Australia and New Zealand
4 May 2003 - 30 May 2003

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Destinations

Sydney
Cairns  
Uluru (Ayers Rock)
Alice Springs
Adelaide
Kangaroo Island
Tasmania
Melbourne

Christchurch, NZ
Queenstown, NZ
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It's another trip half-way around the world.  Australia and New Zealand were always near the top of our list for travel.  We traveled with some Aussies when in Turkey, and half our British Isles group was from Down-Under, so we heard some wonderful stories about the sights to see.  And, of course, this trip was planned well before the SARS illness that started in southern China.

We left Tucson a little after 5 p.m. on Sunday, arrived at LAX after a 75 minute flight.  Our Qantas flight was not until 10 p.m. so had some time to kill walking around the airport.  We were allowed to check our baggage early.  Kirsten had locks on her checked bag and they said it was OK.  I did not have locks on my bag and it was hand searched - go figure!

The flight was only about 75% full.  Initially we were crammed into 3 occupied seats with only one person in the 3 seats in front of us.  Kirsten moved to the window seat in front of our assigned seats and I stayed at the window seat behind her.  This way, at least, we had some room to "stretch" for the 14 hour flight.  We flew on a Boeing 747-400 plane.  We arrived at Sydney Airport about 6:15 a.m. on Tuesday (14 hours in the air).

The adventure starts

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