Happy Australia Day
Today is Australia Day, where we celebrate the beginning of Australia, which was when the British first settled here in 1788. It's almost midnight on this day, and I thought I should do a post about it. Australia Day is where we celebrate the history of our country, and of being an Australian. We're a proud bunch, and we've achieved a lot over the past 200+ years. I'm proud to be Australian. Always have been, always will be. (Photos coming soon of the Canberra fireworks that I went to tonight.) UPDATE: Here's the photos I promised you.
The journey (holiday!) begins
I’m sitting on the plane right now, at 34,000 feet somewhere over the water between NZ and Australia. This is the first time I’ve used the laptop actually on a plane, and there just ain’t enough room to ’spread my wings’, so I’m doing this painful two finger typing instead of the normal, relaxed touch typing I normally do. I don’t think I’ll be writing that much while onboard…
We went to bed last night around 11pm, waking up to the alarm at 2:45am. Getting up, running around doing last-minute packing – the stuff that has to be done at the last minute, like packing away toiletries, etc – we caught the shuttle bus that arrived at our door at 3:50am, arriving at the airport around 4:15am. It’s now 7am and Deidre’s watching an inflight movie while I write this.
I forgot to bring my earphones so I can’t listen to my music on the laptop while I write this, having to listen to the crap they have on the flight instead. The sacrificess one has to make… At least I can’t hear that bloody baby crying a few seats back.
Holiday Itinerary – Maps of Australia
Just for the geographically unaware 
here is some maps of our travels.
Map 1: Australia
This map shows the general travel paths we're taking. The blue dotted line is the flight between Sydney to Adelaide and back again. The red solid line is the driving that will be done.
Map 2: South Australia
Driving from Adelaide to Berri, and back again. If you look north of Adelaide, you can see Pt Augusta and Quorn, which I talked about here.
Map 3: New South Wales
Driving from Sydney down the coast via Ulladulla (just north of Batemans Bay, where we head inland to Canberra). Ulladulla is where my good friend Kath lives, who we'll be dropping in on. We may be doing that on the way down, or on the way back. That's uncertain at this stage.
Christmas Holiday Itinerary
Deidre and I will be travelling around parts of Australia for a month, and this is our itinerary.
2005
Saturday 10 Dec
Wellington 6am – Sydney 7:40am
Sydney 1:45pm – Adelaide 3:20pm
(Notes: while in Adelaide, will be staying with Deidre's dad and catching up with the following people: Phillip and Stephen (my brothers), Simon and Ben (friends I haven't seen for over a decade), and Jocelyn, a friend of Deidre's.)
Sunday 11 Dec
Xmas party at Deidre's dad's
Tuesday 13 Dec
Renting a car and driving to Berri, to visit my parents
Wednesday 14 Dec
Driving back to Adelaide
Friday 16 Dec
Adelaide 12pm – Sydney 2:25pm
Renting a car and driving to Canberra
(Notes: while in Canberra, will be staying with James and Kylie, and catching up with the following friends of mine: Peter C, David G, David O, Nick, Darlene, and Damien. Very disappointed not to be catching up with my friend Mel, but she'll be in Perth at the time.)
Holidaying to Australia… oh, the pain!
Over here I talked about the holiday plans Deidre and I were making, to travel to Australia. It's been a relatively painful thing to do!
We've had to work out the dates that we were going to go there and return, as well as the dates that we'd be in Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra, Sydney, and back to Wellington. Three cities in 4 weeks, with countless family members and friends to see in that time.
Oh God, the pain!
A month or so ago we booked the return tickets to Australia. That was a struggle and a half… Tomorrow I'll be booking the domestic flights within Australia. Next month I'll be booking the car rental for those times we'll need it in Adelaide and Canberra, as well as miscellaneous hotel accommodation in various areas…
