February 2004 - Travel Journal
Our first conference since 2020. Destination: Penang, Malaysia. We are here to enjoy a few days with wonderful coworkers from around the world.
Chinese Lunar New Year entertainment (actually a ritual for prosperity) at the hotel. Catch an orange from the lion's mouth to have good luck. Very noisy but still fun.
An evening in Georgetown (near the hotel) with friends.
The last day in Penang, we had a morning off so we went to a Butterfly Farm and Batik factory.
Then, off to Sydney! I think our plane was a bit late leaving Penang for Singapore, as we landed about the time our next flight was to leave. This time, however, the outbound flight to Sydney was delayed as well. So, we had from 2:00 am until 4:00 am to find a place to rest as best we could. Then finally onward to Sydney to meet up with Michael's brother-in-law for the next part of our adventure. While Ed was working, Michael and I went off to explore the harbor area and one of the beaches. It was a very drizzly day and a lot of walking, but we had a great time.
Sydney Harbour and Opera House
Manley Beach
While walking around the town of Manley, we came across St Matthew's Anglican Church, the Customs House and St Mary of the Cross Catholic Cathedral. We had lunch at a recommended fish & chips place. As the sea gulls and pigeons started gathering, Michael took our left over fish and entertained the birds and on-lookers.
Time with Ed and a wonderful Chinese dinner (they had some of our favorites on the menu!).
Before our fight to Melbourne, we went to the Featherdale Wildlife Park, where we were able to see native Australian animals and birds.
Next stop and last stop in Australia - Melbourne to see friends and do a little walk around town. Our conversation topic for this walk is that we got caught up in the crowd of glitter, sequins and other dress of those thousands going to the TaylorSwift concert that evening. Much of the same crowd was again at the airport the next day leaving in their TS sweatshirts and T-shirts.
Then, off to New Zealand. Unfortunately, there was a very bad storm in Sydney where we had to change airlines for our flight to Auckland. Our flight in Melbourne was delayed two hours. This, of course, caused us to completely miss our flight to Auckland. After about an hour of phone calls to the airline we missed, we were able to rebook for the next day and the airline that was late, put us up in a hotel for the night. Though we missed a full day with our friends in New Zealand, we all got a decent night's sleep.
This day would be Wednesday, February 21 (I think - NZ day/time). We were supposed to have left Australia on Monday, then got stuck over night in Sydney, so on to Auckland on Tuesday, arriving late in the afternoon. Wednesday is the day we are to drive south to meet with a group of friends and former co-workers. We had some time before the meeting, so Christine and Peter took us to a garden where there are multiple small gardens representing countries and areas. It was a very nice afternoon.
We had Thursday free, so our dear friends Julian & Monica went with us to the Hobbiton Movie Set. We had a great time in our little tour group with a well informed tour guide from Finland. (When we got home we rewatched the opening scenes of the movie to say "we were there"!! They had recently opened a hobbit house for tours and the detail was amazing. We also watched a few workers from the UK repairing the thatched roofs.
A side stop on Friday to see another associate and the buy souvenirs and we found a water fall near the road we were on. We didn't walk up to the falls but found this channel of water going to the falls.
Saturday, we headed back to Auckland by inter-city bus. Our friend, Peter, took us up to one of the extinct volcano craters which gave us a breath-taking view of the city and the Pacific Ocean merging with the Tasman Sea. Then down to the sea side for lunch and a quick walk on the boardwalk. Sunday we spent with our friends, then off again for our adventure back HOME on Monday.
Then came Sunday when we met with friends for Peter&Elizabeth's fellowship and our last day before beginning the journey back to our home. Monday brought the 13+ hour flight from Auckland over the Pacific Ocean, over Mexico and into Texas to arrive in Dallas. We all arrived on time, including our luggage as we had to claim the two bags and recheck them after customs. We had a 6 hour layover in Dallas before our last flight to Atlanta. However, our two checked bags did not make it to our flight. Kevin and Elise met us at baggage claim in Atlanta and already determined our bags were not there. After filing a claim and asking the bags be sent on to Columbia, we found they were on the next flight from Dallas to Atlanta later that evening. We went back to the airport Monday morning, before leaving Atlanta to check and were told they were in route to Columbia that morning. We received a call from Columbia airport telling us the bags were already there and we could pick them up when we got back into town. So......after a very long and wonderful three weeks, we and all of our luggage (and stuff) arrived safely back home. To mis-quote the title of Bilbo's book (Lord of the Rings I) "There and Back Again-a Krigline Adventure".