By Edwina Fujimoto | Special to the Herald

We arrived in Sydney on Tuesday evening, July 8, and were transported to St. Joseph School in Toronto for an overnight stay. It was very cold even though we slept in a classroom with a heater.

The next morning we left for Nelson Bay. Everyone said we were the lucky ones because Nelson Bay is the most beautiful place in the diocese. At St. Michael School we met our host families. My family asked me and the girls with me what we wanted to do on Thursday. We wanted to see koalas and kangaroos, of course. So we went to Fauna Farms, a petting zoo, and found many others from Hawaii there for the same reason. It was lovely.

We petted koalas. Sleeping or awake, they welcomed our scratches. We also saw a water buffalo, camels, donkeys and familiar barnyard animals. But mostly there were kangaroos hopping around looking for handouts. It was awesome. There was even a joey in its pouch but it was sleeping and all we saw were the legs sticking out.

That evening we gathered with pilgrims from Malaysia, Canada and Australia for a barbie and Mass.

On Friday we all came together for an awesome prayer service and then set off for a hike up Tomarree Hill, which some of us preferred to call a mountain. At the top, the view was spectacular — a 360-degree vista of Port Stephens. On the peak we proudly flew the American and Hawaiian flags.

In the evenings, we would gather for dinner and liturgy at St. Michael’s or have dinner with our host family.

On Saturday we headed out by bus to Newcastle Foreshore for a corroboree, or gathering of the diocese. There we saw lots of pilgrims, food, vendors, and much praising of our God. The most memorable moment was when the diocesan cross, with an Icon of an aboriginal Madonna and Child, “surfed” the crowd. We all touched the cross and felt extremely blessed.

Later we wandered about meeting pilgrims from the United States, Taiwan, the Cook Islands, Norway, Colombia, England, South Africa, Belgium and countries I’m not sure how to spell, and traded souvenirs. It was a beautiful day. We even took off our jackets.

On Sunday, we celebrated the liturgy, received scarves knitted by St. Michael’s parishioners, and enjoyed a parish picnic. We will surely miss our Port Stephens families. They truly showed us how to witness to Jesus by their loving example. Their hospitality was over and above what we expected.

On Monday, we said our “a hui hous” with many hugs and kisses and headed out to the Tara Anglican School for Girls and King’s School for Boys in Parramatta where we would stay for World Youth Day activities. We shared Tara School with groups from Atlanta, Ga., and Laredo, Texas. King’s School was also shared with U.S. pilgrims.

We quickly learned the bus and train routes to Sydney and back. Though we had to make the last returning bus at midnight, we participated in many activities — the multi-cultural concerts, the dress rehearsal of Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis” at the Opera House, many catechetical presentations, as well as the large gatherings.

In Sydney, we were lucky and blessed with our assigned locations — G5 at Barangaroo which put us right up at the barricades for the Holy Father’s drive-by blessing, and J3 at Randwick which placed us at the barricades again.

At Barangaroo, Luci Lino and Lesili Sulunga held a sign that said “Papa Bene, Hawaii loves U.” Watching him drive by, pause to read the sign, and make eye contact made our standing in place for an hour and being squashed against the barricades totally worth it.

It was great! There was nothing but air between us and the popemobile both times. What a blessing to see his hand form the cross over us!