Going to Australia

We left St. John's, NL on Monday, January 30th at 1:30pm. Danielle and Jamie drove us to the airport where Lynn met us to see us off. Thanks to all! Especially with your patience in dropping Bailey off at the cargo side (it's in the middle of nowhere! Down a wiggling road behind the airport with little signage. Of course the guys we asked for directions were very helpful. All so very typical of Newfoundland). Bailey flew out 15 minutes after us to Ontario to get picked up by Dianne and Scott and transported to her new home for the year.




We flew 3.5 hours to Toronto and waited 2 hours. Allison learned about Sudoku by looking over my shoulder and tried her hand at it.

Aquarium at Vancouver Airport

We flew 4 hours to Vancouver and waited 3 hours. It was a big plane so it flew higher and faster than we had expected. Hurray!

Waiting for the next plane.
Lucy and Hannah resting amidst the luggage.

By this time, we had consumed a lot of snacks. Each person had their own backpack with a large freezer bag full of snack food. Lucy's was so heavy she could barely lift it (she was adamant about carrying hard cover books and I was so tired of arguing, I let her pack them. And lived to regret it as she dragged her suitcase through 3 airports - sometimes crawling on her knees. Sigh).

We flew 14 hours to Sydney, Australia. It took 2 hours to get through customs, find a hotel and taxi to it (costing $40 for the 5 minute trip! - I was so exhausted I didn't care). We had stripped off our outer layers when we landed but were still all red in the face from the unaccustomed heat while standing in line for customs. Hannah charmed the people around us by saying "Hi!" about a million times and asking for high fives from the people standing next to us (who didn't speak english but caught onto the game fast enough).

Arrived in Sydney, Australia! Pink, tired faces. 

We slept for the rest of the day and some of the night. Awake by 4am and off to the airport for 9am where we took a Greyhound bus to Canberra. Arrived at our house via a taxi ride that didn't take credit cards and we didn't have enough cash on us to pay. Oh well. He said we could pay him back later. Nice guy.

On the bus to Canberra

We have arrived in Canberra, Australia - our new home for the year!


Note:
I've learned to pronounce Canberra as "C'nbra." Oh well. It's like telling people that we are from "Newfunl'nd."