OUR FIRST DAY IN AUSTRALIA

Elysee in PJs reading at 3am

Although we tried to remain awake into the late evening, following our long journey to Sidney, thinking that we would sleep longer the next full day and reset our biological clocks, we soon became walking zombies. Following an early supper at a local Italian restaurant in Coogee, we succumbed to the inevitable and went to sleep at 8pm. Naturally, not being adjusted to the time change. we awoke bright-eyed and ready for our first full day; but it was only 3am. After an hour or so, me wiring up my communications devices and Elysee writing postcards announcing our safe arrival, we returned to bed for another six hours sleep. We awoke the second time to a glorious Saturday morning, sun shining over a sparkling Tasman Sea just outside our door, and ravenously hungry. Our Australian adventure had begun.

GETTING TO AUSTRALIA

My wife Elysee and I had already experienced benefits of traveling to a different place each summer and renting our home-away-home. When we decided to go "down under," staying three months in Australia followed by a month in New Zealand (see the blog The World is Our Second Home: New Zealand) I brought along a new laptop and a digital camera. That eventually resulted in the book, Our Summer in Australia and New Zealand. Getting there was an experience by itself. Twenty-four hours after leaving

Leaving Naples. Got enough?

our home in Naples, Florida we were only a few hundred miles southwest of Hawaii, with eight more hours of remaining before landing in Sidney. We had an eight hour delay in LA that only made the trip that much longer. We were flying Quantas, and the crew of 12 or 14 that knew just how to treat us on this extended journey. Quantas knows all about long hauls. Our luggage consisted of 107 pounds of clothes and sundry articles, plus our golf clubs. The 747-400, a monster aircraft, safely deposited all 385 passengers in Sidney only three hours late about noontime on a mild, clear autumn day, 1 June. With the crossing of the international dateline we had been traveling three days instead of the customary two. I brought along a very good, large book, wondering how others plan for the lengthy flight.