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Being in Sydney for Christmas and New Year was fantastic! Not only did we get to spend it with family (unlike last year sitting in a Vegas hotel room), but we also had 3 whole weeks living in houses, and more importantly, sleeping in an actual bed!!
We returned to Sydney early so that we could house, mouse, and rat sit for Hayley and Gary while they went on a well-deserved break to Tasmania. And we were very pleased to have Hayley and Gary return to a house in one piece, and all rodents still alive! There was one mouse that died just before they left for their flight but we are pretty sure we had no hand in its demise!
Upon their return we then took up residence in the rather beautiful suburb of Balmain, house and fish sitting for Hayley's friends Devon & Mike, who had headed off to New Zealand for Christmas and New Year. Again, we are pleased to announce that upon their return, the house was in one piece and all fish were still alive. A facebook post a couple of days later got us worried however with Devon announcing that the fish had all "moved on"!! s***, we killed them??!!!! Thankfully no, they had actually moved on to a big pond in Ryde! Phew!!!
We awoke at 5am on Christmas Eve to head to the airport to collect Ollie's parents and brother who were all coming to Oz for a month to see us and their grandchild. Finally getting through customs at 8:30am we whisked them all away to Devon's house for breakfast (only after mopping up Mary's many tears at getting to see Ollie again), and then off up to Pearl Beach where they would be spending Christmas. For anyone who has not been, Pearl Beach is a beautifully hidden cove on the North shore of Sydney, and just the perfect little place to get away from the city life!
After ensuring that they were fully stocked up with food and wine, we left them to sleep off their jet lag and prepare for a Christmas surrounded by children! Whilst we headed back to get an early night to prepare for a wine and food filled Christmas with Hayley and Gary! And a wine and food filled Christmas it was too!! Enough food to feed the street, and enough booze to, well, no, enough booze!! Oh and of course many many, many games of Frisbee golf on the playstation which resulted in us all having very sore shoulders the next day!!
Between Christmas and New Year, we did very little! LOVING our new found status of being in an actual house, which meant we could spend copious amount of time sitting on an actual sofa, watching an actual TV!! But we did also manage to lift our butts off of the sofa and head to Pearl Beach for a night to see all the family, which was great!
New Year's Eve was spent at Devon and Mike's house, with Hayley and Gary coming over for a duck dinner, and a walk down to watch the fireworks over Sydney Harbour. However, half way down to the whalf, Sasha fell ill and had to rush back, and only got to see the fireworks on the TV!
With Devon and Mike returning from their holiday on 2nd January, it was time for us to hit the road again, and make our way down to Melbourne where we would be meeting to Mudd's for a week!
On our way down to Melbourne, we stopped at what has become one of our favourite free camping sites, just a couple of hours drive outside of Sydney, you come to Kangaroo Valley. There's a clue in the name, but not only did we come across wild kangaroos in the fields we were passing, where we stopped for the night were wallabys and wombats! One wombat taking quite a liking to the van in the middle of the night and using it as a scratching post! Queue us being woken by the van rocking backwards and forwards and heavy grunting coming from under the car! Well, at least we hope it was a wombat!!!!!
From there we headed to a free site in Gunning, next to a swimming pool, down to Canberra (boring!!) and then on into Victoria, slowly making our way to Melbourne, having yet another encounter with a bloody great huntsman that found its way inside the van!!!
Melbourne did not disappoint with its weather, we certainly experienced all the seasons in the time we were there. Wind and rain one day, and scorching 35'C heat the next!!
Meeting Ollie's parents and brother in Melbourne, we were truly spoilt!! Not only did we get taken out on trips that we would probably bypass due to cost, we ate out at proper restaurants nearly every night, with not a noodle sandwich in sight!! Packing in trips to the CBD, Victoria Markets, the Sky Tower (not one of Ollie's favourite locations!!), St Kilda, a brewery tour and the Melbourne Museum, it finally came time to say our goodbyes, and send the Mudd's on their way back to Sydney to then make their way back to the UK. And for us, the Great Ocean Road was calling.
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