Happy New Year!

Hi, all!

Since the last episode, I (and/or we) have taken Basic Japanese Language Class (part II), gone to the Southeast Botanical Gardens Christmas Paradise laser and light show, had Christmas linner (lunch/dinner) at our Family Readiness Officer's (yes, the acronym for that is FRO) house, and last, but not least, gone to Australia and back again. Yes, we are some busy bees around here.

The most exciting thing we did was definitely Australia. We departed on the 26th, flew to Taipei, and then boarded a 10 hour flight to Sydney. We arrived in Sydney on the 27th and then boarded another flight to Brisbane, pronounced Brisbun. =D Let's just say Australia wasn't as close as we thought it was! After all that travel, we were met by our local tour guide and that's when we knew we were in trouble. He had no idea what was going on with our group, didn't know which hotel we were staying in, and handed everything off to Jabbar who had volunteered to hold onto vouchers. Jabbar (and me, by the end of it) got more than what we bargained for! We were dropped off at our hotel and our so-called 'tour guide' told us that would be the last we would see of him, but that we would see our driver the next day for our city tour. So there we were, 14 of us in a city we didn't know, checking into our hotel, and figuring out for ourselves what to do for the rest of the day before our city tour the next day. There were grumbles of 'isn't it ironic we're on a tour with no tour guide?!?' amongst the group.

Jabbar and I went out walking and found a cathedral and well, pretty much nothing else. Come to find out the next day that we walked the opposite way of all the activities. Go figure.

The next day, we were to meet with our group of 14 in order to be picked up by our driver for our city tour. The only problem was that at the appointed time, we had no driver, no bus. Since Jabbar was 'in charge,' he had to make phone calls and well, the comedy ensues. The driver, nor the bus company are aware that we were to have a city tour, much less transportation to our activity for the day, the Lone Pine Sanctuary. After some discussion, a driver and bus were on the way. Kyall (we would spell it Kyle) showed up in a t-shirt and jeans with our bus apologetic about his looks and the miscommunication. Since we were late, we would have a short city tour on our way to the Lone Pine Sanctuary and then would have a more detailed city tour afterwards.

The Lone Pine Sanctuary is the only place in the world where non-licenced koala people can hold a koala bear and where they are allowed to roam free. The stink of the place you just thought was the stink of a variety of animals in the sanctuary. Come to find out after holding our koala bears that those guys are pretty stinky! Check out our professional pics at: http://photo.koala.net/2812004257en.htm and http://photo.koala.net/2812004455en.htm. My little guy was clawing into my arm and I think he was trying to poo while I was holding him! Turns out he was, cause as soon as I gave him back to the handler, he did his business...and then Jabbar got to hold him. Ha! And just in case you were worried that those would be the only pics you would see of our time in the sanctuary and Australia...no worries! Snapfish pics to come! We also saw wombats, lizards, dingos (Australian for wild dogs), tasmanian devils, kookaburras, bats, gray and red kangaroos (we also got to feed them!), emus, and wallabies.

After all that excitement, we were picked up by the same driver that had picked us up at the airport the previous day, John, who then took us for our city tour. He had no idea what we were supposed to see on this city tour, so he took us on his own version of it. We saw the Brisbane skyline from up high and from Kangroo Point, after which he dropped us off at our hotel and we had the rest of the day to ourselves. Once again, Jabbar and I went out walking. This time, we went the right way and found South Bank (or maybe it was Beach?) with its new ferris wheel that cost $15AUD (Australian dollars) which equaled approximately $10USD to ride. We decided not to spend the money as we had heard that it wasn't that great. We also found the Nepalese Pagoda, a man made beach right next to the river (did I mention that Brisbane is experiencing a drought?), and the Old Botanic Gardens. After all that walking, we finally sat down to dinner at a little place on the river called Venice. Have I mentioned that Australia is expensive? We spent $26AUD (approximately $18USD) on a dessert that had cotton candy on top. Jabbar was quite put out! But what could you do?

The next day, we flew back to Sydney and checked into a hotel that was much closer to the heart of the city compared to Brisbane. After checking in, more walking. We went to Darling Harbour to find dinner. But along the way, we found the worlds biggest IMAX screen and the Maritime Museum before finding dinner at a Japanese place called Kobe Jone's. I know what you are thinking. You live in Japan, you go to Australia, and get Japanese for dinner? We were told it was good! And I have yet to find good sushi here in Okinawa! At the end of the night, Kobe Jone's is nothing to write home about.

The next day, the 30th, we were picked up for a city sights tour that took us to Bondi Beach (the water was cold! I don't know how those Aussies were in that water!), several places overlooking Sydney Harbour, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge which also overlooks the Sydney Opera House. We were then dropped off for our lunch cruise which gave us even more opportunity to take more pics of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. After disembarking from the boat, we listened to some aboriginees play their didgeridoos before more walking! This time in the Botanic Gardens, where we found Mrs. Macquarie's chair. You are supposed to be able to photograph the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge together from her chair, but one catch, it's facing the wrong way. Nonetheless, it is an interesting chair that is actually a carved rock ledge where Elizabeth Macquarie, the Governor's wife, liked to sit and admire the view of the harbour. After all that walking, we had to walk all the way back to our hotel and then down to the Harbour once again for dinner at the Meat and Wine Company where Jabbar had kangaroo. Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad and was much better than my over done fillet.

On New Year's Eve day, we went on a wine tour. We stopped in a little town called Woolombi in order to visit the local tavern for mid-morning coffee, tea, and scones that were more like biscuits. And I must not forget the local specialty, Dr. Jurd's Jungle Juice, so named because it can't be called port because it doesn't come from where port comes from. Let's just say we are not fans of port. Our wine tour continued with a stop at Lindeman's which turned out to have the best wines out of all the wineries we visited that day. At the Hunter Valley winery, we learned about how wine was made but only after donning our hard hats. Yes, we had to wear hard hats in the winery. After we became educated in wine making, we sat down to a lunch in which we were supposed to try different wines with different dishes. They say that you should have certain wines with certain foods. I tend to disagree as I know what I like, whether or not it is supposed to go with a certain food or not. And taking a wine tour did not change my palette at all. We visited another winery in which our sommelier, if you could even call him that because he pronounced semillon wrong, was quick to serve our tasting and then usher us quickly out because, well, after all, it was New Year's Eve day and I'm sure he had big plans. We headed back to Hunter Valley winery in order to spend our last hour there. We thought we could visit the gardens, but it turned out you had to pay extra for that so we passed. After a long drive back to Sydney and a short stop to change, we were back out looking for a new year's eve dinner. As we were sure everything on the Harbour was going to be packed, we headed to a Mongolian buffet restaurant just a short distance from the Harbour that was not at all packed. After dinner, we caught the tail end of the 9pm fireworks show at Darling Harbour after which we proceeded to find a good spot for the real fireworks show at Sydney Harbour. We avoided the masses near the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House by going to the other side of Darling Harbour which has a view of the back side of the Harbour Bridge which turned out to be not that bad of a viewing spot. From our vantage point, the fireworks went off in 3 places in addition to the Harbour Bridge and off of several skyscraper buildings. And at the end of it all, we had to fight the masses to get back to our room in order to catch our driver at 10am New Year's day who would take us to the airport for our long journey back home.

Despite being right there and because I was taping the fireworks, I didn't feel like I had actually seen the show so I had to come home and google it. Ah, the marvels of youtube!

On our journey back home, we had to stay overnight in Taipei which was an interesting experience. We thought we would be able to get into Taipei in order to see something before we left, but we arrived when it was dark, and left the next morning at dawn. We were shuttled to a golf and country club about 30 minutes from the airport. Upon arrival, we were hungry but found out that the restaurant was closed. Room service, however, was available, which we ordered, but were not that satisfied with. Our room, well, it had non-potable water. As Jabbar would say, Taiwan did not touch his heart. That was the campaign slogan for Taiwan tourism - Taiwan will touch your heart. The next morning, we were shuttled back to the airport where we encountered another hiccup. Our tour package did not apparently include the Taiwan airport tax which equaled about $9USD per person. As the 'tour leader,' we agreed that we would pay for everybody and that we would fight with the tour company upon our return to Okinawa.

As for the rest of the journey home, which consisted of an hour long flight back to Okinawa, it was uneventful, except for Jabbar getting stuck at immigration into Okinawa and being the last to get out of immigration. After all the drama, we were happy to arrive home and well, being an event planner myself, I now have visions of approaching the tour company and offering my services as their new 'tour planner.' Though Jabbar volunteered, he/we had no idea what we were getting into and therefore, our services are no longer complimentary. I now have wild ideas of being a tour planner, of being a tour planning consultant, of opening my own tour franchise, or perhaps my own tour company. Only, I have encountered on very big road block. Tour franchise companies want a pretty penny for their name and we don't exactly have the resources for me to go it on my own.

Which is where you find me now. Knowing full well that there is a market here and, as of yet, not being able to tap into the opportunity. So if you know of any ideas, I would be interested to hear them! Oh, and did I mention that at the end of the tour, the other tour participants sent around an envelope amongst themselves to give to us? Yes, we weren't even technically working and we got tipped! Which further reinforces my idea that my services as a tour planner are much needed on this island!