As the snow falls outside, I'm having fun inside thinking back on my outback adventure during 2019, while building my Sydney Lego set, and pondering 2020 adventures to come.

As the snow falls outside, I'm having fun inside thinking back on my outback adventure during 2019, while building my Sydney Lego set, and pondering 2020 adventures to come.
This was an incredible adventure that I got to enjoy while Down Under last month. I'd love to help you enjoy it as well. Australia is the #1 aspirational destination for 2020 according to Travel + Leisure. If you haven't been Down Under yet, as an Aussie Specialist, let me help make your Aussie Holiday dreams come true. Reach out and let's chat.
So what exactly is this conference that brought me to Australia you ask, and why Perth?
The conference itself is called Corroboree West 2019 and is designed to provide continuing education and familiarization to travel professionals from assorted Western nations. It takes place every two years and is put on by the country's tourism authority, Tourism Australia, in an effort to help non-Aussies better know and understand what they are recommending to their clients. The reality is that you can't Google experience, and who better to invite to the country than the people working hard to sell the country to tourists? Here's a little bit about the conference itself.
"CW19 is a combined training workshop and familiarization event held exclusively for Aussie Specialist advisors from our Western markets. Here, Aussie Specialists will meet with around 100 Australian tourism operators during the workshop and networking events, followed by a six-day/five-night famil in a different part of Australia."
And then here's a little bit about "why Perth".
"Perth is the ideal location to host Corroboree West 2019 as it is regularly ranked in the top 10 most liveable, friendly and attractive cities in the world. The sun shines for an average of nine hours per day and finding ways to enjoy them is easy, with a huge variety of things to do. New attractions, accommodation, restaurant and food & wine offerings, cultural and entertainment precincts are continuing to change the face of Perth."
On the first day of CW19, the Dingos enjoyed a tour of King's Park & Botanical Gardens, one of the largest inner-city parks in the world at over 400 hectares filled with towering trees, lakes, views of the city, WWI and WWII memorials, and the gardens feature 3,000 of Australia's 12,000 plant species.
Wow. Getting to Australia was both the longest individual flight, along with the longest connecting flights I've experienced yet. 16+ hours gate to gate trans-Pacific flight time from Los Angeles to Melbourne on the east coast followed 90 minutes of connecting time later by a five-hour cross-continent flight to Perth on the west coast. 21 hours in the air. We left on Saturday night from LA, crossed the international dateline somewhere past Hawaii, and landed on Monday morning around sunrise in Melbourne, only to then fly into the early afternoon to Perth. The flights were comfortable and enjoyable for how long they were, but a bit exhausting as well. This afternoon our smaller group (we assembled at LAX) is meeting up with the larger group attending this conference and heading over to check in to our hotel. Then we've been the afternoon and evening off to explore and/or relax and refresh as we see fit until the conference actually begins tomorrow morning. With so little free time, I'm not going to just hang out at the pool or bar like some of my groupmates are...I'm off to do some exploring!
I have wanted to be able to go visit Australia since 1984 when Blair, Jo, Natalie, and Tootie - along with Mrs. Garrett, all went there during the "Facts of Life Down Under" episodes of The Facts of Life. It has always been a far-off, magical kind of place. Shortly after that "Crocodile Dundee" hit theatres, and the mystique only grew.