October 10, ’04 – Pretty much whenever we were in Auckland it was raining and we learned that NZ weather is completely unpredictable.  Even the locals don’t attempt it.

October 6, ’04 – Abi and I said farewell to Australia and boarded our flight to Auckland, New Zealand.  We arrived in the early evening and took a cab to our hotel, and when I say cab I mean a mini-van with a trailer attached which holds all of the luggage and you kind of hope your luggage doesn’t get unloaded at the wrong stop.

October 4, ’04 – We said good-bye to Dustin as he winged back to Melbourne, the night before Abi and I took a full day tour of the local wine country.

Sunday, October 3, ’04.  Always a chicken when it comes to extreme heights (well, actually most heights) I took a pass on the next adventure but Abi and Dustin shared a once in a lifetime adventure by climbing to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

October 2, ’04 – After a 2 1/2 hour delay out of Melbourne, due to nasty weather in Sydney, our flight took off and the three of us bumpity, bump, bumped our way to Sydney; arriving to torrential rains.  Sydney is an awesome city, very cosmopolitan.  So much to see, so much to do.

We hired a private guide, Gary, who along with his young son, Jamie, took us on a 12-hour drive. We experienced the beautiful coastline, The Twelve Apostles, kangaroos hanging out on a golf course fairway and Koala Bears in their natural environment.

In the fall of 2004, our son was an exchange student at the University of Melbourne for a semester, during his junior year at Georgetown University.  Of course, we had to go visit and help him celebrate his 21st birthday, right?