Where in the World?...

Many times I am asked about information concerning Australia, and travel advice or info on arrangements, but it has also been interesting in my time in the US, how often people are confused by where Australia actually is, how big it is.  Often in general conversation, Australia is easily confused with Austria, which is in Europe.  Though, I have to tell you, its nowhere near Austria and is quite a distance from the US, in fact, Australia's closest neighbor is Indonesia. 

 

Click on Map to make it larger 

 

Notice Australia down the bottom right.  Its big. Its next to New Zealand and pretty close to Papua New Guinea, as well as Indonesia. In fact, from the top of Australia, it only takes about 30 minutes to fly to Papua New Guinea.  If you take a look at mainland US and compare the sizes you can see how close the countries are in size.

 

Now, if you can read it, because the writing and numbers are rather small, notice Russia, then look to the lower left of Russia... the smaller countries such as Germany? If you look at Germany, then you'll see Poland.  If you look at the little orange area on the right of Germany and the left of Poland, kind of underneath it, that is... Austria.

 

Australia, Austria... Austria has a few letters short, but you may be able to see why its sometimes confused.

 

Australia is in the Pacific, near Asia.  If you fly over Hawaii, you're usually going in the right direction.  Austria is in Europe, closer to the North Atlantic.  Needless to say, if you're headed to Austria, and you fly over Hawaii, you may want to contact your travel agent, or replan your sight seeing trips.  You should be flying over the atlantic ocean towards France.

 

Australia is only about 10,000 sq foot (yes sq foot) smaller than the US mainland which means its difficult to walk from Perth to Sydney.  Thats pretty close to saying you are going to walk from Florida to California. You can not drive to Perth in an hour from Brisbane.  Brisbane and Perth are practically across the country from each other. A similar distance would be the coast of North Carolina to the coast of California.

 

So any trip you take to Australia, be prepared to spend more than a week there if you want to see a few different places, if you can. 

 

As always, happy to answer questions about Australia.  Just let me know by either posting a question, or comment, or you can always email any time

 

Catch ya later!

W&W

 

 

  

A Merry Christmas!

Just a few minutes ago, after making a second batch of meringues, I had been thinking of the past year, gazing out the back glass door, for no more reason than for somewhere to look. Noticed the reflection of color from the Christmas tree lights in the rain drops and focused on them, thinking how it would make such a great picture, but I was too caught up in thinking after a busy day, to take one.  Friends from places we've previously lived have talked about the current snow fall, how peaceful and beautiful it is.  Here its still warm, relatively. 

The past day especially I've been quite busy, but have made slow progress between other things going on. The decorations are up, menus planned, gifts wrapped, cards finally made...

 

Around town, some people are still wearing t shirts! What more would you expect than warm winter days, comparitively that is to our past homes in the Midwest. By now, we'd have probably, at least some snow covering the pastures in Wisconsin, maybe an ice storm on its way in Iowa. Even a smattering (or as its been the few years we were there, inches) of the white stuff in and around Dallas, Texas. 

In contrast again to Christmas in Australia, in the rural area we lived in, the heat and summer thunderstorms.  It was a busy time and an amazing year full of firsts for all of us.  This time last year, I was President of a community radio station, we had celebrated with our Christmas party and were about to farewell one of the stations mainstay Presenters, who was to return to New Zealand.  The small town, so different to what we had been used to, and our many trips into the larger town of Bundaberg, still close to an hours drive away.  The girls had just finished school, their first experience wearing school uniforms, and it was our first Christmas without Dad.

On the roads we passed Redgums, heard the Kookaburras, had been busy planning stockings and discovering a whole new range of different products we could buy. And of course, there was Boston, who spent most of the time climbing the tree and with one pretty good swipe of his paw, scattered ornaments all over the lounge room (living room).

Now our roads have changed, and we pass by evergreen forests, beautiful old southern buildings, some pre-civil war, others built during the towns' boon years, and some abandoned years before.

We have Bob and Samson, both rescues from the local shelter, who seem to be quite taken with thier first Autumn and Christmas.  Bob, aptly named for his shorter than average tail.  What he lacks in length, he makes up with volume. Seriously, any fluffier it could easily be used for a duster. Bob, is still busy knocking a single acorn left over from a Thanksgiving project, all around the living room and kitchen. He also tends to enjoy climbing the tree and knocking ornaments off. Bob is the ring leader, Sam joined in later.

 

Sam is gentle and laid back, but a kitten with absolutely no quarms about attacking prey, when he gets you, you certainly know about it. He crawled into a wreath left on the table before we had a chance to hang it

 

 

We've been blessed to have such a wide range of wonderful experiences, different places, different customs and seasons.

We wish you all the best of Christmases with your own special memories and seasons, and a fabulous new year.