Back Home In Sydney

The last few weeks we have been back in Sydney, working in the Public Affairs Office and doing our various tasks and assignments. We are enjoying the beautiful spring weather with some occasional thundershowers now and then. We attended a viewing of General Conference of the Church here in Sydney with our good friends and relatives through marriage, the Newtons and their daughter and husband. We were able to visit the Blue Mountains last Saturday afternoon (Oct. 27) which are located west of Sydney. We are enclosing some photos of that visit plus earlier ones from Tasmania. This is a great country, full of beauty and a diverse culture of people from all over the world.

The second leg of our journey in Eastern Australia began on Oct. 6 as we traveled to Canberra, the capitol, with Rex Barrington of BYU. We visited with Church leaders and later visited Parliament, the seat of government. Next stop was in Albury, a beautiful town on the Murray River, the border between the states of New South Wales and Victoria. Again, checking performance venues and meetings. From there, we stopped in Wangarrata where the Warby Mountain Range is to the west with a state park and even a Best Western Warby Inn. On to Geelong and then down to The Great Ocean Road, one of the famous scenic spots featuring an unusual rock formation just off shore called the Twelve Apostles. Back to Geelong, more visits and then to Melbourne for even more venue checks and meetings. That evening (Oct. 9) we traveled on the Spirit of Tasmania, the overnight ferry to Tasmania. It was more like a cruise ship and we did sleep comfortably in our cabin with two berths along with our own private but small bathroom. We rented another car and traveled to the city of Launceston where we met more contacts and visited even more venues. We stayed overnight in the "posh" Grand Chancellor Hotel. Then about a two hour drive south to Hobart where we wound our way up Mt. Wellington, a large mountain that provides a spectacular overlook over Hobart. More venues that evening followed by a delicious barbecue with the Watson family. More venues and meetings the next day along with shopping for good deals on clothing and souvenirs. We visited the tourist town of Richmond and then flew back that evening to Melbourne where we stayed in the Airport Holiday Inn. The next morning, we said goodbye to the Barringtons and then traveled by bus to downtown Melbourne where we did more shopping in the famous Queen Victoria Markets, did some more sightseeing and then back to the airport to catch our flight back to Sydney and home. Quite a trip for the past two weeks. Hopefully, we will be able to do more traveling and seeing this beautiful country and continue to meet such wonderful people.

Meeting Family and On The Road Again

After coming back from Adelaide, we had the great opportunity to meet a wonderful family on Sept. 27. We were connected with Meagan Warby Neifui who is a desendent of Thomas Warby, the brother to Clint's great, great grandfather who joined the LDS Church in 1853. Meagan joined about 15 years ago with her mother and brother but did not realize that she had a Warby connection to the Church until a few weeks ago. We were both thrilled to meet her and her husband Fred and daughters Kian and Huntley. On Sept. 29, we flew to Brisbane to visit the beautiful LDS Temple there, dedicated in 2003. We were there on official Church business to help plan the BYU Young Ambassadors Tour starting there and then other places throughout eastern Australia. We met many wonderful people and enjoyed our stay. From there, we traveled to Newcastle where Clint's ancestors left from to emigrate to the United States and Southern Utah.