Off to Sydney we go.

After our stay in Canberra we packed the bags once more and headed back up the highway to Sydney. On the way I decided I would take the scenic route along the Illawarra Hwy. What a beautiful drive especially the drive down the range to the coast. Definately a road designed by the scouts, (I good turn deserved another). The quietest 20min I had all week while Mel and the kids sat petrified as i manoeuvred the car down the hill
Anyway we made it to Sydney and straight to Oyster Bay Rd, where we caught up with Aunty Janet, Leanne and Alexandra. We were treated to a lovely late (our fault, see above) morning tea and delicious lunch. Again thank you for the lunch and it was great to see you again. ooh I almost forgot, thank you Alexandra for the lovely place cards you made.

Then it was time to say goodbye and head into the city to the World tower which was to be our home for the next 6 nights. What can we say, 3bm fully furnished apartment 73 floors up with a view taking in the city, out to the Blue Mountains and South as far as the eyes could see. In the picture the top two floors are penthouses we were two under that. The pool was located on the 61st floor which is in the white blocks you can see.

On Tuesday we headed off bright and early for a day at the zoo and I mean a day, we were there on the first ferry and home on the last. I know, we saw every animal, some two or three times. Couple of highlights were of course the Elephants in their new enclosure and the Crocodile (yep we travelled all the way to Sydney to see a croc) which took one look at Bradley and swam the length of its pool to eyeball him through the glass. Very funny indeed... Who could forget the echidna, that was insulted by some Americans (sorry Trish) and called a porcupine.

Wednesday we headed off to the Aquarium. despite the million school kids screaming and carrying on, we had a great time. If you get the chance it is definitely a must, the underwater tunnels through the shark pool is fantastic, so is the massive tank at the end where you can sit and watch the fish for hours.

On Thursday morning my darling cousin Leanne organised a little tour of channel Seven and a behind the scenes view of Sunrise. Here we got to meet the Sunrise crew, unfortunately minus Monique who was in Tasmania. Not to worry everyone had a great time and the kids got autographs and themselves on TV. Afterwards we headed up Centre point Tower for the usual 360 deg view of the city.

Friday night we went off to the footy to watch my beloved Roosters get smashed by the Broncos, much to Michael's delight. It was cold and wet but we got seats by the sideline and could see the action up close, (most of it was the Broncos scoring). But one cannot complain too much when he gets to wrap his arms around a couple of cheerleaders. I guess the night wasn't so bad after all...

We headed back to Cairns on Easter Sunday, to spend the night and back to Weipa on Monday.

We hope you have all enjoyed reading about the holiday as much as we enjoyed taking it. A couple of things to finish off with;

Firstly I apologise for any names I spelt wrong, (not my strong point).

Secondly, It really was nice to catch up with those we managed to see and thankyou all for putting up with us, for buying lunch or dessert or letting us stay at your house, without those little things our holiday just wouldn't have been the same. Cheers

Our Trip to Canberra

After a fantastic week in Port Stephens we packed the car and headed further South to the nations capital. Yep from sunny tropical Weipa to the Autumn in Canberra, only god knows why.. Not true the days were lovely and the nights were crisp, well the grass was the next morning anyway.

We arrived in Canberra mid afternoon, checked into our dog box, sorry motel and went around to visit Nan. I don't know who was more excited about the visit but we spent a lovely couple of hours catching up. I have put two photos here as I wanted Nan to see them both.

That evening we headed off to Dinner with Alan and Carolyn at the Kingston Hotel, where we got to cook our own food, Michael managed to eat the second biggest set of spare ribs I've ever seen, the ones I ate were bigger!!!!

After dinner we headed off to a nice little cosy restaurant/cafe for some decent coffee. Alan & Carolyn the decided to spoil us all and ordered ice creams for the kids and a lovely cheese platter for the big kids. Thank you both for the dessert it was lovely and great to catch up again.

The ext day we headed off to old Parliament House for a quick tour before heading across the lake to the War Memorial. We spent about 4 hours walking around taking in the history and even the kids understood what it was all about. Though we did have one little mishap when one of them said "that guy only got one medal", not quite understanding the heroics and bravery of the Victorian Cross. Despite this they were able to try on some of the clothes from the Vietnam war and touch some of the interactive exhibits.


After the War Memorial we headed back over to Nans place and watched the footy and talked some more about the good old days. Unfortunately then it was time to go, and a few tears were shed by some and a few more by others. Big Nan the kids say you give the best bear hug ever, the rest of the family will relate to that.

We're Back!!!

HI Everyone,
Before you all say about time etc etc.. we have been on holidays for the last couple of weeks and that is what this update is all about.

The holiday didn't all go as planed and started off in the worst possible way with our flight out of Weipa being delayed by 2hrs, which meant we missed our connecting flight to Sydney. Not to worry they re booked us via Brisbane, which meant we had to run off one plane through the terminal in Cairns and on to the next plane which was delayed just so we (and 6 others) could catch it. Anyway we safely made it to Brisbane. While waiting in the Qantas club, Mel decided to ask for an upgrade and Qantas obliged, so the the kids travelled the final leg to Sydney in style.

The next morning we picked up the hire car only to find out they hadn't refuelled it. Not to worry on the return a week later they refunded us the price of a tank of fuel.
From here the trip went fantastic, we headed up to Newcastle ad caught up with Steven, Leigh, Aidan and the lovely Felicity, who just happened to have her christening the same day which gave us a chance to catch Mum and Owen as well.


Gary then headed off to his week of golf in Port Stephens, while Steven & Leigh graciously hosted Mel and the kids. Thank you to you both.

I will keep the golf short i played well for 3 out of 4 days and had a ball. To make things a little differant this year we actually travelled by ferry to one of the games, now looking at the photo you can see that this wasn't a very big ferry, but somehow they managed to fit 120 of us on it and away we went. To finish the week off, I booked Mel and the kids into a Motel in Nelson Bay as a surprise.