Oz

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Mark here…..As a Kiwi-British team the Kiwi and Ozzie legs of the trip were always going to be about catching up with friends and family interspersed with seeing and doing some cool stuff. Oh and continuing the theme from Hong Kong - eating some great kiwi tucker…….putting on four kg in five weeks is a small price to pay for multiple pies, milkshakes, fish and chip meals and the many wonderful meals and BBQs cooked by our friends and family.

Brisbane
We landed in Brisbane on 23 December ready for a family Christmas with my brother Simon and his nearest and dearest Vic (wife), Sian (daughter 13) and James (son 4). They have recently moved to Brisbane and did a fantastic job of showing us around taking in the sights of the South Bank, Sunshine Coast and the river. With a great deck and swimming pool we were more than happy to relax and hang out at home for a bit drinking glasses of chilled Sav (which Kel had been dying for after three months of nothing but beer beer beer). It was great to catch up with Si, Vic and family, we had a fantastic Christmas day, the weather was great and so we spent most of the day hanging out in the garden and in the pool.

Gold Coast
We shot down the coast to Tweed Heads spend New Years with Scott and Jade. Got to go surfing, hang out at the beach, watch amaizing electrical storms and check out the hinterlands which are about and hour from Scott’s. New Year’s was spent on Scott’s balcony drinking cocktails and watching all the fireworks along the coast, as his place is on the border of NSW and Queensland which are in different time zones we got to have two great displays - one at 11:00 and one at 12:00 - bonus!

We really enjoyed our time in Oz and found chilling out with friends and family a perfect way to unwind after a few months of being on the move constantly in SE Asia.

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Photos

Christmas Morning
Thomas the Tank took over the deck

Point Danger (great name)
Tweed Heads

Pre surfing shot
Jade, Scott and I