Cyclone Yasi

In a recent turn of events, also known as Cyclone Yasi, Kearse and I have been redirected in our travels. We Had a flight outbox Alice Springs to Cairns this morning, but the Cairns airport closed down for the next three days. The cyclone hit last night with winds averaging 143 miles per hour and topping off at 186 miles per hour! It sustained these speeds over Cairns for hours. 

I can't stop thinking about how lucky we were that we didn't decide to fly to Cairns earlier. We met some backpackers who had a friend that went on to Cairns, only to be evacuated from her hostel and seek refuge on the floor of a mall for 26 hours. Check out pictures from the cyclone. The damage is horrific.

So, based on flight prices and such, Kearse and I have decided to fly to Christchurch, New Zealand, which is exactly where I'm writing this post from. We spent the whole day traveling and made it to New Zealand by the skin of our teeth. We had a flight from Alice Springs to Sydney with one airline, a two hour layover, and then a flight to Christchurch with another airline. So we had two hours to get off the Alice Springs plane, get our bags from baggage claim, take a train to the International Terminal in Sydney, check in to our New Zealand flight, get through AUS customs and passport control, security, and then get to our gate. After security we heard the final boarding call for our flight and ended up sprinting to the boarding doors. Good times.

But we made it to New Zealand! And then we found out that there was a big earthquake in Christchurch in November, most hostels are still closed, and they've experienced over 300 aftershocks since the earthquake. Ah always an adventure.