Sunday 7th January 2007. Sydney. NSW.

This morning I awoke to a call from my dear friend Alice. It was so wonderful to hear her voice and to catch up on all that has been happening with my friends and relations at home in New York.

I want to begin today's blog by officially saying Hi from Down Under to the new group of students participating in the project at the Learning Center in Little Valley, NY. It is summer here in Oz and I believe it is a little like summer at home with very little snow this year and a ski season that is almost non-existent...So while I bask in the sunshine, I am praying for snow for you guys!

Today I am off to the Southern Highlands to have lunch with Ben's grandparents in Berrima. Enroute we drive through the Lighthorse Interchange which I am informed is a modern monument to the last full cavalry charge in history which took place during World War I and was conducted by the 6th Australian Light Horse Regiment. Roughly 2000 commemorative red batons up to two metres high ‘sprout’ from native grasses on the median strips of both the M4 and M7 motorway interchange approaches, to signify the predominant regimental colours of red and green.

After a tour of the beautiful Georgian village of Berrima we head out to Badgers Hill for lunch. The property is simply stunning. A most elegant country house breeming with antiques, old world charm and sophistication; where we enjoy formal drinks and lunch and I get to explore the beautifully maintained grounds and an English Rose Garden that any Home Counties property would be proud to possess.

Jean and Alan Terrell are fascinating company and I am very proud to say that Alan's stories of his life and times as Australia's top aviator are even more remarkable than I had hoped for.

Alan Terrell was The Queen's pilot when she came to Australia and as well as flying Her Majesty around the great Southern Continent he also had the joy of flying The Queen internationally. For example, he flew Her Majesty into Tehran for lunch with The Shah in the days of the Peacock Throne.

Alan had the joy of inviting Her Majesty to join the flight deck. Although she did not accept the offer she did invite Alan to join her in her compartment to have a chat. He tells a wonderful story of how Her Majesty began by asking about the progress of the flight and spent the remainder of the half hour one to one chat talking about Alan and his family. As you enter Badger's Hill along with family photographs proudly and rightly displayed on the hall table is a personally signed photograph of The Queen and Prince Phillip.

Alan was the first Australian to fly Concorde as a test pilot for a potential Qantas purchase and he flew the first ever tourist flight to Antarctica and described to me that his first sight of the continent was of an unexpected brown tinge before you hit the snow and the ice.

On that very first flight there were no restrictions (these were subsequently added when decisions were made about exactly what equipment etc to carry). Restrictions put in place volunteerily by Qantas were naturally formalised following the inaugural Air New Zealand flight which resulted in the crashing of the DC 10 and the loss of all life onboard.

The Erebus crash had 257 victims and was for New Zealand their equivalent of the Kennedy Assassination. Even today Kiwi's of that generation can tell you where they were on that fateful day in 1979. It is said that the Steward's Union in New Zealand still has a light burning for the victims to this day.

On that very first flight Alan "took her down to 10,000ft and at one stage flew over the pack ice flying down gorges with peaks either side".

The stories just keep flowing like the time Alan flew Gough Whitlam into China on an official visit just after the Nixon visit and in the days of ping-pong diplomacy.

Now well into retirement Alan still lectures two courses in aviation for New South Wales University. It was a joy and a privilege to meet him and dine in his home.

Our route home is via Bowral and Mittagong where I see the first war memorial I have ever seen to have been updated to include the "Afghanistan Conflict" and as it notes, "Gulf Wars I & II".