Australia Here We Come

This is the first entry in our upcoming "trip of a lifetime" blog! Updates along the way will be dependent on "free" or reasonably priced internet access! And, where possible, links for further information on places we're visiting are included (if it's underlined there is a link!).

As this is being posted, it is less than 2 weeks now before we're off on another adventure! YEAH! We leave home on January 13 headed to San Diego. On the 14th, we'll board Regent Seven Seas' Voyager for a 23-night cruise to Sydney. Stops will be in the South Pacific (Marquesas, French Polynesia, Samoa, Vanuatu, New Caledonia). This cruise does not make calls in New Zealand as many others do.

Once in Sydney (on Saturday Feb 6th), we'll fly to Melbourne for 3 nights (two full days). On our first day there, we have planned a hot air balloon ride over the Yarra Valley (wine country!) early in the AM and then that evening dinner on the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant. Dinner while "cruising" the streets of Melbourne sounds like such fun, and, a great way to see the city at night while seated and with a drink in hand!

The 2nd day in Melbourne, we have no specific plans other than a visit to the tallest building in Melbourne at the top of which is "The Eureka Skydeck", the highest viewing deck in the southern hemisphere. And, once there, we plan to take advantage of "The Edge", the world's only edge experience! It is a glass cube which projects 3 metres (~10 ft) out from the building, with you in it - suspended almost 300 metres (~1000ft) above the ground!

The next day, we'll be up early (for us!) to head to the train station for an 11+ hour trip to Sydney. We chose to take the train as an opportunity to see some of the smaller villages between Melbourne & Sydney. This will be our first train trip together. Yes we've taken little train tourist excursions but never used one as a true means of transporting ourselves from one place to another. Our personal website (under Flinn Fotos --> S.Pacific) has a map of the trip with the names of the towns.

Once in Sydney, we'll head to hotel and "crash"! It will have been an extremely long day!

The next day (a Wednesday), we'll once again be up early and head out on an all day tour to the Blue Mountains. The second full day in Sydney, we have nothing in particular planned. We've talked about taking the ferry over to the zoo but there are so many other options.

On on the third full day, our last day in Australia, we'll start off early morning with a backstage tour of the Sydney Opera House. Following that, we're off on a 30 minute seaplane tour of Sydney harbor.

And, our treat to ourselves on our final evening in Australia, will be dinner at 360 Bar & Dining some 80 stories up above the streets of Sydney! We love rotating restaurants so this will definitely be a special treat!

And then on Saturday, we'll head back across the wide Pacific on a 13-14 hour flight on a Quantas 747 (our first 747 flight) to Los Angeles and then another 5-6 hours of flying to get back to Tampa.

After being away for 32 nights, home and our own bed will look MIGHTY good!!

R