We made it to Australia after 29 hours of total travel time. After flying from LA to Sydney we had a flight to Cairns, in Queensland state. The Thunderbirds will play the Cairns Marlins of the Australia Basketball Association (ABA) on Sunday at 5 p.m. Australian time. We practiced at the site of the game at 4:30 Friday afternoon and then were on our own to find something good to eat and we did!! We tried to stay awake so we could sleep at night after our arrival here in Cairns just after noon on Friday the 7th of May...we lost one day by crossing the international dateline!

Everyone made it through customs fine, which is good and the starlings were making tons of noise last night at dusk...we also saw some large bats flying around and sitting in trees. Today it is off to Green Island and the Great Barrier Reef for site seeing and even some snorkeling for the more adventuresome of the group.

I found some newspapers from Melbourne and Sydney at the Sydney airport on Friday and the sports pages were full of football news (Australian style) soccer and cricket and the upcoming games this weekend. Found a small blurb with major league baseball scores and the upcoming NBA playoff games. On television last night the Atlanta-Orlando game was on at about 8 p.m. here...We are ahead of those of you in America by 16 hours...it is 6 a.m. now here in Cairns...It is very beautiful and green. Cairns is a city of about 140 thousand people and is a huge tourist area because of the barrier reef and the islands available to visit.