Australia wrap-up and reflections. October 31

Well, we "did Australia" the best we knew how and now Susan is half-way into her 15 hour flight to Vancouver. I am grateful I don't have to do that again for a while.

My favorite things about Australia:

Number one has to be the animals and that surprised me because I have always been a zoo-hater. Love these animals! Lots of the zoos we saw were running conservation programs or were homes for orphaned animals or were doing breeding programs to prevent extinction of some species. There was one in which I thought the animals were exploited by allowing too much handling but most were excellent.

Second place would have to go to the good beaches, the reef, sailing etc. all the sun and sand things.

Number one least favorite thing would have to be that it is expensive to travel here especially when you tour a lot.

Second place goes to the coffee. You can't get just plain drip coffee for cheap, you get a Cappucino and have it fixed up the way you want which in our case was "flat white". This is just a latte with no foam and it costs in the neighbourhood of five dollars so we had to pace ourselves on the coffee. You get instant if you get a cheap coffee.

I have been hanging at the hostel this afternoon and doing some catchup stuff, made my bookings for NZ and sewed my day bag back together. A nasty squall rolled in with thunder and rain. What a change from yesterday. Will get out and get some supper later and then early to bed as tomorrow is another travel day.