G'Day Mate

Ashton and I recently returned from a lovely trip to Australia. We had a grand time! Our first stop was in Brisbane where we stayed with Ashton's Mission President and family, the Smiberts. What wonderful hosts they were.

Sis and Pres Smibert with Ashton and Me
This shot is overlooking from a bush walk next to Burleigh Beach
We saw this frilled neck lizard on our bush walk
Famous in Australia
Welcome to Surfers Paradise.
It really is paradise.
A shot of Surfers Paradise
We went and did some baptisms in the Brisbane temple
The Brisbane River runs all around the city.
Many people use the river as transportation.
We are about to jump on the River for a ride home
after our visit to Southbank where they
have a man-made beach in the city!
Before we left Brisbane we went to the worlds oldest
Koala (not bear) reserve and we each held a Koala.
We also got to hop with the Kangaroos and see many other
wildlife native to Australia such as dingoes, wombats,
emus, different birds, echidnas, etc.
Time to eat!
This is a laughing Kookaburra. "Kookaburra sits in the old
gum tree!"

Our next stop was Sydney. We stayed in a hotel and just traveled around the city. It was fantastic. We really fell in love with Australia.

We went to the aquarium in Darling Harbour. The Jellyfish were amazing!
We found Nemo
and Dory.
There were these tunnels that you could walk under and see sharks
and sting rays and sea turtles. It was incredible!
Look at all the sharks!
Darling Harbour at night time. It was beautiful.
While we were there they had a celebration for the Chinese New Year--
Year of the Rat. They had Chinese Dragon Boat Races.
It was pretty cool.
We had a great time at Manly Beach. Most of our day was spent at the wrong beach though.
But luckily we missed the ferry back to Sydney so we could venture and find Manly--where we were supposed to be hanging out that day.
We were able to go see Le Boheme in the opera house.
It was brilliant! What a great opportunity!
Sunday we found a meeting house in the city right by Hyde Park. Unfortunately we didn't know that it was Stake Conference and we didn't know how to get there. A few other visitors also turned up that had just arrived from England and we had our own special little discussion of the lesson. It was a touching experience for all of us. We are grateful for the examples of strong saints all around the world.
We walked around the Royal Bontanical Gardens
which was filled with fruit bats.
Here is a pond filled with life at the gardens.
On our last day in Sydney we met up with our mate Nelson. During the 2000 olympics in Sydney, a local radio station in AZ randomly called Nelson who runs a pancake shop in Sydney. Since then, he has been a favorite on the radio and has fallen in love with AZ. We emailed him and met up. He took us all around to the good local spots in Sydney. It was great to get to know him. And we enjoyed some delicious pancakes at no cost!
Here is a pic of Sydney heads where the Harbour meets the ocean.
The water is beautiful!
Here is Ashton at Bondi Beach. The color of the water is vibrant!
Our last day in Sydney was President's Day. They don't have President's Day of course, but it is a Buswell Family tradition to play 2 games of bowling on President's Day. So we had to keep to our traditions. I did terrible, but Ashton did great. It must have something to do with the water spinning the other way when you flush the toilet on this side of the world.

All in all, we had a great trip to Australia. We loved the people and their laid back attitude. We found their accent easier to understand than the Kiwi accent. The land was beautiful. A lot more creeping insects and spiders. More poisonous things too, especially considering there are none in NZ.

Ashton and I feel very blessed to be able to travel. We have loved seeing different parts of the world and getting to know people and how they live. There is something good we can take from everywhere that we have been to and we are grateful for the things we have learned.