Planning!

G’Day, everyone.

We have been planning, planning, planning, planning.  Yes, that's quadrupled because there are four of us going on this one-month trip to Australia and New Zealand: our friends (Gil and Deborah Castle whom we met in Cuenca, Ecuador) and the two of us (Harold and Julie).  Admittedly, Gil has done the executive share of the planning, but the rest of us have helped here and there.

First step was to decide on dates.  We settled on Feb 1 to March 3 (we leave Australia on March 4 though).

Second step was to decide upon an itinerary.  We accomplished that task, but "we" is really a lie here because Gil was the one who organized the various itinerary spreadsheets.

Third step was to get flights:  first the bookend flights from the US or from Ecuador, and second the internal flights (several of them).  Expensive :-(

Fourth step was to establish housing.  Julie shone in this endeavor, and we think we have a wonderful grouping of AirBnbs, hotels, and resorts.

Fifth step -- While Julie was arranging housing, Gil was working on tourist itinerary.  He had an advantage because he had been to the countries once before, although eons ago, and he had also included both Sydney and Melbourne in his CitiesBeautiful.org website, so he had done some research.

     Speaking of that website, if you haven't checked it out, do so!  (note imperative).

Sixth step -- while we were deciding upon itineraries, etc. Harold worked on rental cars for new Zealand:  no straight sticks please!

Deborah provided input and advice throughout the entire process, and so finally -- the planning has finished and we now have one month to dream of red soil, mountains, oceans, beaches, the barrier reef, and jabbering with the locals so that we don't sound like drones!

Yes, we're going to give It A Burl and we hope to have a ripper of a tour!

For now -- Hoodoo, everyone.