Monday 12 January 2015

Day 11 - Down under......

We've had quite an exciting weekend.

PP's daughter and her new(ish) husband set off on Saturday for a belated honeymoon 'trip of a lifetime'.... spending 6 weeks touring Australia and New Zealand.

They set off on Saturday evening, and thanks to the miracle that is the interweb we were able to follow their journey every step of the way.



At the start of the first leg of their marathon journey, having left Heathrow en route to Beijing.  

And yes, isn't that a lot of air traffic over the south east, most of it either going in or out of Heathrow and Gatwick.



Heading out over the North Sea, taking a route over eastern Europe and Russia, into China.

I find this technology awesome in the true meaning of the word.  Not just a little bit good.

Literally awe-inspiring.  With a laptop and an internet connection you can follow the flight of any commercial aircraft on the globe.  Not only that, you can see its height, speed and even a pilot's eye view from the cockpit.

If that isn't awesome I don't know what is.

On Sunday, we continued to follow their journey.  After a two-hour stopover in Beijing, a flight south towards Australia, flying over Japan, Indonesia, New Guinea.......



..... finally heading down the east coast of Australia.




We watched their gradual descent, and eventual safe landing at Sydney International Airport, even following the plane as it taxied to the terminal.

A few hours later we had a text to say that they'd booked into their hostel, were going to have a quick shower, then set off to explore the city.

It's hard to believe that they're now on the other side of the planet, although the 11 hour time difference is a 'timely' reminder.

Today they're planning to do the Sydney Harbour Bridge walk.  By which I mean not walking straight across it on the roadside path.  

No.

They're going to walk right over the top of it.  If you have a strong disposition you can get some idea of how that feels HERE.



For me that's a whole world of NO! but they want to start their adrenaline-fuelled action-packed trip with a bang.

I'm all for following their trip every step of the way but I draw the line at bridge climbs, white water rafting, skydiving, bungee jumping, extreme off-roading, canyoning and all manner of WTF.

I'm sure they'll have a wonderful time........ GO LAURA AND BEN!!!

2 comments:

Karin F. said...

I think these days you have to watch the plane & probably have your heart in your mouth.....just in case! So many planes have gone down in that part of the world.
However I find current technology so awesome considering that you're able to virtually vacation right along side of the actual vacationers.

Sandra Morris said...

Karin.....

It did drop off the radar several times! The first time it happened we were ready to panic but it turned out that our link had simply timed out. Thankfully when we refreshed, the plane re-appeared.
Phew.....!