember each of them can only be 44lb. Hopefully that will go well. :)

(P.S. Thanks to the person that let me know that Newcastle is only one word. I did not realize that - Sorry).

Luggage Issues

I have booked all of our flights separately due to cost. Why can’t all airlines have the same luggage policy is beyond me but they do not?! So here is what I found out the other day. We fly Continental to LAX. Since we purchased our airfare before they started charging for the first bag, our first bag is free and $25for any additional. (I should mention my packing plans – I want to each bring a suitcase and then our garment bag for dress clothes - 3 bags total and 2 carry-ons). Then we fly Air Pacific to Sydney. Air Pacific allows two pieces with each allowed to weigh 50.6lb. The problem with this flight is our carryon is only allowed to be 11 lb. Remember our computer needs to be a carryon so I can blog this trip. Oh my! (Good thing I made Brian buy me an extra small laptop).

It gets better. We fly Jet Star to Cairns from Sydney. We are only allowed 1 checked bag that maximum weight is 44lb. That means that all of our suitcases can only be 44 lb at least until we are finished with this flight. Then pay extra $80 AUD for the garment bag and if we do not call before we arrive to the airport, it costs $300 AUD. (Note to self-I need to call them). We fly back to Sydney via Qantas and they will honor Air Pacific luggage guidelines by showing proof we flew from the USA.

Also, I booked our snorkel adventure at the Great Barrier Reef through Passion of Paradise. Here is their website: http://www.passions.com.au/

Tonight I spent time registering with the U.S. Embassy. I filled out the appropriate online forms letting them know where we would be and providing them with our passport and contact information. We learned just a few months ago about the importance of registering.

From the US Department of State webiste: “Why should I register?
Millions of Americans travel abroad every year and encounter no difficulties. However, U.S. embassies and consulates assist nearly 200,000 Americans each year who are victims of crime, accident, or illness, or whose family and friends need to contact them in an emergency. When an emergency happens, or if natural disaster, terrorism, or civil unrest strikes during your foreign travel, the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate can be your source of assistance and information. By registering your trip, you help the embassy or consulate locate you when you might need them the most. Registration is voluntary and costs nothing, but it should be a big part of your travel planning and security. “

One never knows what could happen so I took the time tonight to make sure they knew of our travel plans.

At the end of this week, I am going to start packing. Since it is summer in Australia, I can easily start packing our clothes. I am definitely not wearing any summer clothes right now!

I also need to double check my travel binder and make sure everything is in order.