Week 6

The time has come to wrap up some of my previous posts!

Expenses

Expenses for our Australian Rendezvous has rounded out to approximately 4,000 dollars. This is for everything. Thanks to our very kind Aussie cousins they are helping with costs a ton by housing and feeding us for the proximity of our potential time spent there.

Time

Originally in my blog, my parents and I had planned to take our trip spring of 2017. Realistically that didn't not insure that we'd be able to spend the time we would want when we go. So officially we've decided to plan our trip for Christmas break of 2017-2018. The plan is to be in Australia for a little under 3 weeks. 

Location/Flights/Transportation

Fly out of Billings, MT, then we will book our flights using the multi-city flight plan which will allow for a 4 to 5 day stop in Honolulu before continuing on to Melbourne. In Melbourne Rod and Jo or Ross and Sarah will pick us up from the airport.  From the airport we would be driven by our fam to their home near a city of 25,000 called Wangaratta. When leaving to come home the Cavill's would see us off at Melbourne and homebound we'd be. Our flights back would not consist of a stop in Hawaii, but rather the faster route to Billings.

Activity

We will spend the majority of our time with the Cavills just catching up and meeting everyone. They've told us they have lots to keep us busy with when we come visit. Towards the end of our stay we plan to rent a vehicle and drive out to the coast. Then a day or two before heading home we plan to tour Melbourne a bit. We may go to the zoo, an aquarium, really anything could happen (including getting robbed).

Victoria is the province in the bottom right corner that's where we'll be.

It's been a blast writing this blog and brainstorming on this trip. I have learned so much and can't wait to put my ideas into practice.

Week 5

Week 5

For week 5 I researched driving regulations, and a bit more on sight seeing. Renting a vehicle would be roughly a hundred American dollars per day. Before even being qualified to drive in Australia, an individual must have a valid international driving permit as well as drivers license issued in your home country. Establishing a rental and international drivers permit are the bare necessities, but I think the actual driving part could be challenging. Among many strict traffic rules, driving on the left side of the road would be very exciting and possibly unnerving depending on who's driving. Should be a hilarious adventure if we live though! A quick run down on driving laws includes; no cell phones, wear seatbelts, watch out for wildlife, speeding tickets will bankrupt you, and their national emergency number is 000. So there you go, all you need to know about driving in the land down under.

                    Sight Seeing in Melbourne (just some wild ideas)

• Sea life Melbourne aquarium 
• Bells Beach, Victoria
• Melbourne Zoo
• Puffing Billy Railway (taking a train through a rainforest)

So I found this crazy looking animal that lives in Australia.

I can't decide if it's the cutest thing I've seen or

if it creeps me out just a tad

(maybe the Melbourne zoo would have one). 

That's all for this week, I'm still waiting on passport info, but everything else seems to be wrapping up. For week six I plan on doing a short summary of my most useful discoveries and ideas during this project.

Week 4

Week 4

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Break has been treating me very well. During it, I've been thinking of how this time next year my folks and I should be visiting the land down under. A big shout out to Cyra on her help with figuring flight patterns for stopping in Hawaii on our way over. The "multi-city" flight has proven a great idea and will more than likely be how we go about that stop. In answer to Patrick, we've always wanted to see Hawaii and my Dad is a history buff so I know he would love to tour Pearl Harbor if possible! Jacob also had a great point in asking about what we will be doing when in Australia. I've actually been meaning to give a run down on some potential plans while over there, so here it goes!

 Depending on our flights we may spend time in Melbourne or Sidney touring a bit, but probably not more for a day or so considering the size of those cities, Melbourne @ almost 5 million and Sidney @5.25 million. We are hoping to spend the majority of our time with our cousins in the more rural area that they live in. All of the Aussie cousins live close outside of a town called Wangaratta,Victoria. The population of Wangaratta is roughly 25,000 so just a bit of a difference there. Rod (who is about my dad's age) and Tim (Rod's son) compete in dog trials so we look forward to watching them do their thing! We should also get a chance to watch Sarah (Ross's wife) jump her horse. They are all excellent riders and Sarah's a beast at jumping competitions. Cara and Devin toured a couple different cattle and sheep ranches while there and said it was eye opening so we'll probably do that as well. We hope to take a couple days to visit the ocean too. They want to take us riding up in the snowy mountains while there and I'm pretty pumped for that as well as just hanging out with everyone. They are an easy bunch to be around and I'm sure we won't be bored. Rod has a ranch and his son Tim manages another ranch with huge numbers of livestock on it. We are hoping to be some help to them while there. When Rod, Ross, and Sarah visited they pitched in with whatever we were doing and were a huge help during the branding season. It would be nice to try and return the favor a bit.

I am sure plans will change but that's just a few things I've been thinking of. Weather should be warm enough too. Some of the Aussie's sent us a message saying how it was a high of 90 degrees Fahrenheit just the other day. I sent them a picture of all the snow we have and they thought it looked uninhabitable lol. 

Elsie playing in the sprinkler on Christmas!

For week 4, I will be pursuing getting my passport info through. I also need to look up regulations on driving for our trip. They drove when over here but I know there's a certain protocol. Continuing to research things we should do on our Australian Rendezvous will also be a goal!

With that, I hope everyone has a great rest of their Christmas break and a Happy New Year!

Week 3

Week 3
At last a conclusion has been drawn. My parents and I will not be taking our trip this coming spring. The good new is, however, we have set a date for Christmas break of 2017-2018! I am honestly relieved. I was stressed that if we didn't go before I started college we would never go, but this makes more sense. I know I could have pulled off 14 days this spring  (7 of them school days), but it would have been a stretch. It will be a nice break from college and something to look forward to. The huge thing is that with so much  time off from school we can go for longer; therefore, I won't be as stressed over homework either. The real reason for reaching this place is we c
alled one of our Aussie cousins. Rod gave us some phone therapy. He talked through dates and what would work for them. He called us out on are procrastinating and it was just what we needed. Thanks Rod!

Now that a date has been settled the planning goes forward with more direction. I have filled out my passport application as of tonight. Tomorrow I will call the Post Office to make my appointment for a picture and such. I am going to focus more on the details of a stop in Hawaii, and polishing our budget a bit more. Air line tickets are on pause for a bit though. You can not book over a year in advance so I will need to wait a bit.


I do not see this date change as a set back at all. I would have been surprised and a little anxious if spring of 2017 had stuck. This extra time will insure that I plan a solid trip for my folks and I. They are very nervous travelers, but I know how much they enjoy our Aussie cousins and want to see them in their homeland.

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Ross and Sarah when they were in Western Montana at my grandparents.

 Ross & Sarah with their little one Elsie!

Week 2 Australian Rendezvous

Week 2

Although my parents and I had planned on deciding if the trip could be a go by this point, minimal decisions have happened. I would really like to prioritize that this upcoming week. Once that is decided I will be able to move forward and finalize flight plans. Something new is that we are talking about stopping in Hawaii for a day or so on the way. This would help break up the long trip over. It is roughly fourteen hours just flying from Honolulu into Melbourne Australia. My sister told me the way over was probably the worst part for them. They had to fly into Los Angeles from Billings before making the fourteen hour trek. So if we have to fly into a bigger airport it may as well be Honolulu.

So now instead of a 10 day trip we would instead go for 14 days and our budget is going to be adjusted. I plan on researching potential costs of time in Hawaii this upcoming week. Hawaii is still being discussed though. I cleared attendance with Mr. Gundlach and I am very pleased with where that went. He said if I stay under 12 absences per semester I will be set. I could schedule the trip over Easter break and music festival resulting in me missing 7 school days max. On a different topic, my passport is expired. I went by the post office two days ago to educate myself on the proper protocol and the man up front was very helpful. Since my expired passport was processed when I was a minor, my new one will be a complete remake. I was given a bunch of paperwork and a phone number to make an appointment by. I have yet to make my appointment because I honestly haven't found the time to look at the paperwork I was given. That is next on my list though.

I've been learning a lot through all this planning, mainly that I don't know everything so it's okay to ask questions. I am sure that this trip will change many times throughout all the planning and that is just fine.

* Rod and Ross when they came to visit.  This is in front of the 'Trappers Cabin' on our Ranch.

Week 1
In case you didn't know, my genius hour revolves around planning a trip to Australia.
The first week has been challenging. Technology was not always my friend in researching, but in the end progress was made!

Cara and Devin came home from Australia a few days ago so I've been able to pick their brains for ideas. They had a blast by the way. (: Talking to them helped me estimate a budget plan. Thanks to our long lost Cavill cousins, transportation and food was basically covered for during their trip. They did stay in a hotel for two evenings and that rounded out to be fairly expensive, 170 U.S. dollars a night, but my parents and I would most likely not get a hotel if we flew straight into Melbourne. Our cousins have offered to pick us up at the airport in Melbourne and serve as our guides. I figure about ten days would be a sufficient amount of time for us to visit them. From what my Dad and I have been estimating, we have figured it will cost us about 3,000 dollars for airline tickets. This would be unless we get a killer deal, which one can always hope right? So 3,000 round-trip for us and then it would probably be safe to plan for a little over a thousand in extra expenses.
This is all speaking in U.S. dollars. I did have the opportunity to research U.S. dollar currency vs. Australian. Australia is 36 cents behind the U.S. so that would be handy.

This next week I hope to check into if our passports need renewed, possible travel dates, techniques for money change, and if we'd need an international driver license. I will keep you updated and wish me luck. The hardest part this week will be discussing if this trip is to actual take place. My parents have gone back and forth many times, so this could go either way. I will continue to plan for a trip no matter what is decided, but it would be a lot more fun if we actual took it this spring.