Getting to Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/Wickliffe

A few people have been asking about how to get to Australia. We have flown with Qantas, although Air New Zealand may be a good option if you want to stop off in the Land of the Long White Cloud. If you're trying to find a good deal, check out Cheapoair (a great suggestion from Megan). Also, Becky just introduced us to Vayama, where you can book flights and cars and find out interesting things about your destination - anywhere in the world!

Flying from the USA, you'll probably go through LAX. I've never been lucky enough to fly in or out of San Francisco, but I'm told it's a much more pleasant experience. We usually just put "Albuquerque" as our departure city and deal with LAX.

The closest international airport to Wickliffe is Melbourne (MEL - Tullamarine Airport), but if you find a good deal you can fly into Sydney (SYD - Kingsford Smith airport) . It's a short flight south to Melbourne (although you may be tired of flying by then).

Wickliffe is about a three-hour drive west of Melbourne, between Ballarat and Hamilton. Here's a whacky map from Travelmate that gives you an idea of how to get there (although it's kind of an interesting route). Travelmate also has information about hiring a car. We're thinking about getting a campervan for our outback adventure...

If you are thinking about renting a car, it may be a good idea to get to Ballarat and avoid driving in Melbourne. There are shuttles between Ballarat and Tullamarine, and Ayesha has lots of friends and family going back and forth who would be willing to offer rides. There is also a public train and bus service that goes from Melbourne all the way to Wickliffe (VLine).

If you have any more questions about getting there, please ask us. If you have any more suggestions - or find a cheap flight - tell us about that too!!

Out and about in Taos

Most of our guests are coming from out of town - thank you for coming to Taos!

There are lots of places to stay. We have reserved a number of rooms at the Sagebrush Inn - you can get a discount if you mention our names. If you want to live it up, Casa Benavides could be a good choice, but any hotel on the main drag in to town will be close to the wedding and the reception.

Apparently, there are no taxis in Taos (Ayesha finds this astounding but Howard is not surprised), so you may want to determine a designated driver before heading to the reception (or walk!).

There are a lot of good things to do in and around Taos, especially in the fall. The leaves will be turning gold, the air will be warm in the day and cool in the evening, and everything will smell fresh and beautiful. Hopefully the apples will be starting to ripen...

Howard has lots of suggestions for things to do while you're visiting.

Trips to the nearby mountains, the river, the gorge, the plaza are always a good thing to do. We haven't made it up Wheeler Peak yet, but we've had plenty of hikes around the river and in the foothills close to Jim and Claire's house.

If you don't feel like hiking, you can wander around the shops in the plaza or check out some of the museums in town. You can catch the Chile Line around town.

Taosenos - please tell us if you have any other suggestions for fun things to do or places to stay.

Out-of-towners, if you're looking to carpool - let us know and we'll see if we can organise something for you.

flowers for the Taos wedding

To all you green-thumbed New Mexicans -

We're looking for some help with flowers to decorate the San Geronimo Lodge. We would love to see a crazy mix of flowers brought to us from our friends. That way, everyone gets to take part in the wedding. We hear that chrysanthemums, sunflowers and rudbeckias all flower at that time of year - but you can grow whatever you like! Maybe you can just pick a few wildflowers on the drive into Taos... and grasses could look good too... Everything goes!

If you're interested in bringing some flowers for us, just bring them up to Taos and drop them off at the Lodge on the morning of the wedding.

Let us know what you're growing! Post some comments here or tell us some other way.

Invitations

If you're reading this, then you've probably already received an invitation. Howard made the illustrations of the tree and the apples on the stickers, because we're getting married in an apple orchard in Taos and hopefully under some river red gums in Wickliffe. The tree is depicted as a sapling, but the roots are thick, strong, and deep. The roots are you all, our family and friends that have help to make the two of us who we are. We like to think that we're branching off from those deep supporting roots...

We designed the invitation to minimise the amount of paper we used. You can tear off the bottom portion and send it back to us as the RSVP. [Alternatively, RSVP online for the Taos wedding at our wedding webpage and save some gas/petrol mileage/kilometreage by the postman.]

And one last note - your children and partners are invited to the wedding too! Their names may not be on the front of the envelope, but they are included. Just add them into the "number in party attending" on the RSVP.

Honeymoon plans

After our wedding in Australia, we're planning a tour of outback NSW for a week or two (hopefully two). Details are yet to be determined, but we'll probably hire a van or small bus and borrow a tent and then head north from Wickliffe. We hope to visit Broken Hill and Tibooburra (where Ayesha's grandfather used to travel to pan for gold) - and hopefully catch up with a few old friends along the way.

Any suggestions about where we should go or what we should see?

We know that there is a lot of cool art in Broken Hill and we are already planning a counter meal at the Tibooburra pub...

If anyone is looking for ideas for a wedding gift, we would love some help to pay for our trip! Here are a few ideas of things we might like/need to buy with your gifts:

• petrol to keep our campervan going
• snacks from the service station to keep us going
• a visit to the supermarket before heading outback
• postcards and stamps
• a counter meal in Tibooburra
• a night out in Broken Hill
• lunch at that nice place in the Blue Mountains
• breakfast in Sydney before getting back on the plane
  
• a night in a nice B&B
• a site at a caravan park
• some more songs for our iPod
• a road atlas
• anything else that you think is essential for a long road trip...