By Kanau Sion
Friday the 9th November 2012 was an exciting moment for my mum (Maria Sion) and uncle Peter Sion because it marked their first ever overseas trip - to Australia. It was a much awaited and anticipated travel
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| At the Esplanade waterfront |
because of the time needed to sort out their passports and secure Australian visitors visas. Finally, and after approximately three weeks of waiting it was time to fly out of Papua New Guinea. The first port of call was Cairns, a far north Queensland tropical city and popular tourist destination about an hour twenty minutes flight by Qantas Link from Port
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| Mum and Peter with my favorite bar R&R in the background |
Moresby and approximately 45 minutes by Fokker 100 when there is a good tail wind. As they retold their story later to me, it was quite a nervous but exciting moment and by the time they landed in Cairns it was in uncle Peter's words "another planet" and " dream come true". My wife who flew out of Perth the night before (Thursday night) arrived in Cairns that morning (Friday 09/011/12) at 4:10 am, met them at around 10:50 am on their arrival and the
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| Mum and uncle Peter - Espalande waterfront |
remainder of the day was site seeing and taking photos around the city. At long last they had fulfilled their dream-to visit Australia - the country they and many PNGians consider as mother country and big brother in some
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| Aunty Maryanne Reily at Rusty's market |
sense because of it being a former colonizer of Papua New Guinea with long history and tradition between the two countries. Both mum and uncle Peter had vivid memories of September the 16th 1975 when the Australian flag was honorably lowered down for good and a new PNG flag proudly hoisted up high, signalling an end to years of colonial rule. Many wept openly at the departure of the Australians at that time and still hold that special day and history so dearly and closely to their hearts. The same could be said about mum and her brother Peter and their first ever 'settiing foot' on Australian soil was reminiscent of that special part of them. Much to their surprise was that Cairns has similar tropical climate and weather to PNG - it was hot and humid but that did not dampen their spirit of site seeing
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| Peter Sion posing at the waterfront -Esplanade |
and taking photos. My wife ( Joanne) took them to Rusty's Market where another surprise awaited them - auntie Marianne Reily ( from their side of the family) and Grace Duncan - a cousin of mine from my dad's side were selling buai, daka, taro and other items synonymous to
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| Peter Sion cooling off in a Cairns liquor bar |
PNG. It was a pleasant surprise for them as they did not expect it at all. Peter also managed to sneak into a Cairns pub and had a huge jar of beer and a few schooners from it to quench his thirst from Cairns sweltering tropical heat.
By 5 pm my wife had to make sure they all got to Cairns domestic air port and by 6:10 pm they taxied off the runway for their five hour Jetstar direct flight to Perth. In all it was an experience they could not stop talking about with my mum continuously joking about relocating to Cairns. A bet it is going to be a huge story when they finally depart Australia and retreat to their humble village of Ndranou.
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