"Help the Yankee DISer" Part II-visit Australia/DL-the PTR(8/19 -TR Link Post#263!)

[skier_pete]

A month to our DisMeet? WOW! Looking forward to it.

BTW - Looks like it could be a reasonable time for you to go skiing. It's been wet and cold and a bit of fresh snow fall. Hope it stays like this for you.

Yes, I'm still wishy-washy. I desparately want to do it, but the 3.5 hour drive each way is daunting, though I've done close to that for a day of skiing many a time in Vermont. I think the whole "bucket list" thing will drive me to do it. (My actual "bucket list" goal is "Ski on 5 different continents." I currently only have 2.)

So awesome that you will have a local host to help you see the sights! Gotta love the DIS!

So I got a good laugh last night...Every few days DH turns to me with his laptop and says, "Wanna look at the new Vinyls with me?" And most of the time, I oblige and look at them. Last night I decided to look, and when he got to this one, I said, "I know who needs that one...Skier Pete!" Not so much for you but for DD.

As you can imagine, he looked at me like I was crazy until I mentioned your DD wanting a fruit bat stuffed animal on one of your trips. It's funny how those random little details are what stick out in my mind!

Ha, funny you thought of me...yeah she was obsessed with that bat that one trip. Got her on Splash Mountain though! (Made her ride it to get the bat.) She still plays with him sometimes - the kid has so many freakin' stuffed animals - his name is "Fruity".

I'd be nervous about buying her a vinylmation though, I don't want to get her hooked on it. (We've managed to completely avoid pin trading, too.)

 

[PrincessInOz]

Yes, I'm still wishy-washy. I desparately want to do it, but the 3.5 hour drive each way is daunting, though I've done close to that for a day of skiing many a time in Vermont. I think the whole "bucket list" thing will drive me to do it. (My actual "bucket list" goal is "Ski on 5 different continents." I currently only have 2.)

You will be only 3.5 hours away from adding Australia to your count. Go for it!

 

[battymum]

Think of it as a nice drive to the mountains! But I am thinking is there any ski fields in Africa?

 

[skier_pete]

Think of it as a nice drive to the mountains! But I am thinking is there any ski fields in Africa?

Actually, Africa does, but to get 5, I don't need Africa. N American, S America, Europe, Asia, Australia is 5.

 

[skier_pete]

OK - I fell a bit behind again, but the 3rd through 5th we will continue to spend with our friends. I believe they plan on taking us on the great ocean road on the 3rd, and then over the weekened we will be doing Phillip Island. The other day we don't have any plans - except we will again need to do laundry.

We are down to just 16 days until our trip. We've started with the packing. I got a new pair of sunglasses, some socks and a few lightweight shirts.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

3 1/2 hours-new scenery to look at en route-get up early to max time there-no biggie-you HAVE to do this! unless the weathers too wet or something. Its a nice drive out of Melbourne. We did this but en route back to Qld so did not drive back to Melb but kept going a couple of hours north in late arvo when we left before breaking for the night. We are not skiers though-went just to play in the snow! Is this a trip that you and one of your friends/family can do leaving any who don't want to do the drive (DD? DW?) behind for the day with the rest of your friends in Melb?

 

[skier_pete]

3 1/2 hours-new scenery to look at en route-get up early to max time there-no biggie-you HAVE to do this! unless the weathers too wet or something. Its a nice drive out of Melbourne. We did this but en route back to Qld so did not drive back to Melb but kept going a couple of hours north in late arvo when we left before breaking for the night. We are not skiers though-went just to play in the snow! Is this a trip that you and one of your friends/family can do leaving any who don't want to do the drive (DD? DW?) behind for the day with the rest of your friends in Melb?

Possible we could leave DD behind, but not sure that we will. I am thinking of possibly getting a hotel on the way back, depending on how we are feeling.

 

[skier_pete]

...we leave Melbourne behind for Cairns. From the cold (or cool) to the warm. Don't have much planned for the day. Need to get to the airport for a 11:30 AM flight I think. (I realized my spreadsheet doesn't have this time, so need to fix tonight.) Pretty long flight that arrives in Cairns at 3 PM. Only plan is to get to the hotel and enjoy the nice weather for the afternoon.

In other news. I got a promotion at work! This moves me to a Band 4 which includes a bonus structure that I don't know how it works yet, but could be a pretty good thing. It means we can afford to keep going on Disney trips! (This trip is sort of depleting the vacation account.)

 

[PrincessInOz]

...we leave Melbourne behind for Cairns. From the cold (or cool) to the warm. Don't have much planned for the day. Need to get to the airport for a 11:30 AM flight I think. (I realized my spreadsheet doesn't have this time, so need to fix tonight.) Pretty long flight that arrives in Cairns at 3 PM. Only plan is to get to the hotel and enjoy the nice weather for the afternoon.

In other news. I got a promotion at work! This moves me to a Band 4 which includes a bonus structure that I don't know how it works yet, but could be a pretty good thing. It means we can afford to keep going on Disney trips! (This trip is sort of depleting the vacation account.)

Congratulations on the promotion! And YAY to more Disney trips.


I seem to recall we might have had this discussion before. Its a little more than a 3 hour flight from Melbourne to Cairns. Not that long ?

 

[skier_pete]

Congratulations on the promotion! And YAY to more Disney trips.


I seem to recall we might have had this discussion before. Its a little more than a 3 hour flight from Melbourne to Cairns. Not that long ?

Well...relative to flight from LA to Sydney, no not long. But 3.5 hrs is a pretty long flight for us. Direct flight to Orlando is only 2.5 hours. Chicago 1.5 hours. Even Pheonix is <5 hours, so to sit on a plane for 3.5 hours seems long to me, not terribly long, but long-ish.

 

[afwdwfan]

In other news. I got a promotion at work! This moves me to a Band 4 which includes a bonus structure that I don't know how it works yet, but could be a pretty good thing. It means we can afford to keep going on Disney trips! (This trip is sort of depleting the vacation account.)

That's great news! Congratulations!

 

[Chicago Mo]

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Well...relative to flight from LA to Sydney, no not long. But 3.5 hrs is a pretty long flight for us. Direct flight to Orlando is only 2.5 hours. Chicago 1.5 hours. Even Pheonix is <5 hours, so to sit on a plane for 3.5 hours seems long to me, not terribly long, but long-ish.

 

[khertz]

Congrats on the promotion!!

 

[areweindisneyyet]

Hi skiierPete

I have just caught up. The trip sounds great. I made a couple of notes reading along.

Cell Phone. I would recommend Telstra especially for the driving part from Cairns to Mackay. Better coverage. Some of the cheaper companies have little to no coverage in regional areas. Telstra goes a little further out of towns and when driving you want the best chance of coverage. There will be spots with no coverage but these will be less with Telstra. In an emergency in Australua you can dial 112 and it will find any network to get a call through to your 911 equivalent. In Australia it is 000. Not wanting anything bad to happen but it is always good to know.

Snow is good in Victoria.

I agree with PIO, eat before LAX. After a full day at DL which we always do we are all usually asleep before the plane takes off. We live by the mantra sleep as long as you can. If you just keep gong as long as you can on your arrival day in Sydney you will be well placed to adjust to the time. The Sydney aquarium is great, a perfect way to fill in the afternoon.

I think you have the Cairns, Whitsundays part perfect, as a Melbourne girl living in Qld you are certainly doing the bet of Melbourne. Have so much fun. I am off to Australia Zoo this week so I will make sure it is ready and waiting.

Mia

 

[skier_pete]

Hi skiierPete

I have just caught up. The trip sounds great. I made a couple of notes reading along.

Cell Phone. I would recommend Telstra especially for the driving part from Cairns to Mackay. Better coverage. Some of the cheaper companies have little to no coverage in regional areas. Telstra goes a little further out of towns and when driving you want the best chance of coverage. There will be spots with no coverage but these will be less with Telstra. In an emergency in Australua you can dial 112 and it will find any network to get a call through to your 911 equivalent. In Australia it is 000. Not wanting anything bad to happen but it is always good to know.

Snow is good in Victoria.

I agree with PIO, eat before LAX. After a full day at DL which we always do we are all usually asleep before the plane takes off. We live by the mantra sleep as long as you can. If you just keep gong as long as you can on your arrival day in Sydney you will be well placed to adjust to the time. The Sydney aquarium is great, a perfect way to fill in the afternoon.

I think you have the Cairns, Whitsundays part perfect, as a Melbourne girl living in Qld you are certainly doing the bet of Melbourne. Have so much fun. I am off to Australia Zoo this week so I will make sure it is ready and waiting.

Mia

Thanks! I'm happy to have more feedback. Even with the trip well set, everything is not in stone. (More like carved in butter.)

 

[skier_pete]

So again I missed a day. But, really August 7th and 8th are interchangable. One of the days I think we will do the Kuranda Railway and other touristy things, the other day I am hoping to just enjoy the weather in Cairns and get a little relaxing beachtime. So one month from today we will be doing one of these two things.

 

[skier_pete]

Just 10 days to go.

August 9th is our third full day in Cairns - I think we might go up to Daintree for today. I think the Croc Cruise sounds like fun.

August 10th is travel to Airlie Beach. A full day road trip!

August 11th is our only day in Airlie, and it will be spent out on the ocean / reef. Probably the single day I look foward to the most, and it is only one month away.

We've really started getting down to the nitty-gritty, trying to line up everything we need. Our rental phone from verizon arrived today. I got my travelers checks (cheques?) on Monday.

 

[austraveler]

Yes 'cheques' skier_pete. You are clearly ready for your Australian adventure!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Nearly into single digits.

Multiple cheques are always a good thing.