Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, Oi, Oi!

We have arrived in Australia. We drove to Newcastle. Our children have gone home with their new billets. The adults enjoyed a lovely meal at Doan's friend, Ian Cook's home. And now we are finally ready to sleep.
Let's just say, we put the Fun in Whangerai. What a wonderful time we had in New Zealand. We must thank our tour guides - Yvonne and Budgie - and our bus drivers - Kitaro and Paul. We will miss you! We had a great time with them! And we have so many stories. Our Saturday evening concert was to a filled hall despite the heavy rain. We had no idea we would have such a great audience. We played the Organ Concerto, Tango, and Intermezzo...among others.
We must also thank our Whangerai billets. The kids had an amazing time. Though the weather on Saturday did not permit some activities, they still went mud sliding (John King, Luke and Danny), played lots of board games, visited the beach (Kerstin and Brittany), played cards, watched movies, checked out the flooding harbor...and of course sampled more New Zealand cuisine. Thank you Maria and everyone at Whangerai!
Anyway, we arrived on schedule at the Auckland airport only to find that our plane was delayed two hours. We had no trouble killing that time however...the shopping in the airport was excellent. When we arrived in Sydney we found more rain but our spirits were not dampened...we could see the opera house on our descent into the city (and then we got to drive across the Harbour Bridge en route to Newcastle.) Plus we were told by the customs officer at the Sydney Airport that we were the best group she has worked with. Our children were so polite and followed directions brilliantly. Plus we were the first Americans to come through claiming to have no food (food is not allowed to come through customs in Australia) and when the dog sniffed our bags...he found no food. Hooray for CJS!
Unfortunately or fortunately the Australian Wallabies beat the New Zealand All Blacks in the Rugby Game on Saturday night. We aren't sure which team to root for really.
We will miss the Kiwis, but Australia, here we come!