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Hello again everyone,
Happy Valentines Day!! Hope you're all having a nice romantical day!
Just an update of our travel news...
After Indonesia we flew back to Perth for 3 days where we headed south of Perth to go to Will and Suzie's wedding - we planted the seed over xmas and they busied away organising a wonderful wedding day! It was so lovely, the sun shone as they stood on a rock overlooking a beautiful beach to say their vows, then we all watched them canoe off around the bay! The reception was fab - lots of nice food and drink, and a nice small group of close family and friends on the deck of a gorgeous house in the bush (kangaroo thrown in for true aussie atmosphere) and a pretty sunset to top it all off. Sweet. Great excuse to buy that maxi dress i resisted before too - i needed it to cover my scabby leg!
Couldn't wear the shoes I got for xmas though, gutted.
Our plan was to get the train across to Adelaide (3 days and 2 nights in a cabin) but it was cancelled as a huge train derailled the day before - phew! Phew for us anyway, shame about the train the day before. Luckily it wasn't a people-carrying train so no-one was hurt. So we went into plan B and booked flights to Melbourne instead, deciding to miss out the Adelaide to Melbourne leg of the journey, in order to gain more time in Sydney. THEN we decided on a plan C! We were lucky enough to meet one of Suzie's friends at the wedding who's from Tassie, and after a few hours in the car together driving back to Perth, we had decided on a spontaneous trip to Tasmania! So plan C went like this;
Flew to Melbourne and hoped to catch up with my friend Emily, but unfortunately this didn't work out due to bad communication. Anyway, we had 2 nights in a pretty average hostel in Melbourne - complete with bunk beds with Aussie flag sheets! Nice. Paid $90 a night for the priveledge too! (We've decided to book ahead our hostel in Auckland so we don't get a dodgy place again!) But it was very central, and we were very impressed by the free tourist trams! We had a good ol' touristy day - went to the museum and had free guided tour, then had a stroll around, lunch out, and went down to St Kilda beach for the evening. Melbourne looked amazing, but it was slightly strange as it looked like autumn - all the leaves were yellow and orange, and on the ground, in mid summer! It was so hot, little did we know Victoria would have the worst bush fires in Australian history over the next week. Expect that's been on the news back home (just like the snow at home made headlines over here!), such a nightmare. We couldn't understand how whole communities could be wiped out, and kept asking how they weren't warned - but apparently the fires were moving at around 70km/h! Craziness. You just can't imagine how horrible it would be, there was no escaping for the poor people who lost everything.
Sorry, on a lighter note.. So Melbourne was nice but we were gutted we didnt see Emily, we probably wouldn't have gone there if we knew we weren't going to see her, but hey. Then we flew to Tasmania (I know - our carbon footprint must be MASSIVE by now! We do feel guilty and will promise to save the trees forever after this trip!) and stayed with Pooks (girl from wedding) and her hubby Sam, and their two really cute kids, Sonny and Coco. They have the most amazing house in Bream Creek, overlooking fields and the sea. Tasmania is so unspoilt and quite like a step back in time - how I expect NZ to be really. The people there are really laid back and it has a lovely relaxed feel about it. We hired a car and explored the coastline north and south of Hobart and Bream creek. There's so much more to see but we just didn't have time. It would be a great place to campervan around for a few weeks - maybe next time eh! On Saturday we went to the famous salamanca market, and also the Australian wooden boat festival. We ate some gorgeous seafood while we were there, including abaloney freshly caught (well, picked off the rocks) by Jimmy and Sam! They had a close encounter with an angry sting ray who chased them out of the water while they were diving for the abaloney! It was worth it though, even I enjoyed them - maybe it's because everything tastes nice if it's fried with butter and garlic? Stomache turned a bit after when i was told they are technically snails..
We also had a trip to the tasmanian devil park! there's a facial tumour cancer which is spreading between the devils through bites, and they bite eachother a lot while fighting for food, so bad news for the devil population. So the park has some captive and is breeding them, and nursing the ones dying from the horrible cancer. It's quite sad really, as they're quite sweet! We also saw a bird show (all injured birds, some who can't fly anymore, who have been rescued by the park) and saw the devil feeding time! It's actually not that pleasant seeing them tear apart a dead rat or possum. They are much cuter when they are sunbathing!
So that was Tasmania - i'd highly recommend it to anyone visiting this side of the world!
After our time in Tassie, we flew straight up to Sydney to stay with Nat, Jimmy's cousin, and her husband Alan, and their (also very cute) son Oliver! We've done very well out of having amazing houses and lovely people to stay with! They live north of Sydney in a place called Cheero point, on the Hawksbury river. It was great to meet Nat and family, and we had a relaxing few days with them. We took their neighbours' canoe out for a spin on the river, and had a little bush walk. Nothing too strenuous! Had a dip in the sea at the beach nearby, and ate some more good food! We were there until Thursday, then came down to Manly to stay with Toby and Kaiser (couple we met in Lombok). We've been a bit baffled by all the rain here, but it's been a good excuse to be a bit lazy! We took a trip into Sydney city yesterday, on the ferry from Manly. Unfortunately it rained all day so we didnt have the relaxing stroll around the harbour as planned! We took shelter in the IMAX cinema to see a 3D show about under the sea though! Caught up with a few of Jimmy's friends too - Will (Kiwi guy he met in Morocco for Lee's stag do a few years ago!) and "Spanky", a friend from the Uni days. Then we had a BBQ in the rain last night (proper Brit style!) and today's Valentines day! We took a trip down to Manly and had a stroll along the sea front and a romantic brunch out! Jimmy's just got back from a surf now and we're going to get ready to go out in Manly this evening! He's just told me they were told over the tannoy that a shark could have been in the water!!!!!!!!!!!!! Blimey, the waters here are SCARY! There have been 2 shark attacks the last 2 days in Sydney - one on a navy diver in the harbour (bull sharks love shallow warm water, and people, evidently) and one on a surfer at Bondi yesterday! Both guys lost their hand, and the navy guy also lost his leg I think. Both survived, unlike the poor chap in Perth over xmas. I think perhaps all our seafood eating is making the sharks hungry!
You must be very bored of my essays by now, has anyone read all of this? I do wonder....
Hope you're all well though and enjoyed all the snow! We're quite gutted we missed it all, but have appreciated the photos!
Lots of love to you all,
Lizzie and Jimmy/James x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
ps photos coming soon...
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