Saturday, January 06, 2007

Video's....New Year, Snake and Penguins!!

New Year Countdown.......Exciting!!

More Fireworks!!

Copperhead Snake.....

Puking Little Penguin!

Hope these are ok and your computers are fast enough to watch them!!

NEW YEARS EVE.....AND DAY!!


Emma and I went to catch a ferry in the morning, we just missed the 9.20 so had to wait for the 10.15..... Turned out ok as gave us time for breakfast. Had a cooked breaky which was quite good. After arriving in Sydney around 11am we dumped some stuff at Lorraine and Graham's hotel before heading to an internet cafe to do a couple of things and where Emma could put her pictures onto discs. It all took quite a while, until about 1.30.
We then decided to just head to the botanic gardens to get information on our tickets and where we have to go etc. We had Lawn with The View tickets and discovered that we had a great spot right next to the Opera house, great view of the bridge. We found out our entrance was the Government House gates and that they open at 7pm so we should arrive 30-45mins early to queue. Only 600 people in our bit though. We wandered to find the entrance so we were all set for later and then as it was about 3pm we headed back to the hotel. Lorraine and Graham were at Bondi so we decided to get ourselves ready at their hotel. We took baths, ironed our clothes and Emma did her make up. Lorraine and Graham arrived back and after Lorraine had been for a swim they got themselves ready as well. Decided to leave the hotel at 6 to walk down.
When we arrived at our entrance there was a bit of a queue and because it wasn't managed too well we ended up a little nearer to the from than we should've been, oh well. Well we queued for quite a while and then around 7.10 they opened the gates. We walked in, confirming our tickets on the way and being given our food vouchers. We were also given bright pink wrist bands, free glow sticks and a free calendar thing - from channel 10.
We wandered all the way down to our great area and picked the perfect spot to see the fireworks. We laid out our 2 picnic blankets which Lorraine and I sat on while Emma and Graham went off to get the food and some drink. They came back with a cardboard box each. Each box contained a menu, wooden knife and fork, rolls, bread sticks, crackers, fishy dip (really nice), leek quiche, chicken noodles and salad, walnut tart, fruit salad and cheese and biscuits - it was great, really tasty. We nibbled away at our food throughout the night along with drinking wine, it was all very relaxing!!We chatted and had a toilet break which included queuing obviously!!At 9pm we had the first set of fireworks, or the kiddies fireworks!! They were really impressive, just amazing. They went on for 5-10 minutes and gave us a taster of whats to come!!
We continued to chill out, listened to music, toilet again, had a possum run past, watched the boats - which were all lit up and just had a very enjoyable time.It started to get close to midnight, it was exciting!!We got our champagne ready, bucks fizz for me, and watched the bridge. Finally the countdown appeared and we all joined in 10,9,8,7.......1 and the bridge just lit up with fireworks, all amazingly timed, we then had fireworks going all over the place around us, including on hotel roofs. Then the bridge would go crazy again with more fireworks, it was fantastic and went on for about 15 minutes - incredible. We all wished eachother happy new year. The theme for this years fireworks and new years event was Diamonds (75 years of the Bridge) and Emeralds (as in Emerald City....Wizard of Oz). All of a sudden, at about 12.30 I looked around our area and there were hardly any people left....they'd all packed up and gone home!!! We had to be out by 1am.
So we all headed out, with Graham suddenly a little drunk!!! Funny. We walked back to Lorraine and Graham's hotel where Graham went straight to bed so Emma and I headed off to catch a bus back to Manly. When we got to the bus station we were told there had been a fire somewhere so buses were running a bit late. We had to wait about an hour but then we jumped on one and sat down. We got to Manly about 3am and started walking back to our castle, the taxi queue was a bit big, when my phone rang and it was Mum and Dad - so I chatted to them while walking with Emma and suddenly we don't know where we are. I asked Emma where we are and she said she was following me and because I was chatting on the phone I assumed she'd take us the right way. I worked out where we should go and we got back onto our road, found Manly beach though!! Got to bed around 4am!! It was a really enjoyable night!
We woke up around 10am when Emma's Dad rang. I got up and dressed and then went to phone home just before 11am as it would be their New Year then, chatted to them for a bit and brought in the new year over the phone which was nice. There were a few people waiting to call home so I cut the call a little short as felt bad, although I shouldn't just because I was organized!! Ha ha...
We jumped on a ferry and wandered a little around the harbour. Then Emma headed off to do her bridge climb and I walked round to Darling Harbour to go to the Sydney Wildlife World, which is quite new. It was quite enjoyable. All Australian wildlife. They had a butterfly section, insects, spiders, reptiles, kangaroos, wallabys, koalas, wombats, possums......was really nice and chilled and not too busy unlike the aquarium that had people queuing out onto the harbour!!
I than wandered the botanic gardens, there was some concert on. Was nice walking around.
I then popped into a shop, had some fruit and chilled.
By then it was 6ish so I decided to head to the bridge climb to see if Emma was finished yet. I found her in the giftshop, she said she had a really good time. We wandered to Lorraine and Grahams hotel and chilled there until heading to Manly where we all had dinner (was raining). The place we ate messed up the bill so worked out nice and cheap.
After dinner Lorraine and Graham caught a ferry back and Emma and I got a taxi to our castle!!
A nice relaxing New Years Day!

I do have a couple of videos which I will try to put up!!
xxxxxxx

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Melbourne - Sydney


Boxing day was not very eventful. We were in Melbourne still, popped to St Kilda Beach, wandered around there, Emma and I packed our stuff up and we had a meal out on Lygone Street. Very nice.
On Wednesday 27th December 2006 Emma and I got up ready to leave. We said goodbye to Rod and Tracey and picked up L&G.
We drove down towards Phillip Island and stopped in San Remo where we had fish and chips and, Dad this will disappoint you, Lorraine and Graham took great pleasure in feeding a load of seagulls - I have photo evidence!! Fish was great, nice bit of Barra. So after that fun we drove over onto Phillip Island.
We explored the Island a bit and stopped in a few little towns including Cowes. We headed to the Koala Conservation Centre. We got in there and walked along the raised walkway area where we saw quite a few koalas, there were 6 or 7 in there so good stuff. A highlight for me though was seeing a wild copperhead snake on the ground below the walkway. We watched it for quite a while, they are venomous(sp??) but have small teeth so if you have shoes or jeans on etc they wouldn't get through. That was cool and it was quite active - exciting!!
We then walked round the woods. Lorraine, Graham and Emma were walking a bit fast to spot koalas so I slowed down and looked around, I saw about 7 round the woods and one baby put on a little show for me by climbing right to the top of the tree whiles its mum watched from below.
I really enjoyed it and met the others back in the gift shop. We all got into the car and drove to Seal Rock.
Emma was tired so she stayed in the car. Graham and I walked round the walkway (although kinda separately as he was originally waiting for Lorraine). Seal Rock is quite far away from the shore but could kinda make out things on it..... The coast was really nice again. I bumped into Graham on my way back and he said that there were some of the little penguins under the boardwalk so we headed back that way and I laid down and got a couple of photos of them standing under there, that was cool. When we got back to the top there were some under the boardwalk there as well. You can't take photos of them while they are doing their parade in the evening as you can't use the flash so it was good to get pictures.
We popped back to Cowes and had a look round the night market there, had dinner and then headed for the Penguin Parade at 7.30pm. We looked round the gift shop and then walked along the boardwalk to the beach and raised seating area looking out to sea. Every evening the penguins come into land to their homes to rest and sleep, some of them walk miles!!
We had quite a while to wait but at 9ish the penguins began to emerge from the water, there were also seagulls just standing on the beach watching!! You would just notice a little group of them just on shore getting ready to make a run for it and then a seagull would just move slightly and they'd all turn and jump back into the sea!! Quite funny. We sat and watched quite a few groups. Once they had began moving they then had to tackle a pile of seaweed then had the rest of the beach and then onto grass and hills!! There was a group of 3 which were funny to watch. Sometimes a group would've made it over the seaweed and almost to the end of the beach when one penguin would panic and run all the way back down, over the seaweed and into the sea!! Not too clever. They were funny to watch because if they were lagging in the group you could see them really struggling to keep up.
After watching them for quite a while we walked back along the boardwalk where we could watch them there going along side or under it. I asked one of the ladies that worked there if we bothered them but she said they'd normally live near a seal colony where they would have the threat of being eaten and the seals are really loud so that's good to know, well maybe not the eaten bit! They are such tiny cute penguins!!
We left at about 10.30pm and drove off the island in search of somewhere to sleep for the night. Everywhere seemed closed, until about midnight and we were all sat in the car outside one and Graham called the number - they had room thank god. Straight in and to bed!!
The next day was mainly a driving day. We left at 9ish and drove through Sale, got breakfast, and Bairnsdale.
We drove to Lakes Entrance where we stopped for lunch. it was quite a nice little town with lots of Black Swans, a few wooden sculptures and a river/lake! Lorraine, Emma and I walked down along the shops, got an ice cream each. Graham drove!!
Emma and I got the Dirty Dancing Soundtrack for the next section of the drive, being fed up of Rod Stewart, Don Williams and David Cassidy with the Partridge Family - god knows why....!! We drove through Orbost and onto Eden where we thought we'd stay but everywhere had no vacancy and when we asked anywhere noone thought we'd have any luck!! Oh dear. We drove on to Merimbula which was much the same. We eventually found a room in a caravan type site. Thank god! Just went for dinner then bed.
The next morning we got up and left by about 8.30am. We stopped in Bega for some breakfast, it was good, I had some scrambled egg with mushrooms on toast....yummy!
We drove on and turned onto the Snowy Mountain Highway towards Canberra. We stopped at a lookout and it was really cold, I could see my breath!! We pretty much just drove all the way to Canberra, arriving there just around lunchtime.
We drove around a little bit, really quiet place, and then went up the hill to the Telstra Tower - good views. Lorraine and Graham went up the top of the tower but Emma and I didn't. It was a nice warm day....
We went off to find somewhere to stay and after looking in a book, calling somewhere and checking out their rooms we were unpacking the car. Stayed at the Forest Inn.
We decided to do a load of washing before heading out for a wander so we got that sorted out. It started to rain so Emma and I ran to the laundry to put the washing on but then didn't have enough change, and it was really raining hard now, so we jumped in the car and drove round to reception for change. We headed back and just as we parked up the hailstones started.....Big bloody hailstones.... Emma and I were stuck in the car!! They were banging so hard on the roof that we had to shout to be heard by eachother!! We sat for quite a while before Emma thought up a plan, she would drive up close to the laundry door and I could jump out and put the washing on.... Seemed ok so we got the car as close as we could and after a moment hesitation I jumped out, slipped, fell over and caught my fingers under the machine.... I was stuck, Emma was shouting from the car to see if I was ok.... Luckily I dislodged my fingers kinda looked back in a "I'm still alive" way and after putting the coins in the machine I decided to rinse my fingers under cold water - always fixes things doesn't it!! I eventually jumped back into the car, which was now a little wet, as was I, since I'd left the door open - ha, and we drove round to our door. Well that was an exciting event.....and do you know the most annoying thing!?! When we went to check the washing later, although I'd put the coins in the slots I didn't push them in!! All that for nothing! Oh well gave me a little story about the massive hailstone storm in Canberra.
Well we couldn't do much while the weather was like this so we just chilled, showered and ate nibbles while we waited for it to pass.
We all got changed ready for dinner and at about 7pm were able to go out. We headed up to the Parliament House, looked around the outside, took photos and did a full circuit before heading to where all the restaurants were - so we'd been told. The place was dead, hardly any cars, streets were empty.....Ghost town. We walked a little way to the street and when we arrived there it was buzzing - this is where all the people were!!! Strange place...
Quite a few of the restaurants on one side of the street were flooded due to the storm so we picked a corner one which seemed ok. We had a nice meal there, except for Grahams hard potato (which they did nothing about), and then headed back to our room. We all went to bed, I watched a little TV before I dozed off as well.
We left Canberra at 7.30am, sorry that we weren't able to see more, and drove off through Goulburn to Sydney - was quite excited about returning to Sydney.
We got into Sydney and to Lorraine and Grahams hotel with no problems, we unpacked everything there and then returned the hire car....
And so we were in Sydney. We spent a little time wandering, had lunch and took Emma down to see the Bridge and Opera House, so much busier than when I was here in July - something to do with the weather maybe!? We wandered around the harbour. We also decided to go onto a Jet Boat, we booked it and got a family ticket(Emma and I under 16!!), so after a short wait we headed down to the jetty thing. We were given out waterproof poncho, stored our things and then jumped into the boat. Emma, Lorraine and I were in the front. This was good fun and by now the sun was out and warm. We headed out the harbour where we did emergency stops and spins, we weren't too wet so that was ok. We headed under the bridge and did another spin, this was when a little kid complained about not being wet enough......that was it. We went back under the bridge where another emergency stop took place and we got drenched!!! Got in my poncho so I had a nice big wet mark on the front of my top....lovely! It was still great fun.
We all jumped out, grabbed our stuff and Lorraine and Graham decided to get the ferry round to Darling Harbour, Emma and I decided to walk round and said we'd meet them there.
We walked through the Rocks and up to Darling harbour, picking up an ice cream on the way. We still bet them there so we waited. Apparently the ferry's were so busy!
Once they arrived we all just got a drink and then chilled drinking it. We discussed that we all felt a little burnt, we were... We got the monorail back to the city.
We got to their hotel, sorted our stuff out and looked at our burn marked, put cream on!! Oh dear! Emma and I left around 5/6ish, walked down to Circular Quay and jumped on a ferry to Manly. It took about 30 minutes and when we arrived we had no idea where our hostel was so after a couple of phone calls we jumped in a taxi bound for the castle on the hill!!
When we arrived it was pretty impressive, normally a management college, its over 100 years old (old for Australia) and looks like something from Harry Potter. We got our room, dumped our stuff and headed for some dinner. Much to Emma's annoyance (sorry Emma) we walked down the hill and grabbed some food down there. Food was good although the service was crap! No tip there... We walked back up the hill and after chatting a little went to bed.
Hope you are enjoying!!!
Dawn
xxxxxxxx

CHRISTMAS DAY!!


Well I got up early today (did fall asleep at like 9pm!). I was up at 7.30, as was Emma, and we watched Mickeys Once Upon a Christmas!! Although I missed alot of it as Mum and Dad called so I chatted to them for a while, opened my pressies from them which was a bracelet and a Robbie photo, negative type thing. I liked it!! Thank You!!
Rod and Tracey got up about 9am and Rod was excited so opened a couple of pressies with them. They got us a metal water bottle each and a colouring book with crayons to share!!
Emma went off to pick up Lorraine and Graham. When they arrived we opened all of our gifts!! I got sweets and photo album from Maureen, thank you very much - sweets were a little melted!! A Calender from Fran and David, very nice thank you Fran, a bag from Nana and Grandad, thank you very much. Quite alot of random things from Lorraine and Graham or Santa....not sure. Things like belt, gardian angel badge, mobile phone xmas accessory, sweets, bath things so it was all quite nice. Thank you very much Lorraine and Graham. Now I know Daniel organised something but it hadn't arrived in time, it has arrived there now and I will be going to collect things from them soon. Thanks to everyone who sent something as it was all very unexpected. I also received a christmas card from John and Mandy, thanks guys!
Anyway back to Christmas Day......we eventually got to breakfast, a cooked one which was really good and we got to have poppers and crackers with it - yay!!
It was quite a miserable day with rain and then freaky hailstones, which gave us a bit of a white christmas and it did feel a bit like home as I was cold!! We had the fire on!!
We had a really chilled out day really. I drank pimms and we started to play scattergories, dinner interupted us but I am not complaining about that. The dinner was really good. Turkey with all the trimmings and some extra like pumpkin... It was really tasty so again thanks to Rod for all his hard work in the kitchen with that! Poppers and crackers again!
Mum and Dad phoned again as it was now their christmas morning so chatted for a bit. we then returned to scattergories, quite a funny game and as the night went on and the more drinks we had the stupider the answers got.
It was really fun actually. Kristine phoned me right at the end of the game so we chatted a bit and when I came back they had added all the scores up, I came second.....yippee....!!
We watched the Queens Speech, think that might be the first time I have!! They started to play Jenga.
Lorraine was falling asleep so her and Graham got a taxi around midnight. We chatted for a while and went to bed about 2am.
Thanks so much to Rod and Tracey for welcoming me into their home especially over Christmas, I really enjoyed it.... I bet my Dad will be pleased since Tracey got me watching Cricket!!
Hope everyone had a great Christmas Day!!
Dawn
xxxxxxxx

Christmas Eve, Neighbours Tour!!!!


We were up early and ate breakfast quickly.... We then headed down the the Neighbours centre to meet Lorraine and Graham. We were a little late as it seemed to take ages, at least we didn't miss it!!
Well, finally, all of us British people were picked up by our bus (we didn't get the neighbours bus!!). We headed out of the city watching music videos of the neighbours stars, Emma and I singing merrily along!! There was Holly Valance (sp?), Delta Goodrum, Stefan Dennis, Kylie and Jason (of course), the twins and Craig MacLaughlin - funny stuff!!
Our fist stop was Erinsbough High School which is actually an English school. I think Lorraine and Graham felt a bit crazy stopping to take photos of some random school!!! We had to get pictures on the stairs they always use for class, where they have lunch normally and under a wooden thing where Skye and Lana kissed!!! Well Emma wanted us to kiss for the photo under there but I was having none of it!!! Watch her.....
After also having our photos taken with the school sign out the front, exciting stuff, we jumped back on the bus and headed to the street. It is actually called Pin Oak disappointingly but we all know it as Ramsay!!! It is really tiny with only the 5 or 6 houses they use on the show on the entire street!!
We got taken round each house by our guide who talked about each one and said who'd lived there through the entire show, right back to the start - now there are some names I haven't heard in a long time!! It was all quite interesting and also cringe worthy when he'd mention some of the old storylines!!!
After he'd done each house we went off to take photos, now I was rather excited and didn't realise I would be!! It was great! We took photos with and without the Ramsay Street Sign which was like gold dust out there among us Brits!! A few lads were really excited and it was funny watching them, think they planned to try and keep the sign!! ha ha
We were also driven past the studios, but didn't get to go in which rather annoyed me. The guy just pointed out the rooftops of Lassiters etc and showed us where all the interiors where filmed. He told us some funny facts like it was going to be called No through Road or The People That Live Next Door before thankfully someone came up with Neighbours!
We were then driven to St Kilda where we got to meet a star - yes another one and we met Jannelle, not so great for L&G as they've not watched it in years, she was really nice though so it was ok. Some spoilers - Toadie is shot but survives and him and Steph get together, Lynn leaves for her honeymoon alone and doesn't come back, Stingray dies after a bone marrow transplant for Skyes baby........ Exciting stuff!! Izzy is Preggers in London with what she claims is Karls baby!
Anyway after watching a couple of old episodes on the way home, Harold and Madges Wedding and Daphne(sp?) having the baby!!, we were dropped in town again - what a great tour!!! I know I am sad...
Emma and I left L&G shopping for a bit and headed to Rod and Tracey's with our gear and the car!! We wrapped some pressies, popped to the shop and put up some decorations!!
L&G came later for a BBQ, although it wasn't really BBQ weather, and we had Shrimps on the Barbie which were great and also salmon and salad, very yummy - thanks to Rod!!
I went to the room pretty early and fell asleep really early as well, must've been tired!! And so Christmas Eve was over.....you know what that means!!!

Adelaide and The Great Ocean Road


Well Emma and I caught a flight to Adelaide on 18th December in preperation to meet Lorraine and Graham on 19th December. We arrived at Melbournes Avalon airport, a big porta cabin!!, about an hour before our flight was due to leave so we checked in and waited...
The flight was straight forward and quick. We arrived in Adelaide around 10.30ish, remembering that we had to put our clocks back half hour! We had an interesting first night as we were put in a dorm where there were too many people for the number of beds so poor Emma got woken up in the middle of the night with some guy saying it was his bed!! She got to stay in the bed, after getting up, dressed, packed and going downstairs!! Shame!!
Anyway the next morning we got up and moved hostels, checking into a rather nice YHA so that was good. We went to the market, had breakfast and then chilled in the hostel - when I say chilled I mean fell asleep!! We woke up in the afternoon and it was so hot!
Showered and changed before heading to look at the botanic gardens which were really pretty as are most of the botanic gardens in Australia.
We headed back to the hostel for a bit before going for dinner and then catching the bus to meet Lorraine and Graham from the airport! We met them off their flight at around 9ish. Lorraines case was missing - bit of bad luck as the day before her handbag had already been stolen!! Not a great start to their holiday but once they'd checked into their hotel we headed out for a few, much needed, drinks. We just chatted for a bit and had a nice evening before heading off in our separate directions to bed.
The next day we were also staying in Adelaide so after we'd all met up we headed to the beach at Glenelg, taking the tram there. It was a nice hot day. We walked down to the end of the pier, had some fish and chips and spent way too long in a shop called cheap as chips - playing with things and taking photos!! I put on a fat suit, looked good!!
We then relaxed in Lorraine and Grahams room before heading out for some dinner. We choose a chinese restaurant, my food was great but we were all so tired so once we'd eaten we just all wanted to get to bed and sleep!! Oh dear....
The next morning Emma and I checked out of the hostel and stored out bags. We then showered at L & G's hotel and they all went off to collect the hire car!! They took quite a while to get the car, and come back to collect all the bags and me, so I amused myself for the hour or so it took!
We were then able to start our journey. Our first stop was the Barossa Valley where we had a bit of trouble finding our first winery - Jacobs Creek!! We eventually did find it and parked up. We pretty much got right to the wine tasting!! We tasted quite a few wines and a port. Emma was driving so she was limited. I enjoyed the Sav Blanc (sp??) the best, the port was really fruity and I didn't like the rose or sparkling at all!! It was fun though, I have never done wine tasting before (hardly anyone spits it out you know!!). We were there for quite a while tasting our wines.
Our next stop was the Penfolds winery to taste a few. We only tried a couple and one of them was really nice - really odd name though (maybe Lorraine will remember!?!). We weren't there as long, staff weren't as friendly as at Orlando winery (Jacobs Creek).
We stopped in a little town for a bit of a late lunch, 3pm!! Was quite sweet.
We then headed off towards Hahndorf where we had planned to stay the night. Hahndorf is an old German village. We did begin driving through the Adelaide Hills but our map was very limited and didn't make much sense so we had to head via Adelaide instead!! We got to Hahndorf around 7pm parked the car and went for a wander - most things were closed. Its quite a quaint looking town with a bit of character! For some reason we seemed to ask in the motor inn furtherest from where we'd parked the car but at least we found somewhere!! A little chalet type thing, open plan. Well what happened but it started to piss down with rain!!! We had to wait quite a while for it to die off and we were lucky, we then had to go and get the car!!
We got our stuff unpacked into the chalet and Emma and I had some dinner - buffet style which was ok, quite average! We played some pokies....it was fun because I spent $1 and came away with $10 not bad! Pokies are weird slot machine type things. Off to bed after that....
We all woke up quite early the next morning, Friday 22nd Dec in case you can't keep up!, and said good bye to Hahndorf. We drove until about 11 and then stopped at a roadside cafe/shop/video rental in Tintinarra and had a bacon and egg sandwich - it was good!
We headed towards the coast, passing through Kingston and Millicent before Mount Gambier. We stopped briefly at the Blue Lake in Mount Gambier which was beautiful. During summer months the lake turns an amazing shade of blue, above, and then in winter it returns to grey. Its something to do with particles that the sun reflect off??
We drove on to Port Fairy where we spent the night, stayed at The Dubliners - quite nice. We had a really nice meal at a little restaurant just next door and wine.... Very relaxing.
I don't think Emma liked the wine as I was woken at 3am with her loving the toilet a little too much - poor thing!!
The next morning we headed off to begin The Great Ocean Road!! The first section of the road doesn't follow right next to the ocean and is mainly cliffs etc. We stopped at London bridge, Arch, Blowhole, the twelve apostles (only about 6 left!) and a cave. It has gorgeous cliff coastlines and perfect walking weather so a bit blowy.
We drove through Apollo Bay and after that is when the road gets stunning and is following the coastline with its lovely beaches and perfect blue sea. Very windy but just stunning. We passed through a few small seaside towns.
At one section we passed alot of people just all standing at the side of the road and looking up. I looked where they were looking and saw a koala yawning!! So we pulled over as well and jumped out. There were about5/6 wild koalas in trees along the road and it was amazing! We took photos etc and one of the koalas moved and peed, some of the pee hit a woman and her daughter in their faces - we laughed!! HA HA So after spending some time looking at the koalas we decided to continue.
We stopped in Lorne for some lunch....had a steak sandwich which was quite good. People in the cafe seemed moody and one girl wouldn't smile, we were all very polite. Lorraine decided to ask if she had a problem with smiling - we all ran away and left her!! It was funny.... We had a stroll along the beach before heading inland towards Melbourne.
We drove through Geelong and then into Melbourne, arriving around 6pm and a day early!! Lorraine and Graham booked an extra night in their hotel and Emma and I went back to our hostel.
It was a nice few days although some seemed a little rushed, mainly because noone had really planned what to do. It was beautiful though and I thoroughly enjoyed it!!
Will post pictures soon I promise!!!
Dawn
xxxxxxx

Monday, January 01, 2007

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!


Well now that everyone should of celebrated......well everyone I know!!, I will wish you all a very happy new year! Hope you all have a great 2007!

I was able to bring the New Year in twice, once in Sydney with the amazing firework display and again this morning on the phone home so that was good!! I had a great time, very relaxing. We had a great view of the bridge in our section and plenty of room as there were only 600 of us (about the population of Boat!!), we were also provided with a lovely picnic which we sat and ate. Its the best way to do it I think!! Anyway finally got back to our castle in Manly at 4am!!

I promise that once I get back to Melbourne and have some time etc I will blog about everything I have done and upload a lot of lovely pictures for you to look at, along with a few videos if possible - got a few great ones of the bridge fireworks!!

Take care everyone and enjoy!!

Love

Dawn
xxxx