Dear all!

Well the last 10 days have been really awesome and totally diverse! We have spent the last couple of weeks in Melbourne, the Whitsundays and Brisbane, meeting up with various friends and doing lots of crazy stuff.

We started in Melbourne with a trip down memory lane for Graam. We stayed in St Kilda very close to Luna Park, and hired a car to head down the coast to see the house where the Crichtons used to live! Not much has changed by all accounts according to Graam, and it was nice to see the old primary school, black rock, and Arthur's Seat!

In Melbourne City itself we managed to get in a visit to the MCG cricket ground, saw Flinders St station and the botanical gardens, but best of all, we managed to meet up with our lovely long lost scallies from back home!

On Valentine's day (Ahhhhh!) we all flew up to Proserpine on the north Queensland coast and went to Airlie beach where we stayed in a beautiful appartment overlooking the bay. The main trip was our boat trip out to the Whitsundays where we visited Whitehaven beach (THE most beautiful white pure sand on the planet!) swam with sharks (no joke!) and stingrays! We also togged up with snorkels and swam over beautiful coral reef and took pictures under the sea of brightly coloured fish!

We then flew down to Brisbane to be greeted by Catherine and Arthur Gerbanas who have very kindly been looking after us here in Brizzy. On the first night Catherine cooked an amazing veggie lasagne with additional lamb and gravy! (Wooop from the northerner!)
The house and setting has also been an amazing place for us to relax!

We spent the first day down the Gold Coast with Catherine and Arthur and their friends Steve and Maria, and daughter Melanie, who kindly offered to take us out on their boat! It was really plush with leather seats, and after speeding around for a while, we pulled up, dropped anchor and everyone started getting out nibbles and drinks! Our eyes were popping out of our heads!
Back on terra firma we then went to a gorgeous seafood place, where we sat outside on picnic benches and sampled oysters, MEGA prawns (which Catherine taught us to shell properly) and yummy grilled fish!
Later that night we were invited to the Suncorp stadium in Brisbane to see the Queensland Reds take on the Crusaders from NZ in Rugby. The Reds won - and Lynz got to see Dan Carter! A good night all round.

We're off to Asia tomorrow. Can't quite believe it has come round so quick but we are really excited!! Hanoi first stop....here we come!

Graam n Linds xxx