His flights were with Air Pacific, Fiji's international airline. This is the plane that flew him from LAX to Fiji, and some of the sights he saw during his few hours at the airport in Nadi, Fiji...
Migratory Byrds
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Ben's trip to Australia
From September 10th to 27th, Ben was in Australia to do two weeks of uni prac subjects on campus at USQ in Toowoomba. It was a frantically busy time for him, as he not only had assignments to do for his two prac subjects, but also for the two other subjects he was already studying externally this semester. And since he's still pretty bogged down with all of that (12 assignments and 1 exam in total this semester!), I'm going to do his Australia blog entry for him! :)
He landed in Brisbane on Saturday morning, and spent that first weekend with his family.
Jim, Fraser, Merity, Leo, Jenny
Leo, Fraser and Merity (Ben's sister)
The first week, his prac subject was called Professional Practice 1. This consisted of lectures, student seminars and classroom sessions, so he didn't take any photos. He stayed with our friends Tim and Chany from Sunday to Thursday. (To help our non-Aussie readers make the connections: Tim was the best man at our wedding, and he and Chany met through us.)
On the middle weekend of his trip, Ben stayed with our friends Trevor and Valmai (Tim's parents... in fact, parents of the grooms at the last two weddings we returned to Australia for!). He spent most of the weekend working on assignments, but went out for dinner with a group of friends on Sunday night.
Trevor and Valmai
Tim and Chany
Lycie and Kimberley
Lachy C
He also had time to go shopping for lamingtons, and send me a photo of him eating one just to torment me...
The second week, his prac subject was called Soil and Water Practice 2. This time he took a few photos...
During that second week, he stayed with our friends Russ and Kate in their newly built house.
View from Russ and Kate's home
A table centrepiece from our wedding on display at Russ and Kate's
Kate, Russ and baby Clint
Clint
He also got to briefly see Kate's sister Steph (who is married to Ben's mate Glen/"Bill") and kids, Laura and Lachlan...
On his last Saturday morning in Australia, Ben hung out with some of his mates while they flew radio controlled airplanes in a paddock at some friends' cattle farm near Gatton (Delle's parents' farm, for those of our readers who've met her).
Dexter
Glen and Dexter
Lachy B (Delle's brother)
Alex (Delle's other brother)
Tim
Back at his parents' home for the last couple of days of his trip, Ben got to meet his new, day-old nephew, Archer!
Fraser, Archer, Merity, Leo
He also went Monday night walking at South Bank in Brisbane on his last night in Australia...
Ben arrived back in Canada on September 27th, and I was very glad to have him home!
And this is what AUD $130 of Aussie junk food looks like...
A big thanks to those of our friends who gave Ben a bed, food, and/or fun new Aussie memories during his crazy busy trip. We really appreciate it!
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10 comments:
Glad you had time for a few fun moments Ben. Good to hear about and see Archer (first I knew about the new arrival). Don't let Rox near the junk food stash or you'll have none left!!!!!! (she's had hers)!!!
Haha, luckily Rox has good self-control when it comes to the remaining food that's not hers... (also, after 6 family blocks of chocolate in 6 days, she's not feeling strongly in the mood for more chocolate right now!)
Great post sis, good to see some of the fun things Ben got to do, besides all the boring-looking study stuff! ;)
Okay, I'm drooling over all that junk food... how long did you say it was going to last???
Glad to hear Ben got to meet his new nephew - what great timing! :)
Had to laugh at the lamingtons! You'll just have to make some more! ;)
It was great to have Ben around for a few days, even if he did crash my plane and re-addict me to OpenTTD in the process. Next time Anna, you'll have to come as well.
The enormous tray of lamingtons in the shops do look pretty good - I think I shall have to go and buy a slab and eat them while thinking of our "Canadian" friends.
Thanks for the comments, folks! Love getting them, as always.
Jac, this lot of junk food will probably not last as long as usual, since I am going to Oz next month so I know I can replenish. :) But when this lot arrived, we still had some goodies from our Nov 2010 trip left in the cupboard... so maybe that answers your question!!
Tim, thanks again for putting Ben up. I don't even know what OpenTTD is, but I'm sure he had fun flying the plane! :)
Wow, Ben took lots of great photos! Little Leo is gorgeous!
I wouldn't mind a copy of the photos with Dexter in them sometime if that's not too difficult...
AUD$130 doesn't look like it goes all that far! Although that's quite an impressive stack of chocolate blocks!
Just sent you the pics, Jo. :)
Yeah, friends who have been to Australia in the last few years keep telling us that groceries are really expensive now... so maybe the junk food stash is the proof! We're usually so well looked after on our visits home that we don't need to buy many groceries, but I shall have to check out some prices next month and see how it compares to Canada. :)
Thanks for commenting!
So funny how news comes from the other side of the world sometimes!! I had no idea Fraser and Merity were even having another baby, let alone actually had it!! How exciting!!!!! :-)Yep, pretty depressing that $130 dollars of food would fill one, maybe two grocery bags huh?! But...at least Ben got all the good stuff LOL!!!
Sonya xo
awesome post! this week sheralyn introduced me to a confectionery warehouse near her house - blocks of cabury chocolate for $2!!!!! we'll have to go visit when you're here :D
Looks like Ben managed to have a great trip, in spite of all the study and assignments. It makes me feel quite homesick! At least I can get most of the same Australian junk food in New Zealand - just don't get to see all of the same people as much as I would like!
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