December 10th (Friday) and 11th (Saturday) – Planes, Trains, Automobiles & Charters

All we can say is LOST.  We got up early (5:30 – can’t sleep in cause of jet lag) and decided to tour downtown Melbourne.  It was extremely busy and packed on the streets so we decided to take the tram.  Once we got on we had no idea how to pay for our ride.  A local told us we needed a ticket or change to put into this foreign looking machine – needless to say we had neither.  We quickly hopped off at the next stop before anyone could notice we never payed.  The shopping is like no other – there are millions of stores and everyone is dressed up, we looked out of place wearing jeans.  The store Meyers was huge, there were six levels and anything you could imagine.  It is like our Bay and Sears combined.  Right now they have a Christmas display in their windows and it is tradition, there were hundreds of people lined up to walk past and look.  We bought a tram ticket so we could go to the Aquarium, but it seemed the tram we needed was always going the other way, so we walked.  It turned out that we did that for the rest of the day, way easier then figuring out the tram system.  We went out partying with Georgie’s brother Tim.  Met some of his friends and had a great time at World’s Bar.  We are slowly picking up on some local lingo:

Truck = Ute

Combine  = Header

Header = Front

Cookie = Biscuit

Caesar Drink = Caesar Salad

Bus = Coach

Yesterday (11^th) we took a train to Ballart – it was fast and interesting how many people use it daily to get from town to town.  Then from Ballart we had to hop on a coach and ride for three hours to Mt. Gambier where Georgie picked us up.  That was the longest coach ride, you had to stop at every town and it seems here there is a town ever 15 km.  On our way to Naracoorte we did some crop checking with Georgie, it is fascinating how her company grows seed for people around the world.  When we got closer to Naracoorte it is miles upon miles of vineyards.  I am amazed and excited because it is such a different world here.  I learned pretty fast to not use the word “wine kit”, they have not heard and cannot fathom the idea of making wine from a kit.  We had a nice supper and visit and now I am off to the local market to sell Pasties (12^th).   

P.S.  Josh has searched high and low to find a replacement for Fresca for me.  He normally doesn’t worry about my pop cravings but I think he can’t deal with my withdrawal anymore.  We found a replacement, Lift. 

Downtown:

Metro Pay Station:

Stone Santa (see we even have Santa - he won't melt either) I feel so sorry for him - it must have been soo hot in his suit

Meyers Christmas Window Displays:

Melbourne Aquarium:

 Drinking at the World Bar with Our New Mates:

December 9th (Thursday)

The people here are very friendly and helpful.  We are going to tour the downtown area of the city - it is very cultural and artsy.  We are hoping to have cell phones hooked up today and open up bank accounts.  The weather is nice (23 degrees) but is cloudy and muggy.  Most poarts of Australia are getting more than usual amounts of rain right now.  Farmers are having troubles taking their crops off and many areas are flooding.  Josh wanted me to add in that the engineering and architecture of the buildings is amazing.  Tons of people and the traffic is very fast paced.  Josh isn't sure yet if he's up for the fast paced traffic while driving on the wrong side of the road.  I already counted myself out.  Today is our first morning here visiting with people and Josh has already snooped out some people form Vancouver who have relatives in Balcarres.  The relatives last name is Legacy.  We are excited to start our first day - not sure of the rest of our adventures for the day, but will keep posting updates and pictures as often as we can.

Outside of our Hotel:

December 6th (Monday)

So we started off our journey at Regina's airport. We weren't worried about our luggage (expecting it to get lost) but were worried about catching our flights (Regina - Denver - Los Angeles - Sydney - Melbourne). It was definately the longest 30 hours of our lives. In Regina we were sitting by our "gate" and talking to a group of people (suprise surprise - we both love to talk to people) who's flight to Calgary kept getting delayed. Josh and I are chatting away and I look at my watch and realize that our flight leaves in 15 minutes and there is not a soul at our gate - no United workers - no one. All of a sudden we hear last call for our flight going to Denver so Josh and I are off running through the airport - thank goodness Regina is a small airport. Once we arrived at our plane we were happy to see that we weren't the only ones late. They made a mistake and the plane pulled into the wrong gate. Even though it was a rough start to be late for your first plane ride of the day at least we weren't hitting each other with our carry ons running through the airport :)

We landed in Denver ahead of schedule and after we went through customs we learnt that our flight was cancelled. We got a little stressed because of the ripple affect to connect with our other flights. United was very good and made sure that we made it on a different flight in order to make it in time to LA. One thing we learnt very fast was the difference in customs between (the States and Canada) and (Australia and Canada). Our standards are definately not as high. In Denver I got pulled aside - quizzed and patted down. If my answers weren't good enough or if they would have felt something even a little out of the ordinary they would have taken me into this other room with this big machine that I would have to stand in and kind of X-Ray through my clothes (better than getting stripped searched). This is very common for them - they do it on a rotation like every 10th passenger. You could not walk to your gate even if you wanted to - the airport had an underground subway that stopped at each of the gates. It was down the last minute that we made it in time for flight.

In Sydney we just had to refuel and then we were off to Melbourne. The turbulence on all of the flights was okay not too bad. But this final lag was un real - people were crying. There was a big thunderstorm and lots of flooding going on all over Australia. We had to circle the airport for 1 1/2 hours in order to be able to land. It was a very rough landing and everyone was cheering. Melbourne was our last stop so we had to go through our final customs. They go thoroughly through all of your luggage - we were not expecting that.
The plane that we travelled on for the majority of the trip (not Regina to Denver) was a Boeing 747. It was a huge plane and once we seen the first class seats on from Dever to Los Angeles we asked how much it would to upgrade. They looked it up and told us it was $1200.00 per person each way. When we landed in Melbourne it was December 8th Wednesday at 1:00 pm and in Saskatchewan it was December 7th Tuesday at 9:00 pm. The jet lag hasn't been that bad, we slept alot on the flights so the adjustment would be easier.

December 2nd (Wednesday) - December 5th (Sunday) The Start of Our Adventure

December 2nd (Wednesday)
We took a trip into the city (Regina) to make sure we had everything we needed. We purchased backpacks thinking it would be easier to travel around with.

December 5th (Sunday)
Finally finished packing - we realized we packed way too much stuff - Josh does not know how he is going to carry all if it. Josh said "once we get there I will post some of it on Ebay for someone back home to buy back because shipping will be cheaper and I won't be able to handle carrying all this stuff around.