One of the wonderful - and slightly unnerving - things about our trip was that we left behind a Minnesota winter and spent three weeks enjoying the Southern Hemisphere's late spring and early summer. It was in the 80s in Melbourne, HOT (108!) and dry at Uluru, and hot and humid at Cairns. It was just a bit cooler in New Zealand, and we had some rainy days there, but it was still mostly t-shirt weather and a definite, pleasant change of pace from home. The one thing we missed out on was any chance for stargazing. Most of our overnights were in cities, with their accompanying light pollution, and during our stay at Uluru the moon was close to full AND we had partly to mostly cloudy skies. Amateur astronomy has to wait for some future trip.

At Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne	Royal Flying Doctor Service museum	Trees full of noisy pink galahs at camel ride stop
Talking with tour director Gail at sunset dinner near Uluru	Hiking into canyon at Kata Tjuta	Shadow on the trail in late afternoon
Suiting up to scuba dive	Ready for a day of snorkling	Sydney Harbor Bridge, as seen from the Opera House
Bondi Beach and Tasman Sea, Syndey	With our friend Anne in Sydney	Geothermal park near Rotarua, New Zealand
Mike in role of our group's "chief" at Tamaki Family Marae welcome ceremony	The TranzAlpine train across the Southern Alps	Gondola car, Queenstown
Waterfalls on Milford Sound, South Island	Yes, one night we had ice cream for dinner: we were on vacation!