Dear All To make sure you know - and, hopefully, are planning to be at - the Tenth International OPEN SPACE on OPEN SPACE in OZ at Marysville - about 100 minutes drive into the mountains from Melbourne Airport, Victoria, Australia - November 9 (commence with evening BBQ)-10-11-12 (finish with lunch), 2002. It's just one year away from now - minus one week. It will be Spring here, with temperatures anywhere between 10°C and 25°C, maybe bright sunlight, maybe some rain - Melbourne (in Spring especially) has a reputation of being able to have four seasons in the same day. Wonderful! We'll make suggestions about clothing to bring by about May, 2002. You already have some ideas about airline costs in getting here from Lisa Heft who is helping with finance arrangements. Suggestion: get your own travel agent to give you a price on what you want to do and where you want to go; and then send that data to our travel lady here, Joy Doylend <j...@jstravel.com.au> to see if we can better the price for you by arranging things from this end. Harrison Owen's trip to Australia this year came out at nearly half what he had been quoted from his US agency!!! And remember that our Australian currency is sitting at about half the US$ right now, and seems unlikely to move very far beyond that in the coming months. It makes travel from North America and parts of Europe very much less expensive than the numbers seem. And on-the-ground costs are far less than in other countries, though perhaps not as inexpensive as some parts of Asia. The current cost of a McDonalds Big Mac Hamburger, for the record, is AU$3.00 - that is about US$1.56. We will have accurate fees for OSonOSinOZ for you by early March, with early-bird registrations and accommodation arrangements in place at that time. Registration and accommodation forms will be available on the LIST and WEB. The fee we are arranging will be all-inclusive - no extra charges unless you go to the Old-Fashioned Lolly Shop in Marysville or the Art Shop or..... If you'd like to know about other travel options in Australia while you are here, the following might give you some idea of what is worth considering. You'll need to get an atlas or access the Internet to make sure you know the distances involved. <Lonely Planet - Australia Map> will be helpful, and lots of other data is available at <Australia-Virtual Tourist.com> Options : Tasmania: 7 days/6 nights [before or after the Conference] Air Melbourne/Launceston (overnight) Freycinet (2 nights) Port Arthur (overnight) Hobart (2 nights) Melbourne. Melbourne to Sydney (or Sydney to Melbourne): 5 days/4 nights [On the way to or from Melbourne] Melbourne/Beechworth (overnight) Canberra (3 nights) Sydney. Cairns/Port Douglas : 6 days/5 nights [before or after the conference] Air Melbourne/Cairns (5 nights)/Sydney then ex Sydney Sydney : 6 days/5 nights [before or after the conference] Air Melbourne/Sydney (5 nights) then ex Sydney. Norfolk Island : 6 days/5 nights [before or after the conference] Air Sydney/Norfolk Island (5 nights)/Sydney then ex Sydney. Great Ocean Road, Victoria : 4 days/3 nights [before or after the conference] Melbourne/Geelong/Apollo Bay (overnight) Halls Gap/Ballarat (overnight) Melbourne. And there are other options in New Zealand, too, on the way to or from Australia. For further details and pricing, get back to Joy Doylend at <j...@jstravel.com.au> Joy can also arrange visas when ticketing is set up from this end. More to come about OSonOSinOZ in a little while. But make sure you have the dates in your diary. Cheers and blessings Fr BRIAN S. BAINBRIDGE for OPEN SPACE INSTITUTE of AUSTRALIA
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