Holidays...

Firstly, let me just apologize for the pics - sometimes I really hate Blogger - I'll put the pics and the comments in and then when I click on publish, it just rearranges them!

Anyway, I'm now back in Sydney after phase 2 of our holiday - Perth. But I just wanted to fill you in on Fraser Island firstly as I was very remiss last week.

We went to Fraser Island with Paul, one of McBrad's friends who lives in London and who was out here on holidays. We stayed at Kingfisher Bay Resort which is an eco-resort on the western side of the island. Lovely place, some very nice pools, great restaurants, a little pricey. We booked ourselves a self contained 2 bedroom apartment which was set up in the bushland up the hill overlooking the Great Sandy Strait and we were very impressed with it. Nice little jacuzzi on the balcony was a lovely way of concluding each day. Anyway, the highlight of Fraser Island for me was Lake MacKenzie. Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island and it's seriously big! But Lake MacKenzie is a fresh water lake in the middle of the island and is absolutely magnificent!!! The beach is the whitest sand I have ever seen...literally blindingly white! The water was delightful - cool and refreshing without being cold. I could have stayed there all day except for the fact that we had the rest of the island to explore. Because Fraser is a sand island, only 4WD vehicles are allowed and so we hired ourselves one and went driving over the very rough tracks. Hit the eastern beach and wow! Now, I've grown up on the east coast of Australia and have seen some very long beaches but it's just an incredible experience to drive for an hour and a half along a long, straight and seemingly endless beach! So cool! All along the beach, little fresh water creeks flowed into the ocean which provided lots of fun crossing. It's just such a wild, untamed place! And halfway along, there's a wreck of ship (the Moheno) which has been there for about 80 years - it's pretty awesome as it's gradually being covered with sand - there's apparently 5 levels beneath the sand already, with just two above.

And thankfully, it attracts lots of young people - young, hot backpackers which made for some very pleasant sightseeing! he he he!

Anyway, it was a lovely relaxing holiday - although only there for 6 days, it felt like a couple of weeks - we were just sooooo disconnected from life. Marvellous!

We then flew back to Sydney, were here for a day and then on the next plane to Perth! What a change!!! It was 42 degrees Celcius when we arrived and I could barely breathe. So needless to say, we spent the afternoon by the pool! We stayed with McBrad's niece and her husband (I had met them several months ago when they visited Sydney) and McBrad's older brother was there visiting as well. So I got to meet one of his immediate family which was kinda nerve wracking but he was fine, if a little difficult to understand, with his very strong, very regional Scottish accent. I never realized how lucky I am that McBrad's accent is quite mild after spending 10 years in London! Anyway, we spent a long weekend in Perth and didn't really do anything touristy - it was more about McBrad catching up with his family and that was nice. We caught the red eye back to Sydney which is a killer! For those who are wondering, the red eye left at midnight Sunday night, arrived at 6am Monday in Sydney. As we travelled east, we lost 2 hours, so it meant that very little real sleep was experienced on the plane and so we were totally smashed when we got home...we just had a shower and crashed big time! McBrad, the trouper that he is, got up at lunchtime and went to work! I had a very very very lazy afternoon! That's why I love holidays so much!

Anyway, this week is a chance to catch up on a few things that need doing around my place! I have tax to put into a man to do, my car to clean, my wardrobes to clear of excess clothes, maybe a trip or two to the beach, a little bit of sleeping in, a doctor to see about a nagging cough I have...just the usual stuff that you never seem to get time to do normally. And then, Saturday, we're driving to the Hunter Valley for a wedding. We're spending the weekend there so hopefully there'll be opportunity for some wine tasting! Yummmmmo!