Australia – New Zealand – Part 1

Australia

The first three months of 2016 were busy and wonderful and so much more. We began the year with a long awaited trip - and a true holiday/vacation - to Australia and New Zealand. We were able to use miles to get us there which lowered the cost of the trip considerably. (Tip – If you are a Delta flyer and participate in their mileage program it is generally always a better to use your Delta miles on their partners and vice versa. Want more information see here and here.)We flew on Korean Air into Brisbane and returned from Auckland, transiting both times through Seoul. (However, back to Delta for a moment, I have heard recently that Delta has made it much more difficult to go to Australia via Asia as they want you to use their flights from Los Angeles - just another FYI.)   

There were so many highlights on this trip, beginning with an amazing view of Brisbane and the Brisbane river as we arrived, but our time staying with Jenny and Remo and their kids about an hour outside of Brisbane started us off on such a good note that we weren’t sure if the rest of the trip would measure up. I have known Jenny for thirty years. She was a year ahead of me at Chefoo and we continued on in school together at Faith Academy where we were also in the same dorm at one point. The last time I saw Jenny and Remo was a cold grey day in Seattle back in the '90s while they were both obtaining PhD’s in Minnesota. We have stayed in touch and valued each other’s voices over the years but I think we were both pleasantly surprised at how great it was to be together in person as adults and have so much to talk about.  And so we hung out and talked a lot, asked a million questions and listened to stories all while sitting  around their dining room table, exploring their property or driving.

The view from the front of Jenny and Remo's place looking down their driveway.

The view from the other side of the house

We didn’t do too many ‘touristy’ things but we did see a lot – one day going inland a little more to Toowoomba where Remo and Jenny were both working. We explored several parks and gardens and had some good coffee and food as well as a gelato donut! Another day we went with Remo as he drove his mother (who was also visiting) back to her home so we got to see a little more of the beauty of this country.

We did go into Brisbane one day and went for an hour long cruise up the Brisbane River to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary which was fabulous and a lot of fun to see so many Australian birds and animals and be able to pet Kangaroos to our heart’s content (something we were not able to do back at Jenny and Remo’s place with the wild wallabies that hopped through their property!)

One of the many fun bridges that cross the Brisbane River - this one has apartments you can live in!

'Can you scratch a little lower?'

'Yes, much better, thank you'

 Another afternoon, one of Jenny and Remo's neighbors gave us a great tour of his property, showing us all the work he is doing to restore native vegetation to his land. We learned a lot about hoop and bunya pine trees and he was gracious in answering all our questions.

Entrance to neighbor's property

Bunya pine in Toowoomba

Mainly we just enjoyed being with their family in their traditional Queenslander house and were quite sad to leave them and move on after five days to Sydney. 

View of Sydney Harbour National Park and Manly

 But move on we did, catching a quick one hour Virgin Australia flight down to Sydney which had perhaps the tightest seating we have ever experienced. We stayed three nights at the Hotel Challis, a nice hotel in the Potts Point area that allowed us easy access to all the things we wanted to see.  We explored the Botanical Gardens as well as doing the Spit (bridge) to Manly hike which was beautiful the entire way, and just a little hot and exhausting at points under the noon day sun as we had not timed it very well. It is still very worth it – just leave early in the morning! 

Views on our walk

Our highlight in Sydney was spending two evenings with Ben Thomas, one of Andrea’s Duke classmates who is now working back in Sydney. It was great to hear some of Ben’s work stories and how he is using his leadership skills to bring about transformation where he works.

While we had sunny weather for our first day in Sydney, heavy rains moved in our last two days.

Oh to live somewhere (like Sydney) where these fly free!

After three days in Sydney we caught an early shuttle to the airport for our three hour Emirates A380 flight to Auckland.

Duncan