Christmas Break - Informational Blog

Over the Christmas holiday, my work closed for two weeks. How nice is that? Seriously! Two weeks off. A lot of companies do this in Australia. I feel that they're very good at making a work-life balance here in Australia. Steve took a few extra days from work to travel with me - nice, right?

Anyway, we decided to jam-pack our two weeks with things to do. We spent the first weekend in Queenscliff, a beach town about 2 hours from Melbourne CBD. It was beautiful. We stayed with about 15 other couples and 16 children. It was very chaotic. The house we stayed at was big enough for all of us staying there and about about 10 more families. It was an old nursing home. It was kind of creep actually, there were even name tags on the doors of the people that used to live there. I, of course, picked a room without a name on it as I thought this room might be less likely to have a ghost in it. It was a great weekend, relaxed, fun, drinks, games and sun. This is when I learned the hard way that the Australian sun does not love my skin. Or rather, it does:) On Saturday, my legs got so burnt that my ankles swelled into cankles and I couldn't even walk. And great, we're supposed to fly out to Tasmania on Sunday. Don't flights make some people swell? Why yes, they do. And I am one of those lucky people.

Poor Steve, we weren't able to hike the way he liked to because I was a cripple. I needed to keep my legs elevated as much as possible and that was really hard while we were camping outsite of Hobart, Tasmania. Hiking consisted of a drive up a mountain and me staying in the car while Steve would pull over, get out, walk a few feet into the forest and return.

The campground we stayed at was so amazing though. You should have seen these animals! They were everywhere, it was literally like a zoo. Or better yet, it was like Toy Story or A Night at the Museum where everything during the day looks normal but at nighttime the place turns into a zoo and everything comes alive. There were animals EVERYWHERE! Pademelons (in the wallaby family, pictured) - Steve actually saw two trying to start a family, bandicoots (who look like hopping mice), ring-tailed possums (pictured), superb wrens, Tasmanian native-hen (which look like miniature emus), Steve saw two platapuses. It was really cool to be out in nature this way, and they weren't too afraid of us, pretty used to people since they live on a campground.



We flew home on Christmas Eve and finished wrapping presents so Santa/Father Christmas could visit. Christmas was really nice; Jill came over and we went to lunch/dinner at friends' houses. Then we flew out to Sydney on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas) for a friend's wedding and New Years.



Sydney was great! The last time we were there was in winter, when it rained and someone lost our camera. But it was much nicer this time. We went to Bondi Beach, it was packed, see picture above. It's pronounced bon-die. Do not try to pronounce it as bon-dee as Australians will have no idea what you're talking about. You would think they could piece it together, bon-dee beach, but no, no clue. Anyway, Bondi Beach is where they film the Australian TV series Bondi Rescue. Just your typical real-life Baywatch with no David Hasselhoff. This is also the second time that I was reminded that the Australian sun does not like me. And I reapplied!!!!! I have since gotten a sun hat, which I still have yet to use.

We climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge (below) which was really cool. It is a very safety-conscious tourist attraction. They require you wear no jewelery or watches, cannot take cameras, they provide hats and hankerchiefs which must be clipped onto the harness you're wearing and they even do a breathalizer on everyone! It was a beautiful view of Sydney from that height, and I got to see where Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have a house. Love it!

The two day wedding was amazing. There were two choreographed dances that put our wedding dance to shame, though, that's not incredibly hard to do. It looked like straight out of High School Musical. Seriously. The brides' girlfriends were doing an Indian dance performance for the entire room when all of a sudden the bride got on the dance floor and danced with them. Then out of the back, three male guests jumped in and danced while the groom watched with the rest of the crowd. Not long after that the groom jumped in too! It's like the 80's movies where you wonder, 'How does everyone know the same exact dance?' It was beautiful though.

New Years Eve was fun in Sydney. Luckily we found an amazing place to see the fireworks off of the Sydney Harbour bridge. We didn't realize what we would be in for when we started looking for a place to see the midnight fireworks at 3pm that day. We got on line and were in the group of the last 25 people to get into this gated-off area. While we were on line, I noticed a sign that said no ATM and Cash Only! Ahhhh!!!!!! Did we have cash? We had less than $100 and we were there from 3pm until midnight! We had to be very careful about what we ate as we needed to make sure we had enough money for booze:)

We wrapped up our two week holiday on 2nd January and headed back to Melbourne. Back to the grind.

And so, we started planning all of our upcoming trips, camping in January, getaway to the wine region in February, camping/beach in March, Ayers Rock in April, Sydney in May with my mom, Gold Coast in June...but these are all weekend trips. Hopefully I'll have some fun things to write about.

See you soon!
~Kate (and Steve)