Its only the first days of the Australian winter and I'm already thinking of escape. To put in perspective its only 13 Degrees Celsius at the moment, however for seven months of the year you can literally walk around in flip flops (thongs), shorts, and a singlet, and many Australians do exactly that. A close analysis of my overseas trips reveal I often escape the Australian winter for the Northern summer. When I finally finish university I know I'll end up taking a job in the coldest universities like Dunedin, New Zealand or I don't know somewhere at the top of Canada.
Some Australians prefer winter, we do ski, in the appropriately named, Snowy Mountains, about seven hours south of Sydney. On the flip side I don't mind 37 Degrees Celsius, and will walk around quite happily like we did in Cordoba, Spain (You have to see Cordoba). I guess thats why I like Spain so much the weather, and of course the food, and theres so much to see, and of course the laid back lifestyle.
So, where was I, yes talking about my winter escape. Now, my favourite short winter escape trips are Fiji and the State of Queenlsand, which is only a one hour flight from Sydney. The Gold Coast (see blog entries) is a favourite Australian and international destination and is always at least a few degrees warmer. Although Fiji is really tempting (see my Fiji trips), and it normally costs around $300 to fly there from Sydney. As you might know the Australian dollar has dropped to just below 80 cents US making international travel more expensive. Our waning Mining Boom is mostly to blame, and I advise Australians to stock up on US dollars, if they haven't already, because the good times when our dollar was at parity might be over for another ten years to the next Mining Boom. Having said that our economy is still growing at around 2.5% - we are called 'The Lucky Country' after all.
However, I digress, I still haven't decided on my winter escape, and I'm interested in what your 'winter escapes' are, for one thing is for certain,
'Winter is Coming.'
