MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

We hope everyone has had a really good Christmas! It was really good seeing you all on skype! We had an alternative but very good Christmas over here!

We arrived in The Hunter Valley on Monday afternoon and were staying in a lovely log cabin type hostel! We thought we would have a little holiday from our big holiday seen as it was Christmas so we had a very packed out week! We started Monday evening with a walk to the local brewery! We had a brewery tour and beer tasting session! We tried some Kolsch, which on a hot day is extremely refreshing. An alcoholic ginger beer which is a very nice beer with a subtle taste of ginger, Christmas beer, a very rich spicy beer with an extremely Christmassy taste and last but certainly not least, Mango beer, its was very refreshing and believe it or not mango goes very well with beer! A very good start to the week indeed!

On Tuesday we got a lift into the valley by the hostel and went horse riding for an hour and a half! The weather was perfect, blue skies, really hot with a cool breeze to cool you down! We were the only people on that riding session so we pretty much had a private ride! My horse was called Bonnie and Greg's was called Star! They were beautiful horses and we managed a few trots and a bit of a gallop! It was a really good day out, the views were amazing, the weather was beautiful and we saw a group of kangaroos having a snooze, it was perfect except Greg kept flirting with the toothless riding instructor lol! She wouldn't leave him alone lol! So Greg had to make small talk with her but I had a lovely relaxing time! (I ached all over the next day though!) We were picked up by the lady from the hostel and unfortunately had to stop at the Chocolate factory on the way back! It was awful…we had to try all sorts of delicious chocolates and even bought some mint chocolate and Belgium chocolate with lime!

On Wednesday we set off on the Cheers Wine Tour Bus at 9.45am! We were with newlyweds from New York, a Canadian couple and a Chinese family! It was a really good group! We went to 5 wineries and tried between 7 & 9 wines at each place! The bus was quiet on the first stop but by the 2nd or 3rd everyone was a bit tipsy and chatting like mad! We stopped off for a really nice lunch, visited a few more wineries then finished the day at the cheese and oil factory…a little bit drunk!

Thursday morning we woke up with a hangover!!! So we chilled out in the morning, in the afternoon. Vicky Carl & the kids picked us up and we went to the Hunter Valley gardens, which are meant to be one of the top attractions in New South Wales! We had lunch and then went to the gardens which were all lit up in Christmas lights and had loads of kid's entertainment! Scarlett, Carlo and Jack loved it! As we walked around they were so excited! It was really Christmassy and it felt like home! We all went back to Vicky and Carls as they had offered us to stay for Christmas! We had a really good time! The kids were so excited about Christmas!

On Christmas Eve we all went food shopping then went down to the land Vicky & Carl have bought! It's a massive bit of land in a beautiful area, really quite and peaceful with kangaroos everywhere! For dinner Carl cooked a butterflied turkey with a garlic and herb seasoning on the barbeque! It was cooked to perfection and tasted amazing! We had roasted veg cous cous and corn on the cob with it! After the kids went to bed we set to work building and wrapping the kids presents!

We woke up in the morning to the excited shrieks of Scarlett finding her presents! It was really nice and Christmassy watching the kids open their presents! It was about 30 degrees outside so we spent the morning outside playing with the kids and their new toys! The Christmas dinner was really nice as well! There are pics on the blog of the Auzzie feast! We had barbequed ham with pineapple salsa, lots of cold meats and cheeses, nachos, potatoes, corn on the cob, homemade bread and the main event….gigantic prawns!! It was really nice and it was too heavy, so we could just eat and eat and eat!! Greg and Carl were dinking constantly from about 11am until 2am and very drunk by about 9pm so you can imagine what they were like by 2am! They were getting on really well until a game of scalelectrics turned sour! They were like a couple of kids sitting on the floor squabbling lol! 'I want the yellow car!'…'the yellow cars mine'…'my ones not working!'…'yes it is working, your just not doing it right!' They made up in the end though and that's all that matters lol!

It is now boxing day and Vicky dropped us off at the station with a packed lunch full of Christmas 2nds and we made our way over to Sydney airport where we are sitting now waiting for our flight to board and then we will be off to Perth to explore the other side of Oz! Hopefully we will have just as many amazing experiences on the west coast as we have on the east coast!

We will be in touch soon! Miss you all!

Greg & Lauren x