Hit the north.

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There aren't too many better places to spend Christmas than Ange's mum's. They've built a fantastic house up in the hills overlooking the Great Dividing Range, the view from which is just about the best of any house I've ever stayed in. And it's got a pool. And a pool table. And a bar. And a hot tub. And a huge barbie. It’s the sort of place you'd kill for! It's big too. John took me for a tour in their 4x4 and it's about a kilometre from one end to the other up and down the top of the hill side. Incredibly steep in places too; loved going off-road, forcing our way through the bush tracks the firebrigade have put in. Can see why you do it now, Delfy! They have to back-burn every now and again to keep the place safe from the big bush fires that spring up once in a while. John sets a fire and one end of the property whilst Sharon does the same at the other so they burn towards the same point and end up extinguishing each other. Very canny it is too.

Saw my first wallaby and kookaburra. Guess for a lot of people kookaburras laughing could be annoying, but I loved lying in bed listening to them. Only got a fleeting look at the wallaby. Predictably enough, it hopped off not long after I was called out to see it, but it still counts as a wild one, so I'm happy. John puts out sunflower seeds for the birds which attracts flocks of rainbow lorikeets. Couldn't get over seeing such exotic looking birds in the wild. They really are stunning things. The photo doesn't really show them at their best, but, with sunlight on them, they make kingfishers look drab.

Think there were 18 over for Christmas day at one time or another, the first time everyone had been together for a decade or so. Ange's brother, Scott, came down from Brisbane with his girlfriend, Kelly; John's son, Gavin, came up with his family, Tracey, Mat and Emily from Sydney; Bec and her family, Colin, Logan and Zach came over from down the road along with Dougie and Uncle Pete from next-door. And John's cousin, Brian, and his wife popped in for a while in the evening. Always good to have a houseful. Handy for backyard cricket too. We had a Boxing Day Test with a load of Scott's mates and I just about got through without further ruining the reputation of Pommie cricketers. Mind you, that couldn't be much lower over here, so I guess they weren't expecting much. Never play cricket with Ange, though. She's deadly and just about took my head of when she smashed one through long off as I was taking a photo.

Had a great trip into Port Macquarie the day before we went home. It's a pretty big holiday town with what seems like a never ending series of small beaches along it's coast. The weather was perfect, so it was time for my first swim in the Pacific and it couldn't have been much better. Had John to hold to my hand in the face of the huge waves I had to brave as I boldly strode out into the wide, blue yonder, my pale, Pommie body lighting up the beach like an atom bomb blast. Don't worry, I've spared you the photos. I've seen the video since and I could only have been in there for a couple of minutes at most, but those few moments diving into the waves were some of the best of my whole time here. Made me want a surfboard even more though. On top of all that, John caught a runaway inflatable thong. Not too many men can say that. And we had fish and chips for tea. Doesn't get much better than that.

Came back and some little critter had stripped the peach tree clean! Was really looking forward to them too. The mandarins are just about coming out, so that almost makes up for it.

Hope you all had a good Christmas too. Even if it was an age ago.

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Photos

Rainbow lorikeets.
Look quite evil, don't you think?

Port Macquarie.
Had my first swim in the Paciffic here. Very nice too.

The pool.
They said, "Go on, Stewie, bomb it".
So I did.
They were lucky the house wasn't flooded.

The golf club dam.
They're not ponds out here. Made that mistake more than once.