WE hope everyone had a very merry Christmas and is now enjoying 2007. Over the last two weeks we have had a fun-packed time with Andy’s family travelling from Brisbane to Sydney through an array of weather, scenery and traffic!!!
In brilliant sunshine we spent Christmas Eve in Brisbane doing a little last minute shopping before heading off to soak up some rays at South Bank the artificial beach in the middle of the city. On Christmas Day our dinner was of course a barbeque, which we had outside Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary where Sara (Andy’s sister) got to cuddle a koala. It was great to have folks from home to share Christmas with.
We were determined to show Andy’s family as much of Oz as possible and to keep them as active as possible. It is safe to say after surfing in Byron Bay, canoeing in Bellingen, an icy cold swim at Dangar Falls in Dorrigo, a scuba dive in Port Stephens, horse riding at Anna Bay, Port Stephens, and a great deal of walking we achieved our goal. I think they will need another holiday when they get back to the U.K.
Of course it wasn’t all physical endurance, as we also took them on a wine tour in the Lower Hunter Valley where we did our duty and sampled the local produce, taking a few more samples home with us.
We also stopped to admire the wildlife while we were in Port Stephens, taking a dolphin cruise and watching these beautiful creatures swim beside and in front of the boat. Sara got to appreciate life under the sea with her very first scuba experience. She was absolutely buzzing afterwards and I’m pretty sure she will be donning mask and fins again in the future.
Our final stop before getting to Sydney was the Blue Mountains, where we cruised through the rainforest in Katoomba, and jumped on the world’s steepest railway- a remnant of the areas coal-mining history. The railway was originally used to transport coal up the mountain. Here the weather took a turn for the worse and was decidedly unpleasant and caused us all to reach for our raincoats.
But we got to see the views before the clouds moved in, adding to stunning vistas of the Great Dividing Range at Dorrigo and the sand dunes of Stockton Bight at Port Stephens.
We are now in Sydney and will be waving goodbye to the folks on Friday. We leave Oz ourselves on Sunday for three weeks in New Zealand, as usual we will keep you updated.
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