G'Day Mates!

Well, we made it safely to Australia........Flashback to approximately 40 hours ago....(I think...honestly, I'm so tired right now, that it may have actually been a week ago....) Andy and I attempted to check-in at the kiosk at the United Airlines area in MSP, and of course we were having problems. A United employee spent about 10 minutes searching for our tickets before she finally found them and informed us that we did not have the necessary visa to visit Australia.....

I (yes, that's me, Jen) stayed completely calm, as Andrew went into a pure panic mode, asking for my iPhone, and immediately looking up Australian Visa requirements, yet another reason to add to the list of reasons why Andy should have his OWN iPhone. Anyhow, yes, you do need a Visa to visit Australia. Boom, ten minutes into our trip and the credit card was getting charged for last minute E-Visas. Note: Andy owes me one calm reaction in the future to a mistake as big as forgetting to get a visa for our Australian adventure...

The next twenty some hours were spent like this:

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  Minneapolis to San Fran (3.5 hours on plane)....layover


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  San Fran to Auckland, NZ (14ish hours on plane)...slight layover


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  Auckland to Melbourne, Australia (3.5 hours on plane)

I wish I had crazy stories about our many hours on the planes, but it actually went really well.... A few highlights:

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  There was a Khloe & Lamar lookalike (seriously, at first in MSP, I thought it was them!) following us all the way from MSP to Auckland.


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  We both slept at least six hours straight, Ambien free on the long flight (yay!)


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  There was an amazing selection of movies, TV shows, music, and games on the individual seat TV's...thank you New Zealand Air---the best airline we've ever traveled on, by far!

As soon as we got into Melbourne, we met up with Beth (a fellow Neenah/UofM Alum) and her fiance for breakfast and a tour and then went to a Rugby match. I'll update with pics and some stories about that later...

To be honest, the only reason I'm blogging right now is that Andy says we need to try and push through and make it until 8pm Melbourne time before going to sleep today. (It's been a LONG day!!) Our eating schedule and sleeping schedule is clearly, way off. I told him a little while ago that I was hungry, and he said, "We've already eaten so much today..." I thought back and kindly reminded him that the only meal we actually have had since arriving in Melbourne, was breakfast.. (Unless the beers we had at the rugby match count as a meal...never know, things are different in the southern hemisphere!)....clearly being up for so long is messing with his head and apparently, stomach too!

(Side note: As I type this, Andy is asleep next to me...)

Alright, time for some sleep....finally! More updates, with pictures, to come!

Love from Melbourne--

Jen (and Andy too! Zzzzz)