Tuesday, March 4 – Leaving St Louis

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As they say in Horse Racing – “They’re Off”!



Yes, today is the start of our 2014 vacation. Today was mostly devoted to the final packing, getting to the airport, and flying almost half way around the world. The past few weeks have been to spent planning all the details, including deciding what clothes to bring with us (northern Australia should still be fairly warm but southern New Zealand might get kind of cool, although nothing like St Louis). We have 3 suitcases (comfortably less than 50 pounds each) and 2 carry bags. Anyway, we have packed what we think will be the right things - we can probably buy/wear some souvenir clothes along the way if we have miscalculated.



But the stress and worry really began several days ago. It turned extremely cold on Saturday and then we had snow & ice on Sunday. The low temp on Monday was 4 degrees. Although there were bitterly cold wind chills on Monday, today the high temp was around freezing and fortunately there has been no new snow. The streets (and our driveway) had been cleared and Valerie picked us up and got us to the airport on time. THANK YOU VERY MUCH for getting us started on time. FYI, the forecast for St Louis temperatures is to rise substantially soon after we leave – that figures. J



We got a hot sandwich dinner at a Mediterranean Bistro at Lambert Airport (last US meal for a while) before our flight. We went to the waiting area and it wasn’t really very crowded at our gate. They boarded our plane on time, but there were so few people that we actually got to spread out on the plane AND it took off about 15 minutes early. We got our carry-on bags stowed, and the flight was fairly smooth. Just getting to LA on time has relieved a lot of stress. We are now at the LAX gate 150 waiting for our Qantas flight to leave for Sydney. Hopefully our luggage will also make the flight connection and we will be all set to board the ship in a couple of days.



Actually when our flight arrived, there was a short walk to a shuttle bus, which drove us around the tarmac and to the International Terminal. It is a great big place and apparently is fairly new (what other travelers are saying). But it’s after 11:00 St Louis time, so we aren’t energetic enough to prowl around the terminal – will just wait for them to call our flight. We cannot connect to the internet although there are 3 WiFi networks, so we will probably not post this until we get to Sydney.



Today is actually the day before Ash Wednesday (called Fat Tuesday) and by the time we land in Sydney, it will be the day after Ash Wednesday, so we will miss that entirely. Most of the places we will visit in Australia are 17 hours ahead of St Louis and New Zealand is 19 hours ahead. But March 9^th begins Daylight Savings Time in the US and it ends in Melbourne on April 6^th. So GOOD LUCK figuring out what time it is whenever you read our blog posts. Here are some links which might be helpful to figure out what time and temperature it is where we are:



Local Time, Temperature, and Weather Forecast



Australia

Sydney: http://www.worldtimeserver.com/weather_in_AU-NSW.aspx?forecastid=ASXX0112

Melbourne: http://www.worldtimeserver.com/weather_in_AU-VIC.aspx?forecastid=ASXX0075

Brisbane: http://www.worldtimeserver.com/weather_in_AU-QLD.aspx?forecastid=ASXX0016



New Zealand

Auckland: http://www.worldtimeserver.com/weather_in_NZ.aspx?forecastid=NZXX0003

Dunedin: http://www.worldtimeserver.com/weather_in_NZ.aspx?forecastid=NZXX0009

Wellington: http://www.worldtimeserver.com/weather_in_NZ.aspx?forecastid=NZXX0049



Daylight Savings Time changes around the World



http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/2014.html



Good night from the USA - no pictures today.

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