I recently returned returned about four month's ago from a three week visit to Australia. I managed to make it as far as New Zealand in 2011, but didn't have the time to get across to Australia. Despite appearances, most people think Australia and New Zealand are fairly close - but they are actually separated by a distance that would take between 3.5 and 4 hours to fly between them, which is obviously quite far (like going from Calgary to Toronto). I left Vancouver on a Wednesday with the goal of being in Sydney on the Friday (you lose a day crossing the date-line). It was a long flight (14 hours), ...