We've made it to Australia

Well, we're finally updating from Australia. We flew in on the first, which was 10pm Thursday night (the 2nd) here in Australia. The flight itself was really long. We were slightly stupid and forgot that there were time zones between Detroit and Las Vegas so about an hour into the flight we thought that we should be landing. In any case we caught all of our connections fine. At LAX we had to take a shuttle down the road to another terminal, but we had plenty of time for it was fine. The BIG flight to Sydney was on Quantas. Although 14 hours seems intense, they try really hard to keep you busy. Each seat had it's own tv with a multitude of channels and movies, and you could even play a few video games. We were pretty cramped, but we both made sure to get up as often as possible to stretch. The food was ok. Jeff got an icecream bar and oreos and some other stuff that I couldn't eat, but there were free drinks and plenty of vegan snacks.
When we finally landed in Sydney, neither of us had slept very much, but we recharged on excitement and headed off to see if our luggage had arrived and get through customs. Fortunately both of our bags made it, except for jeff's beloved pillow which was probably recognized for its obvious value and stolen by a bag thrower or something. Customs was also a breeze. I think we were one of the last flights of the night (yes, Sydney International closes for the night) so everyone we looking forward to getting us all through as quickly as possible. I had to declare my wooden purse, but was actually through before Jeff. Additionally, Jeff got his passport stamped with his working visa condition.
That night we took a cab downtown and stayed at a nice hotel. The light switches are very low down on the walls. In the morning we took a walk and got some breakfast. After checking out we headed down to the wharf to take a ferry up to Manly. The ferry ride was pretty quick and was actually a nice way to see the opera house and the big fancy bridge.
Arriving in Manly we hiked up to our Hostel and spent the rest of the day walking around Manly and checking out our new home. The beach is very long and only a two blocks from where we're staying. Today Jeff and I (as it is Sunday and everything is closed) sat on the beach trying to build up some sort of a tan. Although Jeff's layer of hair hides his Canadian pastiness, I was probably the whitest one on the beach. No matter though.

No luck yet on our own place, although we've applied for a few. We spent all day yesterday walking around looking and attending viewings. Hopefully we'll have all of that worked out early next week.

The waves here are beautiful. We are extremely excited about heading down to Bondi in the next while to use the surfing lessons that we got from my Mom for Christmas.

We already miss Ohia. Hope that he's behaving well.
Sending love.