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From Wilson's Prom, we made our way across the rest of Victoria, staying at Lakes Entrance and a lovely new campground and catching up with Lorraine and Ken. We had some dodgy as well as lovely weather so we chilled out sunbathing, walking, eating delicious vanilla slices and apple tarts and generally having a lovely time before we headed further up the coast to Merimbula, Bermagui and Narooma and our final state - New South Wales! All these places are nice seaside resorts and should have surf but of course, like the general theme here, it was flat and the board stayed dry (boo hoo for Max) - there is more surf in Scheveningen than Australia!
We stayed a couple of days in Batemans Bay in THE best Big4 camp ground we have experienced. The facilities were fantastic and the bathrooms were like from a 5 star hotel. It was super hot so we spent time relaxing at the pool and reading and like usual these days, not doing that much! From Bateman's Bay we stayed in Ulladulla before heading to Kiama for a couple of days and then finally hit Sydney!
It was fantastic to see Sally (the custodian of the keys) and we had a 'home' for 3 weeks - yeah! We stayed in Darling Point which has lovely views across the bay of the Harbour Bridge, the city skyline and Rushcutter's Bay marina. It was just so lovely to have a bed, a fridge, tv and a bathroom all to ourselves! Our time in Sydney was great. As we have both been here before, we didn't have to rush around seeing and photographing everything. We could really relax and enjoy our semi-tourist status. Of course we visited the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House as well as Darling Harbour, China Town, Paddo bowls for some lawn bowling (tho we were rained off) as well as Bondi, the Botanical Gardens. Watson's Bay and the other usual suspects. We also went back to Max's favourite Chinese but the quality wasn't the same after 3 years!
Christmas and New Year were a little bizarre. I have spent every Christmas of my life at home with my family and we have a very traditional celebration..and this year I really missed it. However, we had a lovely day with Sally and Claire, Paul, Jen and Abe and Sally did a great Christmas roast, we played games, watched Miracle on 34th street and did Singstar - even Max had a go with the microphone...AND even managed to score some points with his not so 'in tune' tones :o)
New Year was also lovely. We spent the day in Balmain with Sally and her parents and brother who had just arrived from England and Paul, Claire and Jen and had a picnic and played games outside before we left around 8pm to go back to Darling Point and take up position on the balcony to see the fireworks and they were worth it! There were 12 minutes of beautiful colours and loud bangs and it was great to see the Harbour Bridge lit up. There were also pontoons placed along the river and they were just as good. As 2010 officially started, we had a good feeling about this year - 7 more countries to visit, a tearful reunion at home when we return, a new chapter at work, a wedding, honeymoon and finally a Christmas back at home where we belong! All that makes us super super happy!
The weather in Sydney had also been following the extremes we have been experiencing ever since we landed in Australia. It was the coldest Boxing Day ever recorded and it is also the wettest New South Wales for about half a century so we didn't always have blue sky and sun, more like white skies and cloud too thick for the sun to shine! It was always warm though so we made the most if it when we could.
Anna and Mark came back from England so it was great to catch up with them for a few days before we leave Oz and we had a bbq at Sal's (altho it rained) as well as a group outing to see 'Baila de Rua' at the Sydney Opera House which was fantastic. We also met up with Steve who moved out here about 9 months ago and had a good catch up over lunch.
The main thing we needed to do was sell the car and we did so that was a big relief as it wasn't easy and we could then relax and look forward to the month long New Zealand trip. The 22,000 km driving trip around Australia has been amazing. We have seen and done some great, great things. My favourite places are Kalbarri on the west coast, with it's beautiful national park and lovely seaside town, Karijini National Park in central Western Australia, with its beautiful national park and where Max proposed and finally, the Adelaide Hills and Barossa Valley in South Australia with their beautiful vineyards, German villages and great food - if you are ever there you must go to Hahndorf and experience Otto's amazing vanilla slices :o)
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