Christmas and New year 11/12 in Australia.

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We made the trip from Cairns to Brisbane (32 hours on the train!) to meet back up with Line and Catharina. All four of us went out for something nice to eat and we had loads of fun celebrating their Christmas on the 24th, watching them open small gifts from each other and their families. We had an epic game of 'Ring of Fire' and got a little merry with our goon (cheap boxed wine). Christmas Day started off very different, we woke up in a dorm with another 6 people, it was red hot outside and all we had a to open was a christmas card from Teresa :-). The hostel we were staying at had a free BBQ for the masses of travellers away from home, so we enjoyed a few hours with Line and Catharina before leaving. We spent Christmas with a friend of Matt's from School, Becky and her parents, Marina and Bob and their dog Pepper. Becky also had a couple of friends from Uni visiting with her, Emily and Sally. We had the most wonderful Christmas dinner with a lot of amazing food and loads of giggles. We enjoyed hanging out with Becky, Emily and Sally, spending time at South Bank Beach and going out in Brisbane for drinks. We were also lucky to meet up with more of Matt's friends from school and have a little reunion with Tim, Scott and Patrick. We had a lovely Christmas away from home so thank you so much Becky, Emily and Sally for letting us tag along with you and thank you so much Bob, Marina and Pepper for looking after us while we stayed with you.

Another overnight train and we arrived in Sydney. We walked all over and got to see so many things, including Sydney Harbour Bridge (a bigger Tyne Bridge) the Opera House, Darling Harbour, the Botanical Gardens. We also took a trip to Bondi Beach. One night Matt joined the pool compition from the Hostel and won everyone including the two organisers, get in, first prize = $50 bar tab! We thought we were going to have a night of free drinks until presenting the voucher and them telling us that we had to spend it all in one go - 2 x 2 pint pitchers, 1 pint of cider, 1 bottle of tiger and a single malibu and lemonade. Have you ever noticed the more drinks you have in front of you the faster you drink...

Matt took the plundge and decided to SkyDive while we were here, jumping out of an airplane and getting in videoed. Is was one of the best experiences and one of the funniest videos ever made. Watch it :-

New Years Eve was interesting, all areas to watch the fireworks become restricted areas. So we picked the an area that we thought we would have a great view of the bridge and the Opera house, with a limit of 20,000 people. So we joined the cue at 1.30pm to get in. After a 3 hour wait we got in and because people had been there since early hours of the morning, there was nowhere we could even go to to see the bridge.We got into an argument with a british couple (the british love to be moody and argue at New Year, did you know?) about blocking their view, they argued with us as we were stood at the back of the other 200 people that had pushed in front of them, then they told on us and got us moved! There are family Fireworks at 9pm and after they were finished people started moving around and we were able to squeeze into a space behind where the media stand, literally the best view we could have ever asked for. We stood still, squashed for 3 hours, tick, tock, tick ,tock. Then the count down came, then the fireworks, BRILLIANT ! One of the most amazing things that we have ever seen. We filmed both the count down and the finale which you need to watch right the way until the end. Just FANTASTIC . Totally worth it.







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Love

Matt and Kerry

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Comments

[fatha]

xmas
melly xmas and happy new year