June 29

After getting off the plane in New Zealand, I was amazed at how beautifully constructed the airport was. There were white etchings on the glass "tunnel" they had us walk through to get to the baggage claim, everything was well-lit and looked clean, and the majority of the airport was carpeted. Auckland international airport is definitely my new favorite airport. It is too bad I left my camera on the plane, or I would have taken some pictures. The entire airport reminded of one big luxurious lounge that you'd expect to find in an expensive hotel.

I said goodbye to Ed and Charlotte and made my way to the gate to wait for them to clean up the plane a little bit, and then reboard. It was only about 1.5 hours before the flight left. I got my same seat for this flight, only I ended up sitting next to two New Zealanders for the flight from New Zealand to Melbourne, Australia. When we were getting ready to take off, I got to see the sun begin to rise, enabling me to glimpse a bit of New Zealand during the takeoff. It wasn't long after takeoff until we were above the Pacific Ocean once again, and above a dense layer of clouds for most of the flight as well. During the flight I was able to get some sweet pictures of clouds, and even a picture of tiny little specks that were oil rigs 38000 feet down on the surface of the ocean. We passed over the SE tip of Australia where I was able to glimpse my first sights of the continent and country that will be home for me in the next 4.5 months. I saw some hills/mountains, but also lots of beaches, including this one that was extremely long and very straight, which I learned from another passenger is known as the "ninety-mile beach", because it's pretty much a long, straight beach for a whole 90 miles. Pretty neat.

After touching down in Melbourne I had to collect my bags so that I could go through customs. I waited at the baggage claim for about an hour or so, just waiting for my bags to pop up. It turns out 409 passengers pack a LOT of bags. After I got my bags I waited in line for about 20-30 minutes to go through immigration/quarantine. They let me and all my belongings pass through without any incidents; I made it a point to not pack anything (things made from plant or animal material, dirty shoes, etc.) that would not be allowed into the country. I made my way to the domestic terminal and got in line to check my bags for the flight to Canberra. Because the flight in had been delayed by about an hour and all of the time it took me to get my bags and go through customs, I was too late to get on my flight. Fortunately there was a second flight to Canberra, only 45 minutes after the flight I was supposed to be on, and I was able to get my bags checked for this flight and call the University of Canberra (UC) guy that was supposed to arrange to have me picked up from the airport.

When I boarded the plane destined for Canberra I had to walk across the pavement and up a half dozen stairs to get into my tiny little PROPELLER-driven "Quantas-link" airplane. The plane was only half full (about 25 people?) which meant I ended up with my own window seat. I sat just in front of a propeller, so fortunately I was able to see fairly well out the window. It was exciting during takeoff, because I'm used to be propelled by big jet engines. The propellers were fun to watch, but were also quite loud. I noticed during takeoff and the subsequent ascent that my ears felt the pressure differences to a much greater extent than they do normally on a jet airplane.

I took pictures of the ground as I we took off, and occasionally throughout the flight. This plane only flew at 21,000 feet, a little lower than the jets I've been on (usually 34-38K). From the plane I could see there was a significantly large amount of trees that still had leaves on them, something I'm not used to seeing in winter. We flew over some mountains, and I was able to see snow-capped "mountains" in a couple of spots, but the snow was scattered and not very common. I also saw a few small "brush fires" in some areas, and you could see the decreased water level on the few man-made lakes we flew over indicating that it was a dry in Aussie winter; quite the contrast to the massive amounts of rain and flooding that they are apparently experiencing back home in north-eastern Pennsylvania.

After a one-hour flight, I touched down at the tiny little Canberra airport. There was a lot of paving of new runways, etc. at Canberra, so I imagine they plan on upgrading the airport soon. When I walked across the pavement and into the airport, I found my UC greeter (Curt) holding his UC sign, and he helped me grab my bags and carry them to his car. When I got in his car, it was really weird getting in the "wrong" side. I sat where there would normally be a steering wheel in the U.S., but I was a passenger. He had a Holden Commodre station wagon also -- a make of car that I had never even seen before. It was kinda funny when he turned on the car and the radio was on, because who was it that happened to be on the radio? Yup. Eminem. Aussies listen to a lot of music that comes from the Americas. It turns out Curt had been to the U.S. before, and even PA -- he attended an all-summer-long camp in Honesdale, PA (small world!), so he knew very well what my part of the state was like. Apparently he toured a variety of cities in the US during his stay; I thought that was pretty cool.

Curt, my UC buddy drove me to the Canberra City YHA hostel and helped me get my bags to my room. There was a locker in my room that I was able to get a key for, so I put the stuff I didn't want stolen in there, made my bed, got a shower, and then went out to explore. I found the local (Canberra Centre) shopping mall (a block and a half away!) and spent some time exploring the mall. The weather was in the 50s and sunny, making it almost too warm for my sweatshirt. I noticed in the mall that things are somewhat more expensive than in the U.S.; for example a box of cereal was about $5.50, $2.00 was the cheapest loaf of bread, and my $90 shoes were $129,99. Even with the ~0.75-0.80 exchange rate, that still ends up being a little on the expensive side.

It got dark not long after 5:00pm, and by 7:00pm I had gone to bed, worn out from the long 24+ hours of traveling that included boarding planes 6 different times. Before I went to bed, I managed to spot my first Galah (Rose-breasted Cockatoo) outside my window as it was getting dark. They're such cool-looking, beautiful birds. While I was out I also go to see a few other birds, including Pied Currawongs (big black birds with yellow eyes and white patches on their wings and at the base of their longish tail), Australian Magpies (almost crow-sized, black-and-white birds), and starlings.