Fraser Island

Our trip to Fraser Island for Alex's Birthday! We hired a four wheel drive and drove along the sand tracks through the rainforest and up a 75 mile beach. On the way we stopped at crystal clear lakes, creeks, a shipwreck and various other sites.

Easter

We have had a great Easter break and have been rushing around exploring more of Oz with Jan and Mick. We went to Palm Beach on Friday and then in the evening met up with some long lost cousins of Mick's who live 5 minutes walk from our flat! They are great fun and we are going round to theirs for a BBQ tomorrow. On Easter Sunday our friends came round for lunch which was excellent and involved lots of chocolate and even more alcohol! We were even treated to one of Jan's homemade apple crumbles! Today we went to Bondi and had our first proper swim since Jan and Mick arrived although it was abit choppy and Jan almost got flattened by an oncoming wave. After a long walk around the coast we went up to the south head and watched the sun set over the city.

Mum and Dad have arrived!

We have been having a great time with Mum and Dad and have spent the last few days in a place called the Hunter Valley a couple of hours north and inland. We hired a cottage on a golf course and spent 3 days drinking at the wineries, soaking in the hot tub, hitting a few golf balls on the driving range and Alex treated herself to a massage at the best spa in Australia!

Today we spent the day driving and walking around the area we live exploring places we haven't been able to because we haven't had a car. We have been on some amazing walks around the cliff heads with views of the city in the distance and then finished the day with a BBQ on the terrace drinking Moet and sparkling red wine from the Hunter Valley!!

Unfortunately we are back to work tomorrow and Mum and Dad are off to the Blue Mountains but its only a 4 days week because of Easter and then we have another 6 days off!

Weekends in Manly

QM2 meets QE2

Queenscliff

We are now settling into life down under. This weekend we went up to Summer Bay where Home and Away is filmed, we didn't meet Alf but bumped into some friends and had a great time. Today has been spent battling the waves and dodging the blue bottles (jellyfish) at our local beach in Queenscliff where we live.

It's back to the world of work for Alex tomorrow, starting her new HR contract role in the city. Alex can look down at me from the 41st floor of the building next door to my office!

On Tuesday the QE2 and QM2 arrive in Sydney Harbour so we'll head down after work to see the action and the fireworks.

This is a picture of our block of flats (the one with the washing hanging out is ours!!) and the other is Summer Bay.

Happy Australia Day!!

My first working week has been a four day week thanks to Australia day! After a couple of hours down at Manly beach we headed over to Sydney Harbour to join in the celebrations. We found a great spot overlooking the Opera House and the harbour bridge and tucked into a picnic with some friends and Alex's mate Laura from Bournemouth.

The rest of the weekend has been spent down the beach trying to surf on the board our landlady left in the garage for us (I had my first lesson this morning), bbq'ing, and having fun!!

Back to work tomorrow but bring on next weekend!!

We have arrived!!

We arrived in Sydney last Tuesday, found a flat on Wednesday and moved in on Monday. Since then we have been rushing around like mad people sorting out all those exciting things you need to sort out when you set up a home! But we love the flat and it has a spare room so everyone is welcome! It is 3 minutes walk from Manly beach with sunset views of Manly lagoon (see photo). The flat is furnished with everything (dishwasher, plasma tv and dvd player!!) but our boxes of stuff that we are having shipped over do not arrive until March so it doesn't really feel like home yet!

We have only made it to the beach once and within 2 minutes of going in the life guards were calling everyone out! Fortunately it was a rip and not a shark but we were out of the water in seconds!

Our mates Hazel and Kev have been entertaining us and already we have had a 1st beach barbie and clifftop picnic. Steve starts work on Monday so we are enjoying our last few days of no work!

Kanchanaburi

We hired a car and drove up to Kanchanaburi, it was great to be in the luxury of our own car after so many bus journeys over the past few weeks. Unfortunately we followed the Lonely Planet's instructions to our Hotel which sent us over the wrong bridge and it took us almost an hour of driving up and down the road looking for it before we realised this and got on the right road!! The hotel was lovely and worth the drive though.
The town had a tragic role in WW11 as a Japanese run POW camp where many British soldiers died. We went to Death Railway Bridge made famous from the film The Bridge over the River Kwai. We also visited a War museum and an Allied War Cemetery that was immaculately kept.

To get us back in the holiday spirit we went to a beautiful National Park the following day and trekked up a Waterfall.
The journey back was fine apart from my navigating skills into Bangkok!

Tomorrow we are off to Sydney where the hard work will begin again.

Happy New Year!

Well the three of us were sitting in my Dad's living room having a pre meal drink...we were half way through the 2nd bottle of bubbly when Dad got a phone call advising that some bombs had just gone off in the centre of Bangkok and all the large new year celebrations had been cancelled. Fortunately we had not booked to go to one of these parties so rather reluctantly I was persuaded that everything would be fine and we should still go into the centre to the restaurant we had booked. The meal was delicious and after another bottle of wine we decided to brave it further and go to an outdoor bar on the 52nd floor of a hotel next door. It was certainly worth it as the views were amazing over Bangkok but I did jump abit when the fireworks and Chinese fire crackers went off! On the taxi ride home we drove past a road with police cars and ambulances, we found out later that another bomb had gone off there.

The 2007 Happy New Year Hotel Hop
Abit bleary eyed, we went and had brunch at The Shangri-La (I won the competition to get the most of the eat as much as you like buffet eating 4 main courses and 5 puddings!!) This was followed by a trip to the other side of the river for tea at The Peninsula and then cocktails at The Oriental. It was nice to see how the other half live!!!

We are hiring a car and heading out of the city tomorrow for a couple of nights to explore some more of Thailand.