We made it!

Well, we have arrived and settled in. It was a long trip to get here, but the girls were troopers. For anyone looking to make your way to Australia, Singapore Airlines is definitely the way to fly - now if only they had flights from Victoria to PG!!

Singapore was a great place to stop over before the next leg of our journey...it's very beautiful and clean, but very humid. We spent the day at the zoo and the girls got to see animals that they have never seen in person before. The highlight was walking through the "biodome" and coming literally face-to-face with huge fruit bats and a troop of lemurs.

We arrived in Adelaide the next day to find it hot and dry...looking very similar to Kamloops in the middle of summer...of course with the exception of the gum trees and exotic birds. It took us a few days to unpack and get settled and then venture out to try to find our way around the city.

We visited a wildlife park on the weekend and the kids got to feed some Australian beasties - kangaroos, wallabies, potaroos (big pointy nosed rat-like marsupials) and emus. Take a look at http://livingtravel.com/australia/southaustralia/ClelandNationalPark/cleland_1.htm to see some pictures of strange animals that we got to see up close. So close in fact that Elise got chased and bitten by a very large Magpie Goose. The kangaroos were lovely, they were lounging all over the park, sometimes not even getting up to take food and accept a scratch. it was quite the day for all of us, experiencing face-to-face (literally) encounters with big red kangaroos and emus.

The girls have now had a week of school and are loving it. Elise has settled right into "Kindy" without a bit of concern and both girls have already made some friends. Dug is enjoying work and even got out for a sail this week. We have met some wonderful people who have made us feel very welcome.

Well, I'm off...Elise is asking for another "meat and mayomase" sandwich.

How far away is Australia?

I'm sure that you have all heard that we are leaving the cold and rainy shores of Victoria on Jan 19th for sun, sand and Vegemite in Adelaide. It's just for a year and I'm sure it will fly by, but now that it's so close, I think we are all a little nervous.

We are frantically trying to box up and store our personal belongings, purge what we can and pack all of our summer clothes into our luggage. I am only supposed to be taking 5 pairs of shoes, but I have managed to stow away a few more - I made extra room by taking out some of Dug's sailing gear. By the time he notices, we'll be there already.

The girls are very excited, but now have realized the enormity of leaving all of their friends and family. They are most excited to see the Australian wildlife - especially kangaroos and the elusive duck billed platypus.

I have been trying to work myself up to the 27 hr plane trip to get there. It's 11 hrs to Seoul, then another 8 to Singapore and a final leg of 8 hrs to Adelaide. We do get a 24 hr stopover in Singapore to stretch our legs and shake some of the jetlag, but I think it will take an entire year to get over the flight and prepare myself for the return home!

While we are going to miss our friends and families tremendously, it's going to be a huge adventure for all of us and a great opportunity to discover a part of the world that we may not have otherwise ever seen.