Rainy Australia

---

My mom and I have made it to Australia after the long-haul flight on Singapore Airlines with stops at Vancouver, Seoul, Singapore and we finally arrived at Sydney. For those of you thinking of doing long-haul flights, I highly recommend Singapore Airlines as you'll be entertained for hours on end with your choice of over 50 movies to watch at any time (Malaysian only had twelve that ran regardless of you watching or not). Colin and Val, a couple that we were with on our European tour two years ago, picked us up from the airport and gave us the quick 1 1/2 day tour of sydney and the surrounding area. Sydney really reminds me of Vancouver with its location next to the ocean and cosmopolitan nature. In the rain, we toured around the harbour and checked out the Opera House. There was this one beach that was strictly nudist, but I'm not sure why people would strip when the beach in plain sight from the ferry route between circular quay and manly beach. I would think these places would be a bit more secluded to minimize the gaukers and perverts. We flew with the discounted airline Virgin Blue to Brisbane where we're hanging out with Brett, a guy I worked with at the climbing gym when his wife was in Edmonton a teacher exchange.

Random parting thoughts... at first glance it seems like Australia is more expensive to live in than Canada. Although the dollar is the same, to buy a chocolate bar at a vending machine is $2.50 whereas in Canada it'd be $1.25 or 75 cents at a grocery store.
Schoolkids have to wear uniforms regardless if they're private or public. You can tell the private ones though as Boys have to wear ties and girls have to wear these one-piece cotton collared frocks with these 1920s-british style sun hats (poor things).

The next post may have something to do with rainforests and wine tours!

---