Our Month in Austraila

The four of us at the Sydney airport waiting for our luggage

Flight Worries, Weather Worries

When we boarded the flight in Vancouver on our way to Australia, most of us wondered if we would experience any turbulence as we flew over Cyclone Alfred, which was directly in our flight path as we approached the Sydney airport. This turned out to be a non-issue as the flight took a slight diversion around the weather system and at most there was just slight turbulence so overall the flight, although very long, was enjoyable.

We were going to end up staying in Sydney for about 9 hours as our flight to Bendigo was much later in the day. Although it looked pretty overcast as we made our descent into Sydney, the weather turned out to be really nice, sunny and around 25 degrees. But the real heat was expected to greet us when we got to Bendigo, which was going to be sunny and reach into the low 30s. We’ve all been in shorts, and we have no complaints about the weather. We’ll see if that optimism continues over the next few weeks.

Us arriving at Bendigo on the small commuter aircraft

It’s About the Family

More so than any other trip we’ve ever taken, our Month in Australia is heavily focused on our stays with family. Almost 50% of our travel days in Australia will be spent visiting family, which the four of us agreed we wanted to build our agenda around. It’s been my personal experience that staying with family (and friends) when we’ve visited another country only makes that trip more memorable.

L1000150 4 — The inside of the Groove Tram in Bendigo

The Tram

Long before we arrived in Bendigo, we had made arrangements to get tickets for what is called the Groove Tram. It’s a tram that has live music and goes up and down Bendigo while you see the sights, listen to music and have drinks. I wasn’t exactly sure what we were getting into with this, but in hindsight, it turned out to be a fun experience. The temperature here was about 33 that day, and the sun was punishing, making the wait for the tram has all of us seeking out shade wherever possible. Luckily, the tram kept switching directions, so if you were on the sunny side, it was only for a few minutes when our side switched to the shade.

Pencils and the Car

We spent most of yesterday looking for pencils. Yes, it’s true, Barb has waited patiently for our trip to Australia and was on the hunt to find a local brand of eyeliner pencils, and we spent yesterday going to store after store to find the exact type which apparently can no longer be found in Vancouver. We’ve bought a lot of things over the years while in other countries but this is the first to buy this type of things and go to so many stores in one day.

Stormy clouds approaching at our cousin’s place in Bendigo

In addition to buying pencils, one of the tasks to get done while we’re here in Bendigo was to pick up our rental car, which was also arranged many months ago. However, like in a Seinfeld episode, the car rental place did not have the car we had reserved. They offered us a completely unsuitable small car, which I rejected, and we left not knowing what our options were going to be. There ended up being another car rental place nearby, and fortunately, they had exactly what I was looking for, and I got to renew my left side of the street driving skills again driving back to our cousin’s place.

As always, I’ve started to upload my photos to my photo website here. I’ll check back in a few days from now.

Baden