Fiji to Australia

Page 1 | 2 | 3

WHY AUSTRALIA?
One of my biggest regrets in life was not getting on the plane in 1987 to visit my sisters, who at the time were living in Perth, Australia. That was after I talked my mom into taking me on what would have been the most incredible high school spring break ever (JFK-San Francisco-Hawaii- Sydney-Perth-Fiji-Los Angeles-Connecticut). I had an anxiety attack in JFK airport and wimped out at the gate. It occurred because I had recently been diagnosed with asthma, and prior to leaving my doctor put the fear of God in me by saying, "Oh, you might have a difficult time breathing on the flight because the planes are pressurized." Pressurized?! Hard time breathing?! To make a long story short, I didn’t get on the plane. The worst part is I prevented my mom from going, so she never had the chance to see one of the world’s most beautiful cities: Sydney. After conquering my fear of flying, I’ve made it to Australia a bunch of times. My brother and sisters had all been to Australia -- but not my dad. I knew he wanted to go, because he always hears us talking about it (it’s one of our favorite destinations).

TICKETS AND VISAS
On this trip to Fiji we met a bunch of Australians. Like most Australians they were very nice. When they asked us if we’d been to their country and my dad shook his head no, I could tell he felt bad. I knew this was his best chance to get there. We were so close -- only four hours by plane – and I knew if we didn’t go, we would always regret it. So on the morning we were supposed to fly back to Nadi to catch our 10-hour flight back to Los Angeles, I decided to do something crazy (I mean, "special"). I went online and did the right thing. Within 20 minutes I bought us plane tickets to Australia, and arranged for a hotel and visas. Better yet, online visas cost $15 USD (the airlines charge $100 at the Nadi airport). FYI: Arrange Australian visas before you leave from the States. They’re free! (It pays to be organized.)

SURPRISE!
As we checked in for our 1-hour flight to Nadi, my dad heard me tell the agent we were headed to Sydney. My dad said, "Sydney? No, we’re going to Los Angeles." I said, "I didn’t tell you?" (Of course I knew I hadn’t.) "I looked at the weather. It’s snowing on the east coast and chilly in L.A. -- so we’re going to Australia where it’s nice and warm." He asked in amazement, "You’re joking, right?" I grabbed his shoulders, looked him in the eye and said, "NOPE! You’re finally going to Australia!" He was so happy, I thought he would cry.

NEXT WEEK
Yeah baby! Next week we continue our endless summer, hitting the hopping beaches of Australia.

FIJI VIDEO
Here’s a 2-minute Johnny Jet Video of our trip to Fiji. With high-speed the video takes about 3 minutes to load; with dial-up, please allow up to three weeks.

1 | << PREVIOUS PAGE | 3

Happy Travels,
Johnny Jet

*Please tell us what you think of this week's newsletter!

Pictures From

The Trip

Goodbye Fiji