It’s been a while since we blogged – we’ve ,mainly catching up with friends & family and having our first experience of a hot Christmas (Odd. Very odd.). Might look like a lot but really we’ve been taking it easy and enjoying not having to be tourists every day.
Since our last post, we rounded off our trip to Western Australia with a couple of days in the vineyards of Margaret River rediscovering our inner (?) wine ponce. We dived on the wreck of HMAS Swan off the coast of Busselton an awesome (but cold) dive where you can actually get into the wreck and swim through it. Managed to loose our GoPro on the dive but by some miracle the guys at Dive Shed found it on the wreck at 30m next dive and sent it back to us.
On to Sydney where we stayed with our friends Elle and Brent and caught up with the Sydney branch of the Pearson clan (mascots not included!)
We did Christmas Eve fireworks whilst eating our bodyweight in seafood at Darling Harbour
Early morning swim on Christmas Day morning at Bondi (fricking cold)
….before spending the rest of the day with the clan – mum even managed to send us out Christmas stockings! So much for the roasting hot Aussie Christmas – it rained most of the afternoon!
We spent most of the time between Christmas and New Year chilling at the beach and in the excellent bars and restaurants around Bondi as the weather improved
NYE was VERY special – my Uncle David had sorted out a boat on the harbour for the night. Two sets of fireworks (9pm and midnight) and prime position to see them courtesy of our skipper who manoeuvred us into the best positions to see them. Such an awesome night – and thanks to Dave for making it happen
Straight after New Year we moved onto Melbourne where we’ve been staying with Rachel and Iain and the rest of the Wilson and Cowan families. Let’s just say we haven’t gone hungry for the past week or so – it’s been great to catch up with everyone here – we get treated like part of the family and it’s been lovely to spend time with them.
Our visit also coincided with the Bay Crits – one of the big events on the Australian cycling calendar. We managed to catch the last day and blogged about it for the Neutral Service women’s cycling website. Nikki was in great form with the camera and got some great shots including this one of multiple world champion Giorgia Bronzini winning the stage with Chloe Hosking in the background winning the event
What next?
We’re off to drive the Great Ocean Road for a few days before getting to Adelaide for the Tour Down Under (both men’s and women’s versions) and some more wine time in the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale.
Thanks to everyone that’s put us up over the last few weeks – been lovely to stay in proper homes again after 4 months in hotels and hostels!
Photo albums:
NYE fireworks on Sydney Harbour