Planes, Trains & Automobiles

As we cross the equator and leave “Down Under” for Vietnam tomorrow morning, I’m caught with a few parting thoughts about our time here in New Zealand and Australia. We’ve found the people lovely, the scenery amazing, the activities breathtaking and the food… well, the food was just so-so.

Nonetheless, this has been real “vacation”. It’s all Western, English-speaking and incredibly easy to navigate. Our money is actually worth more here to boot. In fact, in every country we’re visiting the dollar is more powerful. Try that in Europe these days.

We’ve been in Sydney for five days doing all the things that tourists do; Opera house, ferry across the harbour, Aquarium visit, Manley and Bondi beaches, …

One of the highlights of our trip to Australia was diving the Great Barrier Reef. We booked a 5-day course with Pro Dive Cairns, one of the best dive centers in the world. We spent two days in the pool learning all of the basic skills and three days on a boat out at the Reef diving our hearts out. We had two instructors, Dave, (also known as James Bond) who is English and the most certified instructor in all of Queensland, taught us all of the book work. And he was pretty cute. For the pool skills, we were put into Warren’s group at the last minute. Warren is a very loud South African …