One of the perks of working for the NZ government is that Mark gets money for Continuing Medical Education; it’s use-it-or-lose-it, so with funds to burn, we headed for Australia today to attend the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine Winter Symposium in Darwin. Darwin is at the “Top End” of Australia, across the Timor Sea from Indonesia. It’s a pretty out-of-the-way place, but has the advantage of being warm year-round.
Our day started out at a leisurely pace, since our flight out of Tauranga wasn’t until 1pm, and the airport is just a few minutes from our apartment. Ro wanted to be a big boy and roll “his” luggage all the way to the terminal from the long-term parking lot. The sight of him struggling with his and Sherry’s big rolling duffel was pretty funny. As we walked out to the plane, Ro stopped in the middle of the tarmac to wave to our pilots in the cockpit, who dutifully waved back with a smile. The flight steward ?wisely gave him a lolly as soon as we boarded the turboprop. To give you an idea of how short the flight from Tauranga to Auckland is, he was just finishing the lolly when we landed.
Ro doing his best King Kong impersonation
On our way!
On arriving at the Auckland airport, Ro took off like a shot down the gangway and didn’t stop until he saw his old favorite spot there – the helicopter kiddie ride, which he promptly hopped in. Sherry tried to check the Lost & Found at the airport looking for her long-lost North Face jacket that disappeared somewhere between our trans-Pacific flight and the Colonial Court Motel five months ago (geez, has it been that long?). No luck, though, as they only hold items for 3 months at most. While waiting for our plane, Ro sneaked up behind a family watching their portable DVD player in the terminal, not so subtly peering over their shoulders to watch the movie as he noisily crunched on some potato crisps…equally funny and embarrassing.
Ro in his happy place
How liberating it must be to have zero self-consciousness!
Our flight from Auckland to Sydney was pleasant, since on the international Air New Zealand flights everybody has their own personal seatback entertainment system – definitely a big hit with Ro. Mark relaxed and watched Batman: The Dark Knight, while Sherry tried to watch Speed Racer. Alas, she kept getting interrupted by Ro, who insisted on playing video games that required Sherry to supply frequent instruction. This minor inconvenience was more than offset by the free cocktails.
The Hills on our way to Sydney
Ro double-fisting his Sprite and game controller. Woe to anyone who would try to take them away!
The Sydney airport wasn’t bad as airports go, and Mark found it amusing that there was a New York Metropolitan Museum of Art satellite store there, on the complete other side of the world. Prying Ro out of a gift shop with all the exotic, new, interesting toys was an adventure in itself. In her haste to relieve Mark from his stand-off with Ro over a stuffed snake that he was dirtying by dragging all over the floor, Sherry left the register in mid-transaction to calm Ro down, leaving Mark to pick up the tab. Later, we couldn’t find the postcards she had purchased, so Mark went back to look in the store, and had the shopgirls looking all over for them, too. He was about to accuse the girls of cheating us, when Sherry popped up and found the cards in her purse. D’oh! We’re sure we left an impression of “Ugly Americans” with the poor girls working in that shop…lol.
Ro spots an old favorite from home
Not to worry. A Whopper is still a Whopper.
Ro catching up on his studies while waiting for dinner (Thai).
As soon as we boarded the 4.5 hour flight to Darwin (Australia is BIG), Ro passed out as if he was nailed with a tranquilizer dart. One minute he was sitting up talking to us, and ten seconds later he was slumped against Sherry, sawing toothpicks. Lucky him, as everyone else on the plane was treated to the incessant crying of two little kids a few rows up. Ro blessedly slept the whole flight, and every time he would start to stir, Sherry would quickly adjust his pillow and caress him back to sleep to the relief of the people around us. We didn’t get in to Darwin until 11:45pm, which is 2:15am Tauranga time, and although sleepy, we were amazed at how agreeable Ro was after waking up. He even flirted with a middle-aged Aussie lady Sherry dubbed “Whale Tail” based on her somewhat age-inappropriate hot-pink thong. She found out that he played rugby and was an All Black fan, at which point she tried to corrupt him to the Aussie side by teaching him to chant “I wanna wanna be…a Walla-Wallaby!”
Ro in the long taxi line next to Whale-Tail and her partner
We crashed hard once we reached the Crowne Plaza, after a VERY long day, with the promise of exciting things to come. Ro hesitated to sleep on his strange rollaway bed at first, but when we promised to leave the bathroom light on, he finally put his head down and drifted off.
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