quote:

Originally posted by Missie: 7/7/08
We are experiencing a few problems with some pilgrims arriving in Adelaide. They have booked their flights into Adelaide then out of Sydney thinking that Adelaide is a suburb of Sydney. There has been a mad scramble to raise money to purchase airline tickets to get these people to Sydney for the main event next week.

Missie - I've only just seen this post. Did they all get to Sydney safely?

quote:

Originally posted by Mallee:

quote:

Originally posted by Missie: 7/7/08
We are experiencing a few problems with some pilgrims arriving in Adelaide. They have booked their flights into Adelaide then out of Sydney thinking that Adelaide is a suburb of Sydney. There has been a mad scramble to raise money to purchase airline tickets to get these people to Sydney for the main event next week.

Missie - I've only just seen this post. Did they all get to Sydney safely?

Hi Mallee,

Yes everybody arrived safe and sound and very excited, they are in for a fantastic time.

quote:

Originally posted by Missie:
...
Yes everybody arrived safe and sound and very excited, they are in for a fantastic time.

Thanks Missie. There's certainly great excitement in Sydney.

Don't know if you people over there have heard that they're currently trying to track down at least 12 young pilgrims from India who came to NZ on their way to the WYD event in Sydney. It is believed they are purposely abxconding. They failed to meet their billets in Auckland.

quote:

Originally posted by travel freak:
Don't know if you people over there have heard that they're currently trying to track down at least 12 young pilgrims from India who came to NZ on their way to the WYD event in Sydney. It is believed they are purposely abxconding. They failed to meet their billets in Auckland.

Hi travel freak - no, I hadn't heard, and am so disappointed by the latest news that there are 32 gone missing, part of a big visa scam. They'd paid $11,000 and were supposed to pay more. And there are so many illegal immigrants in Auckland that they should be able to disappear! They don't even have their passports.

Nor had I heard that Australia had rejected more than 2,500 visas. Possibly because, like the missing Punjabis, the applicants were not Catholic, if you can believe what you read.

quote:

Originally posted by travel freak:
Don't know if you people over there have heard that they're currently trying to track down at least 12 young pilgrims from India who came to NZ on their way to the WYD event in Sydney. It is believed they are purposely abxconding. They failed to meet their billets in Auckland.

Hi travel freak, this is very hard to understand because most pilgrims would have been met at the airport??????

Missie ~ who are the pilgrims and what is the WYD event in Sydney?

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Originally posted by dalene:
Missie ~ who are the pilgrims and what is the WYD event in Sydney?

Forgive me for butting in, Missie - I do so in case you're not on the board for a while.

Dalene, the Pope is visiting Australia, and it coincides with World Youth Day 2008, being hosted by Sydney. A google on 'WYD' brings up 9 and a half million results!

The missing 'pilgrims' have hit the headlines in most if not all newspapers here.

Mallee ~ You are forgiven and thank you for answering dalene's questions.

There's about twelve that have hidden themselves in New Zealand, instead of flying to Sydney. They believe might be looking for asylum here.

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Originally posted by nation:
There's about twelve that have hidden themselves in New Zealand, instead of flying to Sydney. They believe might be looking for asylum here.

After seeing the beautiful photo's of NZ in the Picture gallery here on the board I don't blame them.

http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/4792462/indian-pilgrims-missing

I am not a great fan of WYD, however I do think it unfair to call the missing people pilgrims. From reading about them it seems they were using WYD simply as an excuse to get a visa. That does not make them pilgrims at all & is very unfair on the genuine.

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Originally posted by Dimpz:
I am not a great fan of WYD, however I do think it unfair to call the missing people pilgrims. From reading about them it seems they were using WYD simply as an excuse to get a visa. That does not make them pilgrims at all & is very unfair on the genuine.

Unfortunately this is a scam perpetrated by very undesirable people on very unfortunate people, I am sure the Catholic church is very concerned for all the young people involved.

If you are not a fan of WYD why do you care what they are called.

Missie: I believe today is the day WYD begins, and I wish all these young people and their hosts everything they wish for.

Many moons ago, we were driving West to Denver, Colo, to see our son and his family while young pilgrims from WYD were coming back East from the Pope's visit and we kept bumping into crowds of them at meal stops. What a lovely bunch of youngsters they were! that must have been about 14 years ago, cripes, because our grandson was a toddler and he's now sixteen.

Brenda