G’Day Mate from Down Under OZ

 

Hello from AUSTRALIA!
Use this link to see our photos and videos.
You will find our photos from French Polynesia, New Zealand and now Australia. We will keep adding to them. ALSO see the links for our videos of the geysers, bubbling mud and George SAND SURFING!!!

Adventures Down Under

A day ahead

Because we are across the date line, it is already tomorrow here in Australia. We celebrated my nephew, Zachary’s birthday, and when I called him it was the DAY BEFORE his birthday! We are in winter because we are in the SOUTHERN hemisphere…so to get somewhere warmer here, you drive NORTH!

We loved Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The population of Melbourne is as large as ALL of New Zealand. It was great to be in a city with amazing public transportation. We went to the Koorie Heritage Trust Museum about the Aboriginal Culture in Australia. We were amazed to learn that in 1967, there was a referendum to accept Aborigines as Australian citizens with full legal and political rights. Prior to 1967, they could not vote, and had no rights as adults. In New Zealand, the Maori had a bicultural evolution with the Europeans and a treaty in 1840 with the British government.

We also loved St. Kilda where we heard live music a few times. In Brisbane, we stayed one block from the big game…Wallabees v. All Blacks for Rugby. The crowd was amazing and fun. We also went to a jazz club by ferry boat–Big Band!



OUR ADVENTURES CONTINUE

Thank you for all your emails! We love hearing from everyone. Australia has been a very different part of our adventure. We loved the city of Melbourne and all the museums, restaurants, parks. We learned that the Roman empire was at its height 2000 years ago, the Egyptian pyramids were built 4500 years ago but the Australian Aboriginal heritage dates from 60,000 years ago!
In Sydney, we stayed for 10 days with our friends, Dov, Roz and Ben. I was thrilled to go to Shabbat services and family dinner twice and be here for Roz’s birthday. We also saw the North, South and West Head. We went to the Blue Mountains. We saw the harbor bridge, and Sydney Wildlife World where they had: koalas, kangaroos, bilbys, and the Cassowary. We learned that the Cassowary are related to the emu, ostrich and the kiwi. When Gondwanan(the super continent) split up, the birds (Ratites) all evolved separately. I thought it was all super scientifically interesting!!! We went to the Opera House by ferry and saw a great show, 50 years of Bossa Nova. Sydney is so beautiful–we went to the Gap, the Harbor walk and many other beautiful sights. The hiking in the Blue Mountains near Katoomba was GORGEOUS!
We fly to BANGKOK on September 15th. We hope everyone in school is having a great first month back! (Here is Australia –it is almost the END of the school year as Spring has just begun!). We will let you know where we go next—we have to figure it out!!
Happy Travels!
Lisa and George

Lisa Ellen Niver

Lisa Niver is an award-winning travel expert who has explored 102 countries on six continents. This University of Pennsylvania graduate sailed across the seas for seven years with Princess Cruises, Royal Caribbean, and Renaissance Cruises and spent three years backpacking across Asia. Discover her articles in publications from AARP: The Magazine and AAA Explorer to WIRED and Wharton Magazine, as well as her site WeSaidGoTravel. On her award nominated global podcast, Make Your Own Map, Niver has interviewed Deepak Chopra, Olympic medalists, and numerous bestselling authors, and as a journalist has been invited to both the Oscars and the United Nations. For her print and digital stories as well as her television segments, she has been awarded three Southern California Journalism Awards and two National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards and been a finalist twenty-two times. Named a #3 travel influencer for 2023, Niver talks travel on broadcast television at KTLA TV Los Angeles, her YouTube channel with over 2 million views, and in her memoir, Brave-ish, One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty.

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