Red Deer Royals Down Under

Ellie Neufeld expressed much of what we all felt about our trip. Seeing the Opera House was surreal, as most of us had never seen it in the flesh. It's hard to put into words how one feels when seeing an international icon like this building.

Andrew from Gulliver's Sport Travel was an endless source of information and help for our travel. As you can see, he was willing to lend "hands-on" help and was instrumental in getting us around Sydney and about educating us to Australia in general. His company, Gulliver Sports Travel, does travel for teams, groups, and yes, even marching bands. Check out the website at www.Gulliverssportstravel.com.au

I noticed this warning which appears at a lot of crossings in Sydney.The folks in Sydney thought of lots of things, including warnings on how to cross the street. Apparently, North American Tourists are prone to looking the wrong way before crossing the street. It appears that pedestrians do not have the same right of way that we do back home, so Sydney politely reminds us to look left, then right, then left again, before crossing the street. Another example of how thoughtful our Aussie hosts were.

We went to great pains to try and get a picture of the Band with the Opera House in the background. It was no simple accomplishment. Soem of the kids were close to the edge of the pier and some of the others were cheerfully offering to throw them off. You will notice that no Colour Guard were present in this shot, and you'll be pleased to know that they were not thrown off before this shot. (We waited until later)

This is a view of Darling Harbour at night. It had a wonderful selection of restaurants and shooping which we all had the opportunity to take in some of the sights of Sydney at night. I was quite impressed with how clean and safe the area we were in was. As you can see by the pictures, the staff and chaperones were working hard. By the way, some of us were able to eat Kangaroo for the first time, but don't tell Mrs Windrum!

Now that we've returned and had a chance to rest, it's given all of us an opportunity to reflect on the time away. These are entries of some of the sights in Sydney which was our first stop. Although we stayed in one place and walked to the locations (Darling Harbour, Hyde Park, Circular Quay)we saw a lot. We're hoping that people can agin share in some of the experiences through this Blog.
This picture is not what it seems. Australians would never eat this shy little creature. This is the name of a little eatery at the Taronga Zoo. Nice people running it and it was the first food some of us ate off the plane

We left Canberra this morning after experiencing -6 degrees in the wee hours of the morning. Canberra in the winter time can be a bit brisk, but it did not seem that cold. Australians get the frost off their windshield by pouring hot water on the affected areas. We indicated to them that doing that in Alberta might not be the best bet.

Our hosts in Quenbeyan were absolutely fantastic. We cannot say enough positive things about our trip to this point and we look forward t having them visit us in the near future.
Our flight was a bit bumpy , but uneventful. We arrived at Nara Sea World reort to 23 degree temperatures. The kids hit the pool asap and the fun will continue tommorrow. Nara Sea World is a full resort with rides and shows galore. Unfortunately, there is no Internet cafe and this terminal does not have the ability to download pictures. We'll work on finding a way to post more pictures in the next day or so.

For those who are wondreing about our equipment drivers, Marvin and Glen went from Canberra back to Newcastle yesterday, abd made it to the resort less than an hour ago. No problems reported and no more long trips for those two.

We'll keep you posted during the next few days and we'll find a way to put up more pictures.

See Ya...

Phil Norris