Goodbye Australia :-(

Our flight home today was at 11:15am so we got up early, finished packing and ate some breakfast at the hotel.  We headed to the airport and got there a couple hours early just to be safe.  We did a little shopping inside the terminal and the time went by pretty quickly.  Before we knew it, we were on the plane headed home.  Fourteen hours later, we landed in LAX.  Annemarie's parents picked us up and drove us back home to San Diego which was a lifesaver.

We gathered some of our final (random) thoughts of our trip.

Whitsunday Islands

• Items lost: bar of soap, disposable razor head, one pistachio nut, inhibitions
• AM likes the cruising lifestyle
• Summer is a little hot and prime stinger season.
• Catamarans are way better than monohulls for comfort and space.
• Can't have two captains on a boat
• We sailed about 60nm altogether

New Zealand

• 8.5 seconds is a long time to scream (not that Bernard did)
• Yes - you would and should jump off the bridge like so and so
• Sand flies suck, literally and they are relentless.  They are this  "...." big
• Southland New Zealand is unbelievably gorgeous
• Flying in NZ is so easy.  We didn't even show ID when checking in for some flights
• Not tipping is weird and they are confused when you do.  
• The Ford Focus is weird because the turn signal is on the wrong side of the steering wheel for a right-hand drive car.  Bernard had just gotten used to using the turn signal in Australia
• You need a sports car or motorcycle to appreciate NZ roads
• Kiwis are some of the friendliest people:  Reg, Grazza, Rowan, Tara, Shae, Bau
• Lowest grade gas in NZ is 91 octane... but it cost us NZ$90-100 (about US$70) to fill our compact car
• We drove 861km

NSW

• No flies and no stingers, but there are sharks.
• Everything is rounded to the nearest 5 cents in Australia
• The Lonely Planet guides are not always accurate in their appraisals of places
• Australian crows have an accent, too
• Kangaroos are cute... and tasty 
• We drove 1320km

Nicknames: "The Amazing Race" - UK couple, "The Flying Tomato" - fellow kayaker in Doubtful sound, "Cate Blanchett" - another kayaker, "Pass the Dutchie" - Dutch couple, "Belly Flop Champion" - one big belly in Whitsunday

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!! Oi, Oi, Oi!!


Time of our lives.  We wish we were still there (and New Zealand).