Hong Kong to Australia



Liz, Josh and Shae



Sunday morning we leisurely got ready to go to Australia. We were flying out of Hong Kong so we took the train with Steve to Shenzhen where we crossed the border into Hong Kong (and got a few more stamps in our passport). Steve dropped us off at the airport bus that we took directly to the airport. We weren't really ready to leave China...it was a sad goodbye even though we'll be back for a few days in a few weeks. However, once we were in Hong Kong airport we were thrilled to find tons of non-Chinese food at our fingertips. We went and got some cheeseburgers and Heinekens and a couple hours later boarded the plane. Also, we finally had some free wifi internet.

The flight to Australia was only 8 hours long and we had tons of entertainment on our own personal TVs. It was pretty awesome but neither of us slept very much on the flight (which was overnight) because we were too distracted by the entertainment! We arrived in Sydney at half past seven in the morning, went through customs, had an amazing huge breakfast and went to our connecting flight to Melbourne.

Emily (my brother's lovely girlfriend) picked us up in Melbourne when we arrived and took us on a driving tour of the city. In Australia, Melbourne is considered a very big city, but we couldn't get over how small it looked in comparison to Guangzhou! A fun fact for you...the population of the COUNTRY of Australia is a bit over 20 million. The population of the CITY of Guangzhou is 14 million. We have to start scaling things back a bit and enjoying some personal space. Emily took us to get lunch. I had my favorite...meat pie! Then we went to see Josh 's (my brother) place. I thought it was really nice and we saw Josh as soon as he got back from class. It was nice to see where Josh lives and what his life in Australia is like. Emily and Josh took us to see Emily's house and then to my Aunt Polly's house where I finally met my ADORABLE three little cousins. Shae is 4.5 and VERY bright, Kyra and Luke (almost 2) are twins. Kyra has the most precious smile, and Luke is totally a laid back Aussie. My Uncle Jim made us a huge lasagna dinner. This was like the 5th full meal we'd eaten that day. We hung out for a while and finally collapsed in bed. Liz hadn't slept in like 36 hours so I was surprised she made it even that long.



A Real Australian Meat Pie



The next morning we were supposed to leave for Canberra and Queensland. I thought we might not make it because Liz got food poisoning from the first sandwich she ate in Australia. She was throwing up. I was amazed that we made it all the way through China without getting sick, but the moment we got on Australian soil...she got sick. Poor thing...she spent all morning in bed with her new favorite item... a hot water bottle! I spent all morning and afternoon playing with the kids and preparing for our trip to Canberra and the NE! Jim was nice enough to drive us to the airport (Liz was a trooper) and we were off to meet my grandparents in lour first stop, the Australian capital...Canberra. They picked us up at the airport and we had a very nice home made soup and bread which Liz managed to get down. After going through some maps of where we are heading with Gram and Pa, and showing them where we went in China we headed to bed.

Little Shae

The plan is Canberra for 2 days, 2 days in Sydney, 4 days in Cairns/Port Douglas QLD), and 3 days in the Whitsunday Islands (QLD). Then we head back down to Melbourne for a week and a half and during that time, we will go to Phillip Island for a couple days.