Hi everyone and Happy New Year from sunny Brisbane!

Hope you all had a good Christmas- we had a great time in Sydney. After Christmas Daniel went down to Melbourne to watch the boxing day test (in the member's area no less!) which he really enjoyed- they had great views of the action. Philippa stayed in Avalon with Sara and Didi and had an altogether more relaxing time on the beach! On the 28th we all met up in Brisbane and picked up our huge minibus of a hirecar and drove up to Noosa. Our apartment was lovely and in a great spot next to the river mouth (leading out to the sea). \

On our first day, we got a bus to the main beach and realised just how popular Noosa at Chrsitmas time is! Not an inch of space! So we walked to the first beach inside the national park which was much quieter and the bluest, warmest sea we've ever been in! We also saw a Koala and a big Monitor lizard! The next day we'd all had a bit too much sun so decided to go to the Steve Irwin zoo (it had to be done really)- but it was still over 35 degrees and we all wandered round sweating buckets! It was a cool zoo though- lots of hand on things and a big show with the crocodiles which was very "Steve Irwin"! On New Years eve the young 'uns walked through the whole national park, beach to beach, and then finally cooling off with a dip in the sea at the end. Beautiful sights along the way (still over 35 degrees!) including Sea turtles on the way back! Later that day we hired a boat out on the Noosa river and went swimming near the sea- great fun. After a night time swim and champagne in the jacuzzi (!) we watched the fireworks from the beach.

Today we've arrived back in Brisbane (after a quick visit to see Adam's dad- who tried to ply us with alcohol at 11am - needless to say Philippa likes him!) and left the rest of the Garson/Easton crew driving on down to Sydney. We're here for a couple of days and then off to Fraser Island on the 3rd. We're off to Thailand on the 5th and not sure if we'll have much internet access so we might not update this again.

See you all in two weeks!

Lots of love P and D xxxxxxxxx