Down Under - February & March 2003

A Vacation to New Zealand and Australia

Getting There
Atlanta to St. Louis to Los Angeles to Nadi, Fiji, to Sydney to Auckland
The Cruise
Auckland
New Zealand
Wellington and the House & Garden Tour
Christchurch and the Sheep Shearing and Akaroa Tour
Dunedin and the Bonnie Dunedin Tour
Fjordland National Park
Australia
Hobart, Tasmania and the Bonorong Wildlife Preserve Tour
Melbourne, Victoria and the Aboriginal Walk Tour
The Shore Excursion
Cairns, Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef
Uluru, North Australia
Sydney
Sydney, New South Wales and the Walkabout
Wine Tasting Tour
Coming Home
Sydney to Los Angeles to St. Louis to Atlanta

Everything is packed and ready to go. We've got all our important documents, tickets, coupons, tags, and passports.

Somewhere over the USA on our way to Los Angeles.

LAX for Los Angeles International Airport.

We spent the night at the Courtyard by Marriott LAX which had an abundance of flowers.

email home:
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 18:42:46 -0800 (PST) From: Cruise Buddies Subject: At a computer terminal at LAX To: the.wack@eloptac.com Greetings from Los Angeles airport. We're checked in for our flight to Sydney/Auckland. We've only got a five hour wait. We had a nice flight yesterday and had dinner last night at Casa Gamino, yummie! Just this quick note and we're off! We'll be in touch when we're down under! Mom & Pops Joseph & Christina Harlan - On vacation somewhere in the world!

We arrived at the international terminal to early to check in. Christina is watching our luggage.

Our flight made a fuel stop in Nadi Fiji. Alas, we were not allowed off the plane.

It's a very long flight from Los Angeles to Sydney. Christina filled the time by doing some needlepoint.

Our approach into Sydney International Airport was over Botany Bay.

Downtown Sydney is visible from the airport.

email home:
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 17:47:13 -0800 (PST) From: Cruise Buddies Subject: Sydney Airport To: the.wack@eloptac.com We've arrived down under! We landed in the Sydney airport less than an hour ago. We've cleared customs and found this free internet station. It was a VERY long flight. We boarded about 11:30 PM LA time and took off. The plane landed in Fiji to refuel but they wouldn't let us off. Bummer. We wanted to get Fiji T-shirts and Fiji Water (Sarah's request) but couldn't. And ninety minutes later we were in the air. We saw the opera house as the plane approached Sydney. Nice smooth flights! Getting here was not as bad as we thought it would be. It's 12:45 Sydney time (Feb 12) In Atlanta it's 8:45 PM yesterday! We gotta find coffee! We'll probably write again later today. Mom & Pops Joseph & Christina Harlan - On vacation somewhere in the world!

The last leg of our marathon begins in Sydney as the sun sets.

Sydney and Sydney Harbor. It's amazing how the Opera House stands out.

Fiji to Sydney to Auckland.

A view of Auckland from our room.

We spent the night in the Hyatt Regency Auckland.

Around the corner from our hotel was this nice little park.

A beautiful and old iron fence along the docks in Auckland.

The Regal Princess would be our home for the next twelve days.

A Vacation to New Zealand and Australia