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.