Our final leg

So the final leg of our adventure commenced with a week of pure relaxation(obviously we need this with all the hard traveling we've endured!) in Tahiti. We choose the lovely island of Moo'rea, Mark had been here previously and had tempted me by saying it was here that he experienced the greatest sunset of all time- I was just being greedy and wanted to experience the beauty of this Island too. I promised I'd speak french, or attempt to, as a compromise.

Moo'rea was fabulous, the sun shone, the ocean was warm and the biggest decision we had to make was what to have to eat or drink. We did get off the sun loungers a few times during our week, we had fun(and crossed words) whilst kayaking- he blamed the current, I blamed his steering as we spent most of the time drifting hopelessly in circles. We also got to dive again, this time with the local sharks. There were 3 types, all "timid" but still looking as fierce as any SHARK! Whilst waiting for the other divers to join me in the water I spotted a fin circling me, slightly disconcerting but I was reassured(yeah right) by the guide that the black tip on the fin meant it was "friendly"! I preferred the turtles and smaller fish!

We also got to horse-ride again, Mark's horse did behave better this time, perhaps it was his constant rambling in "french" that the horse liked(note he did German at school and admitted it wasn't his strongest subject). Perhaps the horse liked his friendly rider, Mark's response to any question in french being "Bonjour". Seeing the internal part of the island was amazing, we got to eat freshly picked pineapple and passion fruit.

After pure relaxation in Tahiti it was time to pick up the pace again- Bonjour to Las Vegas! Oh my, 3 days was certainly enough. We stayed on the strip itself but completely underestimated distances as the hotels are so huge and we left completely exhausted but thankfully not too skint. We did have a wee gamble, don't worry folks we could be found by the 25 cent(12 1/2 pence) slot machines and even this made us nervous! I mastered Black Jack and the highlight was doubling my money- I made sure I cashed in at this point, all 3 pound fifty's worth! On the last night we did step up the gambling pace a bit and found ourselves playing the Black Jack tables, minimum bets of 5 dollars(big bucks in our eyes), we lasted perhaps 1 hour but made sure we accepted all the free cocktails on offer. I think it was Mark being mistaken for Rod Stewart that kept them flowing!

Gambling aside we made the most of the other activities on offer. We saw a fantastic show, "LOVE" by the Beetles and took a trip to the Grand Canyon by helicopter, landing to enjoy a glass of champagne in the canyon itself.

After Vegas we flew to LA and then collected our car and began the drive up the coast of California. Our destinations have included Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Paso Robles, Big Sur, Monteray and Santa Cruz. The drive has been amazing, we've had glorious weather and the coastal scenery has been fantastic. Highlights being our hike through the redwood forest in big sur and eating our way through the many seafood dishes on offer up the coast, oh and the wine of course! The most challenging things here have been keeping the credit card under control(we have now had to buy a carry on case each- I just can't stop him buying more shoes!) oh, and the driving. There's no roundabouts here and our car is pretty big(like everything in the US). Poor Mark has done all the driving, insisting there's no point us both having to get used to driving the US way- I was thankful around the wineries but perhaps not when we were heading down the wrong side of the freeway! Who says men are better drivers!

Needless to say we were pleased to give the tank back and hit the streets of San Fransisco on foot, with the occasional bus and ferry ride. We're staying in a really lively part of the city and have enjoyed more shopping, more food and more wine! We walked across the Golden Gate Bridge, visited Alcatraz and on our final day visited the Napa Valley just so we wouldn't forget the taste of the fantastic California wine, no chance!

So we'll be flying home tomorrow and you'll all be pleased to know there'll be no more blog for you to endure! See you all back in England, au revoir from me and bonjour from Mark!

Farewell New Zealand....

It's a sad time for us as we leave New Zealand. This really is a great place to visit and I'm sure we'll be back.
After leaving the South Island by ferry we arrived in the capital, Wellington. We only stayed a couple of days but enjoyed Wellington. It had plenty of busy restaurants and had a good buzz about the place.
We had to leave Wellington at six in the morning to head to Napier. I had somehow persuaded Tree that it would be good to watch a one day international between England and New Zealand. I lied to her that cricket was usually very exciting and although it would last eight hours it would be real edge of the seat stuff. I gambled that Tree's previous sporting experience had been watching Bolton and that if she thought that was exciting then a dull cricket game would surely be like a step up. The fact that England had been humiliated in the previous two games didn't get mentioned. As it was, we witnessed a fantastic game of high scoring cricket that went down to the last ball and ended in a draw. I'm now persuading her that test cricket is just as exciting so that we can spend the entire summer watching more cricket.
Napier was a nice art-deco city and was right in the middle of the Hawkes Bay wine region. We felt it was only polite to sample some of the local wineries. After a day on a wine tour to add to the ones in South Africa and Australia our knowledge is getting better. For example, I now know that a Pinot Noir is a fruity red and not a former dictator of Chile as I had previously thought.
Next we visited Lake Taupo with one thing in mind - a big, scary sky dive. The morning of the dive it was cloudy and looking like we would have to resort to more wine tasting. But then, miraculously, the clouds parted, the sky turned blue and we made frequent trips to the toilet. Within a few hours we climbed aboard a very small plane and set out on a 20 minute climb to 15,000 feet. This is so high that we had to wear oxygen masks! Then our instructors strapped themselves to our back and dangled us over the edge of the plane. I went first closely followed by Tree. We had over one minute of free fall and instantly reached a speed of 120 miles an hour. It is such a great feeling but you don't actually feel like you are falling so fast. You can move your arms about and smile at the camera - which we did. It only lasted a few minutes but was definitely one of the highlights.
On Lake Taupo there is a 'hole in one' challenge. It's a pontoon floating about 120 yards away on a Lake. If you manage to get a hole in one you receive a cheque for three grand. I decided to have a go and impress Tree with my golfing prowess. I hadn't swung a club in six months and wasn't too hopeful. My first ball went straight in the hole and the guy started writing the cheque out and Tree was jumping up and down. At least that's how I pictured it on my practice swing. In reality I didn't land a single ball anywhere near the green which I put down to the strong wind and not my embarrassing hook shot.
Our next stop was Rotorua. This place smells real bad. It's almost as if the entire town have been constantly eating curries. Apparently its the sulphur but I'm sure I could detect a lingering Chicken Balti odour. The area is quite impressive and is the most unique place we've been too. It's a volcanic region and has lots of fissures were steam escapes to the surface and creates bubbling mud pools, hot water lakes, spa pools and strange colours everywhere.
We visited Waimangu which contains the Inferno Crater Lake. The deep blue colour of the lake with steam coming off it was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, the camera doesn't do it justice.
We still had time to fit a couple more activities in. First was the white water rafting. This involves six of us rafting down the Kaituna river over some pretty big rapids. Near the end we went over a seven meter waterfall which is the largest commercially rafted waterfall in the world. We did get a bit wet.
Being politically correct, the next day we went black water rafting. This was an amazing underground experience in the Waitomo region. It involved us crawling through a sometimes tight underground cave system. We then got in black rubber rings and floated through the caves. This was mostly in the pitch black apart from the thousands of bright green glow-worms that we could see when we turned our lights off (and a hungry looking eel).
For the last few days of NZ we headed to the top of the Island. First was the Coramandel Peninsula. This is a really beautiful part of the North Island. It's got great beaches and is really green. One of the things we had looked forward to was hot water beach. People had told us that because this was a thermal region you could dig a hole in the beach and lie in your own hot water pool, which would be wonderful for your skin due to all the minerals. We arrived at low tide (8pm) and it didn't quite live up to expectations. There was about 50 people shivering in a large pool that was very very cold. They were all probably English too. Apparently it was the wrong type of tide and it is usually very warm...
We then headed off to the Bay of Islands which is said to be beautiful. We had arranged to spend a day and night on a boat to visit some of the islands. Unfortunately it rained constantly for about 24 hours and we got soaked. We didn't see very much and were even more unlucky with our cabin share. At first we were happy that the lovely old lady wasn't a rowdy backpacker so that we could get a decent nights sleep. However, she had a terrible combination of a bad cough and an even worse snoring problem. We got about 30 minutes sleep and got even wetter the next day.
Our last couple of nights were much better, including a home cooked meal in a remote farmhouse and staying in the buzzing Parnell in Auckland.
We've had a great time in New Zealand but now it's time to drag ourselves off to Tahiti!
For those of you who thought we were having a wild time night after night, I should point out that Tree is currently beating me 7 to 6 at Scrabble!

Sore down south

So to another adrenaline fuelled activity-delightful canyoning- NOT. Oh my, for those unfamiliar with canyoning, here is an outline: you put your trust in a burly man(in our case a huge Austrian- not Arnie but of his proportions) as he lowers you over a cliff edge- way too fast mind, whilst you try and master abseiling down the rock face but fail as you get bumped off the rocks and never manage to find your footing. But it's worth it(yeah right) as at the bottom you're forced to dive head first into a freezing pool where no one is quite sure how deep it is but hey, it should be deep enough! And there's more- rock slides which you have to master backwards, rope swings, climbs up the steep rock face and jumps into yet more pools of uncertain depth from a wee 6 or 10m height. Even by chosing the smaller height I was unrewarded as I landed on my left buttock rather than on both cheeks- ooch that hurt. All this "fun" was performed whilst wearing the most inflexible wetsuit which hadn't even dried from the last lucky person to experience the canyon adventure. You may have gathhered I'm not a fan and ended up with many a large bruise not least on my backside! Mark loved it, ah well he's on his own next time.

The following activity was more like it, horseriding. We travelled 30mins out of Queenstown to where some of "The Lord of the Rings" was filmed, a beautiful place called Glenorchy. The horses were great, my horse was Will and he liked to eat as much as possible, it took some muscle to try and stop him grazing every few metres. I thought I was well matched to Will as I do like to munch as frequently as possible but no one was more closely matched than Mark to his horse Tom. It was the most grumpy horse of the bunch and for this reason had to be put at the rear to stop him falling out with the other horses. With quite a few riders in our group Mark and I were quite far apart but I could hear strict instructions from one grump to the other and when Tom was startled by a passing motor bike the group was entertained by Tom galloping off down the road-Mark clinging on for dear life! The grump levels were rising!

The horseriding was fantastic but my already sore bum was even more sore and now sported a lovely blister to add to the canyon bruises. Mark's heart rate took a while to recover(from Tom and not my bum) but the next day it was racing again as we booked onto the river surfing trip. After the canyoning I wasn't too thrilled to be squeezing myself into yet another wetsuit and plunging into the cold rapids of the Kawarau river, however it was great. We had 2 runs of the river, a total of about 24km with many rapids and rocks to navigate. We were given a sledge to lie on and basically it's all down stream from there, great fun! We rounded off our Queenstown fun with a game of crazy golf. We've actually had quite a few games in NZ and my whipping Mark's ass in Tekapo was certainly a highlight!

From Queenstown we drove many miles north to see what the glacial region had to offer. We stayed in Franz Josef and enjoyed a trip to the Fox Glacier nearby. There are only 3 glaciers in the world where you can experience walking through native forest onto the actual ice. It's pretty spectacular being on an amazing glacier surrounded by mountains and forests with the sun beating down.

After this we travelled further north to the edge of the north island and a great place with no roads but lots of beeches, forests and lagoons. This was Abel Tasman and we booked a 2 day camping and kayaking trip. We'd had a bit of experience kayaking but felt a bit unprepared to spend a good 2 full days kayaking an unpredictable sea. Like the river surfing we were pleasantly surprised and had a great trip. we had a double kayak with Mark being in charge of steering(this is obviously too much for a woman to master!), he was sat behind me- a very convenient place to slack off and take a break from paddling as often as he could get away with! He blammed his sore back(what about my sore bum I say), he struggled to get comfy and so I came away with biceps which would intimidate Popeye(and an even sorer bum)!

Following all our exertions we were pleased our next destination was less demanding on physical activity, we headed to Nelson where we raised our bulging biceps to a few nights of the drinking activity. A glass of wine(or many) certainly tastes good after a good workout and numbs the sore back and bum. Cheers!

Our final destination on the south island was Kaikoura, a lovely place on the east coast famous for it's whale watching, seal spotting and dolphin swimming. It's a busy place and we could only get a reserve place on the dolphin swim. We weren't expecting to get to go so we were delighted when we got a last minute place on the 9am trip. Not as delighted to be told we needed to be at the office on time, we got this news at 8.50am whilst still in bed! I've never seen Mark move so fast(well except on that horse) but we made it and it was amazing. We got to swim with 50 or so dusky dolphins, seeing them play and interact with each other is a real priviledge. They're a horny species though, the females mating 3 or 4 times each hour! Well we were happy to join them in their squeals- to attract them we were advised to sing of squeal as loud as possible through our snorkel, it was like one big orgy!

We 've been so impressed with the south island and we're sure the north island won't disappoint, our next destination is "Windy Wellington", hopefully not too smelly and easier on the bums.

Welcome to New Zealand

Sad to be leaving Oz, we arrived in New Zealand in Christchurch to cold and wet weather. Thinking that we had seen the end of the sunshine we prepared for the six weeks ahead by buying more long sleeve tops, jeans and even some hoodies. The two weeks since then have been glorious with lots of sunshine and nice weather. NZ is having one of the best summers on record! The best way to see NZ is by car so I had searched on the net for the best deal we could get. We picked up the car that is to get us around both the North and South Islands from a small rental company in Christchurch. We weren't expecting much for nine pounds a day and weren't disappointed. Our motor is a very small Toyota Starlett, has done over 100k, is looking very battered and bruised and hardly fits all our bags in it. That said, it's actually quite a good motor and I'm thinking of buying it for Tree as a Christmas present. Christchurch is the largest city by far in the South Island. However, it's pretty small and is more like an English town. We were lucky that it was the International Buskers Festival when we there as it was pretty lively. Many of the streets are named after English Cathedral cities like Salisbury, Durham, York, Canterbury and Winchester. On our way back one night we decided to walk down Manchester street and just like back home it was the least pretty and we counted 10 'ladies of the night' touting for business.
We set off to Lake Tekapo which is one of the most beautiful places we have been to. It's hard to describe how beautiful the backdrop to the town is. The water in the lake is a pure blue colour with the mountains reflecting in the surface. After a couple of days we headed south down the coast to Dunedin for a night. Nothing exciting happened apart from me reversing our little motor into a large motel. We headed into the Catlins which is a lovely remote area at the very south of the South Island. We saw plenty of seals and a penguin. The highlight was Curio Bay where our room looked out onto the ocean. Walking along the beach we could see dolphins in the sea surfing the waves. Despite the water being very very cold I dived in and the dolphins swam within a few metres of me, definetly one of the highlights of our entire trip!
We then walked to the southernmost point of the south Island and probabaly won't ever go further south than this in the world. It's still amazing to think that we were still only just about nearer to the south pole than we were the equator.
For some reason when planning this trip I thought it would be a good idea to book us on to the Milford Track. This is described as 'the most beautiful walk in the world' but it is 33.5 miles and takes four days to complete. Also we had to take all our own food, sleeping bag and clothes. We both therefore had a backpack weighing about 15kg. We were also warned that it 'always' rains heavy for at least one day of the walk and you often need to wade through waist high water. The first day was only a couple of hours and was easy enough. On the second day we had a longer walk of about 10 miles but the track was pretty good. The third day was really tough. We had to climb up a steep mountain over rough ground and then back down the other side which was even steeper. However, none of this mattered as the scenery was the most amazing we had ever seen. For me, it surpassed anything in the Lake District. We walked though valleys that were surrounded by massive, snow covered vertical mountains. We went underneath the highest waterfall in New Zealand and had amazing views from the tops of the mountain. Having to carry all our own food, we opted for packets of rice and pasta dishes. On the second day Tree made the porridge but got it a bit wrong. There's nothing better to start a ten mile walk than hot lumpy water! After a bad breakfast we were looking forward to lunch. Four hours later I was disappointed to find that my new flask had managed to chill my lumpy minestrone packet soup to just above freezing. Still, in six hours we could look forward to a packet rice dish (ate out the packet). At night we slept in basic cabins (no hot water) which we shared with the other 38 walkers that were allowed on the track each day. Obviously sharing a bunk room with others can be a bit noisy. One night was particularly bad with loads of loud snoring and non-stop farting keeping the walkers awake. Most people are reluctant to wake strangers up to ask them to stop - but I volunteered. I managed to wake Tree and she at least stopped snoring for a while but it must have been the porridge that kept her going from the other end. The last day was really tough as we had to walk 11.5 miles and our feet were really hurting by this stage. Still we managed to get to the end and were really pleased with what we had seen and done. We both agreed that it was definitely worth it. After finishing the walk we treated ourselves to an overnight cruise. It was brilliant to have a hot shower and a roast beef dinner. We also saw more stunning scenery on the cruise and the clearest night sky ever.
After our tough last few days the next stop was Queenstown. This is the 'adventure capital of the world' and we budgeted to do loads of adreneline activities. Queenstown is an amazing place and we were lucky to get some fantastic accomodation overlooking the town, lake and mountains. To get us warmed up for the next five days we started with a bungy jump. We choose the Kawarau Bridge Bungy. This was the first commercial bungy jump in the world and we both jumped off without any hesitation. It was exciting but not as scary as the tallest bungy we had already down in South Africa. At lunch time we took the gondola in the town and had a few goes of the luge. This was good fun and quite fast in places. The best bit was overtaking Tree. Her 'safety-first approach' was no match for my 'close-my-eyes-and-think-of England' style. In the afternoon we both went hang-gliding. We had fantastic views and it was really peaceful. The next day we stepped up the pace with a ride on the Shotover Jet. This is a fast boat that needs only two inches of water. It speeds through the canyons getting nice and close to rocks before spinning 360 degrees. In the afternoon we did the 'fly by wire' which is my favourite so far. You're srapped into a mini-jet and attached to a giant wire and can contol how high and fast you go. We are having a great time in Queenstown and Tree will continue to tell you about our adreniline activities if we both make it through the next few days alive!

Our final Australian legless leg

So we enjoyed the first few days of 2008 in our favourite Australian city, Sydney. The Sydney festival started on the 5th so we managed to catch some of the free events. Not sure if free equates to crap but Brian Wilson(of the Beach Boys fame) opened the event and left alot to be desired. Mark was soon dragging me off instead to the live wedding event and we were pleased the entertainment improved with 3 unconventional weddings; a very pregnant bride, a bride dressed as Madonna and of course the gay wedding. I had to pass Mark a tissue, he gets very emotional at such "girlie" events.
Our final activity in Sydney was the ridiculously expensive but great all the same bridge climb. Apart from the all-in-one very snugly fitting suits, modelled on the star trek costumes(oh, and the rain) climbing 1200+ steps for the amazing views of Sydney was well worth it.
We left Sydney for Melbourne, the longest leg of our road trip so far. The drive was 9 1/2 hours and we were starting to go mad listening to the best Aussie radio can offer-80's rock, mullets and all. As you can imagine driving from Cape Tribulation to our furthest destination Adelaide has been quite a challenge not least with Guns and Roses for company!
Melbourne was great, we did the cultural things- the Museum where they had an exhibition on "The Body", Mark was as ever queasy and needed to sit down, especially in the naked photo part! He managed the immigration museum ok and we had fun at the seaside resort of St Kilda. Cultural things done we then decided to test the local wine during a good night out with friends Jag and Shane who live in nearby Narre Warren. They were kind enough to accommodate us for 4 nights at their lovely pad, 5 stars for service! We enjoyed getting to know their adorable kids, Jag's home cooking, a truly fantastic Aussie barbie and a splash in Shane's folks' pool.
We also visited nearby Phillip Island, the temperature this day was 40+ degrees! We spent most of our time body surfing to cool down(no nude incidents this time) and also found a bird hide in which we took shelter until we realised the look wasn't cool and couldn't stand the smell of bird poo anymore.
Back of the road from Melbourne we took the very scenic route along the Great Ocean Road. This drive is stunning with amazing views of the limestone coast, we passed the 12 Apostles, the London Bridge(a weathered limestone rock face similar to any bridge) and the Arch. We stayed along the route in Apollo Bay, Port Fairy and our favourite choice of Robe. The temperature was somewhat cooler, cooler but not cold like we're used to at home though. Even so the motels here supplied electric blankets, I would have never believed Australia would own an electric blanket and needless to say we didn't use them as a temperature of mid 20's is just perfect not cold! The cooler climate not only provided unnecessary electric blankets but also the unnecessary Aussie fly, back to haunt us. I wound have bought one of those hats with a net to make me look like a bee keeper if I could have found one- the little buggers are unbelievable- they never stop buzzing around every orifice(I mean every) and we were forced to join every other person demonstrating the Aussie wave to waft the flies a few inches for less than a single second. As if by constantly waving our arms we didn't look psychotic enough we then found ourselves doing a crazy dance by the car to get them off us before our run up and propulsion into our seats. Thinking we'd escaped we would then find one off the buggers had still managed to enter the car with us and we'd be left dreaming of owning a bee keeping outfit- or a gun! Speaking of cars, we had another incident whilst driving on the beach in Robe. Of course it had to be me driving when we managed to get stuck in the sand. Blaming my driving, Mark summoned help from a local- "no worries mate", and the 2 of them pushed the car out, I off course I had the more challenging task of turning the wheel occasionally.
From Robe our next port of call was the Barossa Valley before our final destination of Adelaide. Our accommodation in Barossa was one of the best yet, it was a lovely little mountain cottage with solar panels(and hence no extravagant electric blankets here), home grown veggies including carrots to feed to the 2 resident donkeys, a telescope to star gaze and home baked bread. Hippie paradise, and all built by the owner who sported a bright red skin head and numerous piercings- SHE was great and had actually won the "Better homes and gardens" award for DIY Oz queen. I was inspired, Mark intimidated. He liked the donkeys though and we both loved the local wine and food. We hired bikes for another steaming day of exercise combined with visits to 8 or so vineyards. I'd say I was spitting 50%, worried me and 2 wheels may not match too well intoxicated, Mark spat 0% but fortunately the only casualty was his T-shirt which was covered extensively with tastings from most vineyards but hey, it matched his Jack Duckworth look. A wee accident had occurred(whilst sober) between his foot and his specs, the first aid kit finally got some use, the plaster tape effect is great look!
Adelaide is our final destination and I'm writing this on our last day in Oz before we fly to New Zealand tomorrow. We've chilled out here, drank lots of caffeine, ate great food, sampled the wine, admired the city and surrounding rural areas- pretty much more of what we've enjoyed for the past 3 months. Cheers to Australia, we've had a great time and we know we'll be back, lets hope the flies aren't waiting.

Tree does her best impression of Judy Finnagen....

After Brisbane we headed down the coast to Byron Bay. We arrived in Byron late evening and as we were both tired and hungry we decided to treat ourselves and booked a table in the best restaurant in town. We bought a good bottle of wine and set off on the 30 minute walk into town. We'd seen the menu earlier and were looking forward to tucking into a big steak and the fish of the day. We arrived at the restaurant and waited to be seated. Some of the dinners looked at us a bit funny as were were waiting and I assumed it was the dribble down my chin as I was getting very hungry. The waitress arrived and we explained that we had a table for two booked for nine. She politely told us that it was ten o'clock and the kitchen was now closed. We had apparently and unknowingly passed into a different time zone on our journey from Brisbane. Not only did we lose an hours sleep but we ended up eating a dodgy pizza instead of a gourmet feast!
Although Byron Bay has got a very beautiful beach and surrounding area the average age of the people there is about 17. We therefore stayed in an expensive B&B for 2 nights which was tucked away from the main town in a quiet little cul-de-sac. On the first night the owner informed us that her daughter was having a party and the house would have about 40 sixteen year-olds arriving. Obviously as we are both relatively still young and down with the kids it was no problem for us. We were a little cranky and tired in the morning but knew that we would get a long sleep on the second night in preparation for our long journey the next day. That evening when we were walking back to our B&B we could hear some seriously loud music. Once we got in our room we realised that next door to our B&B the neighbours were having the biggest party in the history of New South Wales and they must have had the Bass speakers turned towards our wall. Maybe if they had been playing a bit of Bowie (or Abba for Tree) it would have been OK. As it was we didn't get any sleep and vowed never to return to Byron Bay again. We also realised that we weren't really young anymore and had were actually middle aged and grumpy and had lost touch with popular music years ago.
We were therefore happy to arrive in a town called Bellingen later that day - which has got to be one of our very favourite places in Australia. Bellingen is beautiful. Its greener than anywhere else we have seen and has miles of rolling hills. Its like England/ Scotland only better. The small town is really relaxed and friendly. We spent most of our time wandering around, drinking coffee, reading and playing cards. We had a chalet in a peaceful spot overlooking trees and birds - what a place. We went for a walk in the National Forest which had some amazing views. At one stage Tree was attacked by a leech. As it started to get stuck into her tasty leg she spotted it and panicked flicking it off in my direction. I, of course, reacted very calmly and despite what Tree may tell you I didn't scream like a girl.
Next stop was the Hunter Valley which is a famous wine producing region two hours north of Sydney. On the first day we decided to walk to a number of wineries for some free tastings. On the map they looked to be really close to each other. It was very hot and the sun was beating down making one mile by foot feel like ten. We were the only ones walking and everyone else seemed to be driving. There was no way we were going to be spitting out the free wine so we persevered. After an exhausting day we saw the words, "Not to scale" at the bottom of the map and both agreed that Tree would drive next time. The following day we attended a wine school in an effort to learn how to appreciate wine. I wanted to be able to walk into a supermarket or Oddbins and choose a wine based on its grape, age, region and vintage. Unfortunately, the wine school was crap and we got our money back. I'll still continue to choose wine based on how snazzy the label is.
We set off for Sydney and arrived in my spiritual home of Bondi for Christmas. I had spent nearly six months there ten years ago. It had changed massively and nobody recognised me! We had ice-cream from the shop I'd worked in. I had spent the previous three months telling Tree how it was the best ice cream ever. She thought it was alright but not a patch on Senior Whippy's from Bolton.
It was great to go on the beach and get into the famous surf again. If you hit the wave wrong it would take you off your feet and spin you around so that you'd land on your head. After half an hour we both got caught in a big wave. As I emerged from the wave 20 foot nearer the beach I instinctively looked up to make sure Tree was alright. She stood up a few feet away smiling and waving. She looked a bit different and at first I couldn't work out what it was. I looked around and everyone seemed to be staring in our direction. It's only when I saw a dad putting his hand over his son's eyes that I realised that Tree had 'popped out' of her bikini. This was no Judy Finnagen 'slip' but was a full 'exposure'. Tree never went back in the water...
We had a lovely Christmas day in a park near Bondi that overlooked the city. It was very different having outdoor champagne and strawberries on a sunny and warm day. We obviously missed everyone but it was good to experience a completely different type of Christmas.
We left Bondi and set off for the nearby Blue Mountains for a couple of nights. These are a vast expanse of mountains covered with Eucalyptus trees which give the mountains a blue haze as their oil evaporates. We first went to the Three Sisters which is one of the most famous attractions. Although they are quite impressive the five hundred other tourists made them seem like a theme park. The next day we set off on a long walk and saw some stunning scenery at Wentworth falls. The trail took us on a downward walk for a few miles before it we came to some stairs to take us back to the top of the gorge. When a say some stairs I mean one thousand and fifty. We were both absolutely knackered and realised that there's more to this travelling lark than good eating and pottering about the famous sites.
We arrived back in Sydney for New Year's Eve. We met up with my 'cousin' Richard and went to a party at his girlfriend's parents place overlooking the harbour. We were made very welcome and had a great time. We were just a short walk away from the fireworks over Sydney harbour. These were amazing and I will never again think that 'once you've seen one set of fireworks, you've seen them all'. The only downside was that within one hour of the new year I managed to break my new year's resolution of being less clumsy. By 1am I had spilled a drink in the house and stood on some unfortunate Australian girls toe drawing blood and leaving Tree to explain that I always did this sort of thing and that it was genetic....

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!

We miss you all but as you can see we're fine and Tree's happy as she's found her perfect Sydney Christmas tree, no snow though!

Enjoy the festivities, lots of love

Tree and Mark x