Hello! Erm, I think there is quite a bit to catch up on...just trying to think back a week or so!

Well we had a fantastic couple of weeks with Mummy and Daddy, it was ace to have them join in our trip for a short time!

After our few days in Brisbane we headed south, and after a brief stop for a look around at Surfers Paradise (actually a name of a town!!) we landed up in Byron Bay for a couple of days. it was nice but a little odd, a strange mix of backpackers and old hippies who clearly went there years ago and never left! Cape Byron is Australia's most Easterly point, so we went for a walk along to it and got to see dolphins playing in the sea just off the coast! At first we just saw a few but then lots more appeared, they were around for ages playing in the surf and leaping out of the water. it was a real treat to see them seemingly showing off just to have fun!

We soon headed south again, and after a slightly odd evening in Port Macquarie (where everything closed at 8.30!) we arrived in the Hunter Valley region - wine region! We stayed in a great apartment type place, it was set back off the road and had amazing views that looked out for miles over beautiful countryside, we felt like we were in the middle of nowhere! But actually we were in the middle of a load of wineries! We had a winery tour one day which was good, especially all the free sampling at the end! We could have got a bit blathered i imagine but we all tried to hold back! We also went to a cheese factory place and tried some gross smelly cheese - yuk! Hunter Valley was really nice for a couple of days of just drinking wine and eating nice food, perfecto!

After all this relaxing over vino, it was time for our last stop on Ma and Pa's trip - Sydney! We got off to a great start when we arrived at our chosen accommodation as we were upgraded to an executive suite! It was huge, with amazing views from it's two balconies!! We soon set out wandering and found ourselves looking out across at the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, they are such awesome landmarks for the city. Over the next few days I think we all must have taken a few too many pics of both, but you just can't help it! (Don't worry though, we won't put them all up online!!) We walked along the bridge which showed off the view of the Opera House even better, but the best view was from the water as we went out of the harbour on a whale watching trip. This was fab and we spent a couple of hours watching humpback whales on their annual migration north.

We also visited the amusingly named sea side suburb of Manly one day which was lovely, we got the ferry there and spent much of the day sat on the beach enjoying the warm sunshine - not bad for the middle of winter! All in, we had a really really good time in Sydney - Nick and Dad played the tourist part to perfection by buying cork hats! Oh dear...!! We enjoyed a few nice evenings at the Rocks (overlooking the bridge and Opera House) and also Darling Harbour, another Sydney icon. It is such a nice city, lots of old buildings mixed in with the high rise and wide open spaces to break up the city streets.

Sadly, last Sunday we had to wave bye bye to the visitors... it was very sad to see them go as we had had such a brilliant time! After a sad farewell at the airport we headed back to our new digs...no more swanky apartments for us! No, we are now fully installed in a hostel for the time being and have spent the last week fruitlessly job searching. We did however give ourselves Friday off (there are only so many CV's you can hand out!!) and went off to the Blue mountains for the day. They are not far out of Sydney and it was a really nice break from job hunting! Unfortunately the weather was a bit cloudy so we didn't get the best of the views, but we did ride on the worlds steepest railway which was quite scary! It is an old coal mining track that now transports tourists down a valley...all good fun! It was really cold up in the mountains, I think it made us appreciate that Sydney isn't really that cold!

Yesterday was exciting for Nick especially, as we went to meet his cousin Stuart who he has never met before! He lives just out of Sydney so we went and said hello and met his wife Beck and their lovely 6 week old daughter Culeigh! Nick is very priviliged to be the only UK based family member to have met her yet and given her a cuddle!!

Anyway...best go...hopefully we will be getting sorted with a job soon as we plan on staying in Sydney for a while longer...but we will see what this week brings...we'll let you know!!

xxx