Day 1 – Saturday, April 16, 2011 – Depart Denver, CO to Los Angeles, CA Odysseys Unlimited Our “Down Under” adventure with Odyssey Unlimited began with our trip to Denver International Airport. Because we have a late evening flight, we were able to have a relaxing day and get many last minute things done before leaving for the airport at 3:30. Gennie made sure our friend Tim ...
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Day 02 - Sunday, April 17, 2011 - Depart Los Angeles, CA to Brisbane, Australia Odysseys Unlimited Our Qantas Boeing 474-400 departed Los Angeles International Airport at 11:50pm. Our seats were comfortable because of the fact that the gate agent had changed our seat assignment and given us a row with an empty seat between us. The Qantas crew was very professional and ...
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Day 03 - Monday, April 18, 2011 - Fly into Brisbane, Australia and Connect to Cairns; Transfer to Hotel and Welcome Dinner Odysseys Unlimited The sunrise was bright above the clouds but as we descended into the Brisbane airspace, we found ourselves in thick blankets of clouds. It was raining hard as the plane landed at the main terminal. Going through immigration and then ...
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Day 04 - Tuesday, April 19, 2011 – Cairns City Tour; Train to Kuranda; Ride Gondolas of Skyrail; Visit the Tjapukai Aboriginal Culture Park Beginning our day with breakfast in the dining room, we met at the lobby to greet Ian, our Driver and Leigh, our Tour Director at 8:10. I checked the weather and it was 72º and the humidity was 84%. Leigh gave us information about the city ...
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Day 05 - Wednesday, April 20, 2011 - Day-long Excursion Great Barrier Reef; Visit Michaelmas Cay Our alarm went off at 5:45 and we were ready for our Great Barrier Reef Adventure at 7:35. Leigh had towels for us and then we walked to the wharf where we boarded our catamaran, The Ocean Spirit. After our 110 fellow sailors were all checked in we left the peer at almost 9:00 for ...
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Day 06 - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - Flight from Cairns to Alice Springs; ANZAC Hill Monument; Royal Flying Doctors Service; School of the Air; "Bush" Dinner Our late morning flight gave us a leisurely morning to finish packing and to catch up on e-mail and write a few messages. I paid the bill at the desk and noted the high cost of internet. As a comparison for information sake ...
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Day 07 - Friday, April 22, 2011- Aboriginal "Dreamtime" Tour; Walpiri Tribes; Walk to the Standley Chasm and Visit Simpson’s Gap Today was Good Friday and everyone had warned us that everything would be closed today so it was a great day to go to the Bush and explore the Outback. We met on the bus at 8:00 – the temperature was a cool 63º and the humidity was 57%. Our kind of ...
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Day 08 - Saturday, April 23, 2011 – Leave Alice Springs and motorcoach to Ayers Rock; Set Out for Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park; Visit the Olgas and Uluru; Watch Sunset We woke to a cool morning, it was 57º with 64% humidity – usually this is dry, desert land but because of all of the rain, the gardens were lush. We were up before dawn and left our bags out at 6:30. Everyone ...
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Day 09 - Sunday, April 24, 2011 –Sunrise Visit to Uluru; Morning at Ayers Rock; Museum Visit; Flight to Sydney; Short Walk to Darling Harbor Happy Easter! We woke up at 5:15, showered, and headed out to meet Darren and five other hardy souls to see the sunrise on Ayer’s Rock. Jim & May Ann, Sally & Frank, Mitch, and Gennie & I left the hotel at 6:00. Driving to the Talinguru ...
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Day 10 - Monday, April 25, 2011 - Tour of Sydney; Sail Around Sydney Harbour; Opal Demonstration April 25th is ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand. That stands for Australia New Zealand Army Corps, and is similar to our Memorial Day. There was a somber service at 4:30AM which we did not attend and then a parade of all of the military personnel or service men and women who gave ...
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Day 11 - Tuesday, April 26, 2011 - Visit Koala Park Sanctuary; Drive to Sydney's Northern Beaches; Stop at Manly; Late Afternoon at Leisure We woke up at 6:30 and the sun was trying to peek through the clouds. By 7:00 when we received our wake-up call it was raining again. The temperature was 64º and over 90% humidity. Juliano was our driver again this morning and we left the ...
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Day 12 - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 – Explore Sydney's Opera House; Independent Exploration; Dinner at Waterfront Restaurant We woke up to a little blue sky this morning – what a beautiful view when the sun is shining! The program this morning to tour the Sidney Opera House was not until 9:30 giving us plenty of time to eat our breakfast and talk with the people on our tour. ...
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Day 13 - Thursday, April 28, 2011 – Morning on our own – visit Royal Botanic Gardens; Visit to Sydney Aquarium; Dinner Together There were no planned activities for the morning; a day at leisure. After breakfast we met Jim and Mary Ann at 9:45 to set off to explore Sydney on our own. There had been heavy down-pouring rains but by the time we went out the skies had lightened and ...
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Day 14 - Friday, April 29, 2011 - Excursion to the Blue Mountains; Three Sisters Rock Formations; Jamieson Valley We left the hotel under blue skies and a temperature of 68º and humidity of 83%. Today the talk is all about the Royal Wedding. When we went to the breakfast room many of the people were reading the newspapers and tabloids about the ceremony tonight. All TV networks ...
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Day 15 - Saturday, April 30, 2011 – Fly from Sydney to Christchurch and Bus to Mount Cook National Park, NZ When we woke up at 3:30 there were still partiers on the streets below! The hotel provided a box breakfast so we had a little fruit and a roll. The bus left the hotel at 5:00 for our short ride to the airport. Tom, a young man from York, Nebraska unloaded our bags and ...
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Day 16 - Sunday, May 1, 2011 – Depart Mount Cook on the Way to Queenstown; Lunch at Omarama; Explore Kawarau Bridge Bungy; Arrive in Queenstown Late Afternoon Opening the curtains this morning at 7:00 was a wonderful surprise – a beautiful view of majestic Mt. Cook – what a way to begin our day. As the sun came up I was able to take several panoramic views of the valley and the ...
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Day 17 - Monday, May 2, 2011 - Alpine Scenery; Fiordland National Park; Milford Sound; Nature Cruise We were up early so we could leave the hotel at 7:00. The sun is up very late in this part of the world and it was dark and chilly at 52º with 74% humidity. We followed the winding road around Lake Wakatipu and then through Mossburn, the Deer Capital of the south Island. Deer ...
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Day 18 - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 – Queenstown Day at Leisure; Nomad Safari - Lord of the Rings Four-Wheel Drive Tour; Shotover River Jet Boat Ride With a myriad of brochures in hand it was hard to decide just what we would do with our free day in Queenstown. Bungee jumping, river rafting, ATVs, bicycling, parasailing, wine tasting, or dirt bikes were some of our options. We ...
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Day 19 - Wednesday, May 4, 2011 – Flight from Queenstown, Christchurch and to Rotorua; Short Tour of the City; Ohinemutu Presentation We left the hotel at 8:30 for our short drive to the airport and then the 10:00 flight to Christchurch and on to Rotorua. When we arrived we found that because of fog and bad weather our plane coming from Christchurch had not arrived. While we ...
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Day 20 - Thursday, May 5, 2011 – Rotorua Museum; Duck Boat Tour of the Lake and City; Thermal Reserve; Maori Cultural Center and Meal Heavy fog greeted us when we got up at 7:00 this morning. By the time we had breakfast the sky was clear blue and it promised to be a great day. The temperature was 56º with 93% humidity. After breakfast we walked down to Lake Rotorua to watch the ...
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Day 21 - Friday, May 6, 2011 - Rotorua to Auckland; Stop at Ruakuri Caves; City of Sails; Auckland War Memorial Museum; Farewell Dinner The weather man cooperated with our outdoor day yesterday. Today was dark, wet, and rainy as we began our drive to Auckland. We departed the hotel at 7:30; once again everyone was on time. John gave us more information about the volcanic North ...
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Day 22 - Saturday, May 7, 2011 - Flight from Auckland, NZ to Los Angeles, CA to Denver, CO This morning was our last day in New Zealand and the last day of our Australia / New Zealand Adventure. Melanie arranged a 6:30 wake up call and for the last time we had our bags packed for our flight home. We boarded the bus at 8:00 and John and Melanie took us on a brief tour of the City ...
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