We both knew our 25 hours of travel time from Miami to Sydney were going to be rough, so we were pretty excited to take advantage of the Amex lounges at MIA and DFW. Between the free cocktails, bottomless wine, and neck massages, our hours of waiting at the airport were downright splendid...right up until the last possible second. Seeing that our flight was about to board while watching from the windows of our lounge, we decided to lazily mosey on down for the long haul to Australia. Moments before it was our turn to flash our passports and find our seats, the PA system gave us a little jolt as it hissed "Jonathan and Brittany Henley, please report to the front desk." If you've ever been to an airport, you know that this is a BAD sign. Surprised but foolishly optimistic (hey, we fly all the time, what could possibly go wrong?), we strolled to the desk with raised eyebrows and an air of curiosity. Unfortunately, that curiosity transformed into sheer terror as the friendly gate agent asked, quite simply, "Do you have visas to enter Australia?" Come again? You mean...you need to apply for a visa to get in? Despite owning two massive guidebooks about the country and having spent months looking forward to this trip, we somehow made the glaringly obvious error of not checking entry requirements. Every ounce of blood in my body sunk to my feet and my brain began to melt as I instantly played out the inevitable outcome in my mind: we needed to apply for a visa but didn't, and now we're going to spend the next three weeks in Dallas, Texas instead of Australia. Apparently recognizing my disturbing mental liquification, the gate agent cheerfully smiled and told us not to worry about it; he could apply for the visas right there at the gate. Why would you not start with that?!? Suddenly realizing that I wouldn't be collapsing into a puddle of tears and slaughtered dreams, I looked incredulously at Brittany and begrudgingly acknowledged that I am indeed a moron. Next time, I will actually read the guide book! Fortunately for my ego, there was at least one other couple on that plane in our exact same position, so at least we had company in the dunce department. Still filled with an unsettling mix of adrenaline and disbelief, we plunked down into our seats and resigned ourselves to the fact that we'd spend the next 17 hours with numb butts. It was our first time flying with Qantas and everything was top notch. Still, that long in the air gets old no matter how many KitKat bars they force down your gullet. Brittany slept better than she usually does, and the hours went by pretty quickly, bleeding from one to the next until we finally touched down in Sydney. Our first mission was to shower, destinkify, and change into presentable clothes for our visit to Bethel. Once that mission was accomplished (free showers woot woot!) we grabbed a taxi to our rental car which was sitting on a curb in the city, all ready to go. It's a tiny Fiat that's perfect for two people, and despite the first ten minutes of abject horror experienced while remembering how to drive on the left side of the road, our half hour trek to Bethel was uneventful. Apparently, the Australasia branch used to be a pretty happening place where a huge amount of work and printing was done, but nearly all of said printing has been shifted over to the Japan branch. The sprawling complex is beautiful, but it felt like a ghost town as we followed our guide through the halls, only ever coming across three or four people in the process. It's basically a warehouse now, with a crew to match. Literature is printed in Japan, then sent here where it's sorted and shipped out to the congregations. We had fun on the tour (it was just us and our comically bashful guide) and we especially enjoyed the large exhibit at the entrance. It showcased the preaching work in Australia over the years, and even had a mini theater where you could watch the Photo Drama of Creation. Now we're more pumped than ever to visit Warwick, and seeing a picture of a pioneer kangaroo was definitely a highlight :) Still somehow awake, we waved goodbye to our new friends and hopped back in the car. Our goal was to reach Kangaroo Valley before we couldn't keep our eyes open any more and had to find a room for the night. We'd planned to visit a certain lookout spot on the way, but by some happy accident we missed our turn and wound up at a different one called Bald Hill with (I suppose) an equally stunning view and the added bonus of adrenaline junkies paragliding over the beach. Our drive from Sydney to Melbourne has us hugging the coast all the way, and the beaches have been spectacular so far. The roads relentlessly zig and zag through lush, verdant mountains, many of which are spotted with low hanging clouds that look like puffs of smoke circling up from unseen fires on the forest floor. I don't know about you, but anytime I think of Australia I envision the Opera House, a kangaroo, and a red desert. I had no idea they had jungle-covered mountains too! The trees on either side of the roads are massive and prehistoric looking, and I often find myself craning my neck just to see their tops from inside the car. Most of them are completely stripped of bark, and we'll sometimes see what look like huge piles of brown ribbons at the base of the trunks. How does that happen? I'm still trying to figure out what the deal is there... After a quick lunch at the lookout point, we followed a meandering road across a cliff-side bridge and through the forest to Kangaroo Valley. With a name like that, I had the audacity to expect to see a large beautiful valley full of blissfully bouncing kangaroos, a perfect start to our time in Australia. Nay nay. No valley, and no roos. "RV Park" would've been a more fitting description. But hey, the drive was nice and we were headed in the right direction anyways so no harm done. Another hour went by and we had rolled past mountains, valleys, rocky cliffs, glistening harbors, and golden beaches. I still can't get over the bewildering variety of landscapes we've seen, especially in such a short period of time. One minute you're in a temperate rainforest, and the next you're on the sand or in a city. It's unreal. Following the Great Pacific Road (basically a tourist route for people that want to see awesome stuff and don't care if it takes a while to get there) we eventually landed at Jervis Bay. This is a pretty famous park and I was looking forward to seeing it, but right about when we got there was when the rain rolled in. The forecast for this week looks pretty crummy, but we've watched the weather change quickly and constantly since we landed so I'm not too worried about it. With three weeks here we're bound to get at least a few beautiful days, right? We called around to some hotels near Pebbly Beach as we parked in a downpour by the bay, and settled on a cabin in Murramarang National Park. You're supposed to be able to see kangaroos on the beach in the mornings, and we had our hopes up high! Turns out we didn't have to wait for morning though. The park had at least 10 of them happily munching away on grass just ten feet from people gawkers (i.e. us). We stared at them for a long while. It's kind of surreal to see something up close that you've seen on television your whole life; like seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time. The flip side to their being everywhere is that you are also stepping in their little ***** every three seconds. Forget attempting the impossible by nimbly avoiding the poop, just accept your fate and try to ignore that peculiarly squishy feeling under your shoes! The cabin turned out to be in a great spot, right on a gorgeous beach. It's the first time I've seen sixty-foot tall fir trees growing smack-dab next to breaking waves, and I get the feeling I'll be having a lot of "firsts" on this trip. By six o'clock, Brittanys brain would sporadically cease to function as her ability and desire to stay awake finally gave out (come to think of it, this starting occurring right around lunch). She held it together just long enough to down a few slices of shrimp pizza in our room, and I was relieved to find she'd finished chewing before collapsing into bed...it was touch and go there at the end. I was pretty surprised myself about how long we'd managed to stay awake considering how we've spent the past two days, and if we stick to the schedule tomorrow we should be able to quietly sidestep the jet lag. I've just about finished by first Australian pale ale, and I'm so tired that if I write any longer the words will probably start mashing into an incomprehensible blur of letters. We'll be up for sunrise on the beach in about 11 hours (if we can force ourselves out of bed) and just might find some kangaroos hopping on the sand. I'm sure the novelty of seeing those things will eventually wear off, but for now it's just awesome, ***** and all!