The view from Down Under

Two days ago, an opportunity came up to leave early from Hawaii and not have to go through Guam to spend the night. It would save two days leave for Steve. We had to get up early in the morning (12 midnight) and sign up. They had 41 seats available so we had no trouble getting on. It was a big C-17 with seats along the sides. Some people made a bed on the floor and slept the whole trip (11 hours) I was able to sleep across the seats. We arrived at Richmond RAAF base the next day (we lost a whole day). As soon as we got our luggage through customs we got a taxi to take up to the train. It was an hour on the train to Sydney. When we got there we had to get our special passes that I had ordered on line before we left the states. It allows us unlimited travel on the trains while we are here. We were able to check our luggage at the station. We had time before we caught the night train to Melbourne so we went on the double decker bus for our tour of Sydney. Sydney is a lot like the states.
After an 11 hour trip to Melbourne on the train we arrived at Melbourne at 7:45 am where Rob was waiting with a taxi to take us to his house. They live in an outlying village a 20 minute ride from downtown Melbourne where Rob works for Ticket Master. So needless to say, we are not going to do much today except investigate the surroundings. We are going to have Fish & Chips tonight for supper and go walk on the beach two blocks from their house. After a good nights sleep we will be ready to go tomorrow.