Random thoughts & observations

We are half-way through our ten week adventure and here are some random thoughts and observations (some are

likely pretty obvious):

Australia was great but New Zealand, specifically the South Island is amazing. It has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. If you haven’t visited, it’s a MUST! 

When planning a trip, it is always a challenge to decide how many days to spend in one location and what areas to take side trips. For example, we both really enjoyed driving the Great Ocean Road from Melbourne but Hunter Valley, outside of Sydney was fine. 

I realize that Australia is a fairly new country and they had an advantage when it came time to city planning. Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane have beautiful waterfronts and skylines containing skyscrapers with residential buildings, hotels, offices, and cultural centers. 

Sydney and Brisbane, especially Sydney, have huge roadways tunneled under the city. It makes the Boston Big Dig project look tiny in comparison. 

The size of Australia is approximately 95% of the contagious United States. We only spent three weeks in Australia. Imagine trying to see the United States in three weeks. We didn’t go to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef because we have both been there before. 

Traveling with an iPad is a must. With the iPad, we are able to watch shows and movies on Netflix, AppleTV, and Prime. Sure we could watch on our phone, but that makes for a very small screen which is tough to share. 

In New Zealand they love rugby and in Australia, cricket is always on TV. The Big Bang League (BBL) is the name of the Australian cricket league. Racing is also very popular; every TV in each place we stayed in both countries had the Racing Channel, which showed either thoroughbred, trotters, or greyhounds. 

Like the United States, a good deal of TV advertising now is marketing online betting apps. The one difference is that after every ad, there is a quick public service message saying that there are better things to spend your money on or chances are, you are going to lose. 

We have really limited watching TV news because we don’t want to hear about the Trump administration. We are so happy to be out of the country during this transition and the inauguration. That said, we still receive our daily emails from Politico and Axios and I still glance at The New York Times, (formerly great) Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. Once a news junkie, always a news junkie I guess. 

The biggest and best news we have received since we started this journey is Lela and Avery’s engagement. We are so thrilled for the two of them and we can’t wait to celebrate with them in person. 

It’s been said before, but the iPhone has made international travel so much easier. Having GPS when driving or walking through a city is great. Being able to FaceTime with family keeps us closer together. Being able to text on a consistent basis with family and friends is wonderful. Having a currency convertor makes the math that much easier. Using ChatGPT or Wikipedia to look things up and get background information is so powerful. Non-contact credit card payment is fast and secure. Also Apple CarPlay is great to have. 

Uber is great because it takes the guessing game out of how much a ride will be. At the Melbourne Airport, they have totally embraced the use of Uber. We selected our hotel and got a code texted to us; we gave the code to the driver and he knew where to take us. A few airports still are lacking on proper signage for Uber or they put the pick up area further away, like in Christchurch. Additionally we used the Uber app for our Lime bike usage, so very convenient. 

We have sort of staled on Airbnb. Too many times it is a crapshoot on what you are getting. Along the Australian coast we did a couple of Airbnbs because they were a fraction of what hotels cost. In Queenstown NZ, we were really happy with our Airbnb. 

Another reason we book with Airbnb is that every couple of weeks we need to do laundry. In Port Macquarie we went to a laundromat and we were able to get everything completed in less than an hour. It was easier than doing multiple loads in the small combo washer/dryers that we find in Airbnbs. 

At first I was concerned about driving on the left side of the road and having the steering wheel on the right side of the car. I got use to it pretty quickly. The one weird thing is that the four cars we have rented so far, two had the turn signal on the left side of the tree and two had it in the right side. 

The United States needs to incorporate more round-abouts in their street/traffic planning. 

Libby is one of the greatest apps ever created. The ability to have thousands of books that we can download and read on our Kindles is fantastic. Plus I am a big fan of audio books. I always have at least one book on Kindle and one audio book going. 

Having the highest hotel status with Marriott doesn’t suck. We have had many lovely room upgrades and we get free breakfast everywhere we stay with them. In the one Hilton we have stayed in, in Sydney, we received a nice suite upgrade (Gold with Hilton). We have stayed at some independent hotels as well.

Since we are traveling on a Star Alliance around-the-world ticket booked through ANA, we are not getting upgraded on our flights. Since I am a Star Alliance Gold member, we do get free checked baggage and airport lounge access. That said, it would be nice to get upgraded on our flights. 

We are currently on Singapore Airlines from Brisbane and Singapore. It is filled with young families and crying babies. Like dozens of crying babies. To save room, I didn’t bring my noise-canceling headphones (maybe a mistake).

We aren’t missing the snow that hit a good deal of the United States. This is the year of endless summer for us (or until we come back mid-February).

It’s always nice to travel when the US dollar is strong. In both Australia and New Zealand the exchange rate was strongly in our favor.

Flying into Singapore, never saw so many cargo ship in the water. 

When people ask where I am from, I say the States. Then, if they ask where or what state, I say Maryland … near Washington, DC. We’ve only lived in Delaware for two years and frankly, most people in the United States can’t tell you where Delaware is so I’m not going to start with that. Plus, I did spend 32 of the last 34 years in Maryland. 

The world is a fascinating place filled with incredible cultures, landscapes, and cuisines. Life is short—travel as much as you can, and soak it all in!