Last July Hugh’s mom called and asked if we’d like to go to Australia with her. It’d be a tour, she said. We’d be in Australia and New Zealand for two weeks, and although we’d be traveling in March and April, we’d be enjoying autumn there. Of course we said we’d love to go and started reading everything we could find on the Down Under countries.

Now for the rub... Hugh and I are not tour folks. We like planning our own trips, going alone, staying longer times. We eat when we want and come and go as we please. Reading the tour info, though, I’m beginning to understand we better become sociable quick and learn to love our 40 new friends. Since I’m writing this before we go, I’ll give you a rundown on what’s in store and will share our adventures when we get home.

We’re flying from Savannah to Atlanta to Los Angeles. We’ll then cross the International Dateline, losing a full day, and get to Sydney, Australia, where we’ll fly on to Cairns. While there, we’ll visit the Great Barrier Reef, a massive collection of coral ledges that are home to what they call “amazingly diverse marine life.”

The next day we’ll visit the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Center and learn about the native people, their dances and lifestyle. They say we’ll even learn to throw a boomerang or play the didgeridoo. (I’ve never been one to hit any target, much less have a boomerang zoom out of my hand and return to me ... and the didgeridoo? We were in Santa Fe once, and an Australian guy was playing one. It appeared to be excruciating work: blowing hard into a long wooden pole-like thing and getting the most awful noise. But who knows? Maybe we’ll be accomplished didgeridoo-ans when we return home.)

We visit a croc farm, see koalas, tour Sydney and attend a performance at the wonderfully designed Opera House. We’ll learn how raw opals are transformed from dark mine discoveries to “beautiful works of art,” and we’ll cruise on Sydney Harbour.

When we get to Queenstown, New Zealand, we’ll go on a gondola ride to the Skyline Restaurant, overlooking the city, Lake Wakatipu and the mountains. Another cruise will take us on “breathtakingly beautiful” Milford Sound. We will also take in Mt. Cook, New Zealand’s most famous national park. They say Mt. Cook is one of the world’s most impressive mountains, with monumental glaciers and “extensive snow-covered mountain top terrain.” That, for us, will be awesome.

We’ll visit Christchurch a couple of days before we leave. It’s called “the most English city outside of England” because of its gardens, cathedrals and parks. And then, for a real adventure, we’ll have dinner with a New Zealand family in their home. We’re told we’ll learn the customs of the “Kiwis‚” and are asked to bring a small gift from our area. That plagued me until I decided to take a tiny sweetgrass basket, one of our state’s art forms. Small gift problem solved!

Just before we leave, we’ll visit a farm to see sheep shearing and herding. That should be fun. We’ve seen contests on television where the sheep is wooly one moment and naked the next. Awesome!

Our last night we’ll have dinner in a restored mansion and learn about the first family of Christchurch. The next day, after bumming around town, we’ll be picked up for the trip to the airport. An interesting note is that we’ll fly from Christchurch to Auckland and will leave Auckland on April 7 at 5:55 p.m. and will get to Los Angeles on April 7 at 10:50 a.m.! Ain’t time and whipping around the globe wonderful?

We’ve decided to leave behind our fears of tour traveling. Hugh says it will be a reconnoitering venture, allowing us a “taste‚” of Down Under before our own “full meal.” Oooo! I like traveling with him!

Emily Clements, of Little Mountain, is a columnist for The Newberry Observer. The Bits & Pieces column appears the second Wednesday of each month.