Hi to all and we hope everyone back home had an amazing xmas,feeling guilty as we havent written a blog for a while, well we flew back up to hervey bay after meeting my folks for the week in sydney to pick the van back up and start again where we left off - heading south again - from hervey bay we drove to a small town called tin can bay, not much here but there are two resident dolphins , which come right in , there are two rangers there that dish out the fish and u can stand in the water and feed them, which manda really really enjoyed ( I dont think theres a single animal she hasnt stroked/saved/fed since weve been away), the only thing was we had to be there at six so was a v v early start!!!

The next few days just consisted largely of sightseeing, we spent some time in brisbane, noosa, tweed heads and everywhere in between, we didnt even realise that we'd crossed the border at tweed heads and there is a one hour time difference!

the eneviatble happened when we got 25 k north of sydney, the car stopped working, 3 nights in a motel later, we were towed back into sydney and picked up a new van.

didnt have much luck with this one either, as we decidied to drive south to canberra and batemans bay for a few days before xmas, but on the way back up to sydney 10 days after our initial breakdown the engine blew up on a blind corner going up hill on the main freeway!!! not good, a car nearly rear ended us & skid across the road, manda was quite upset and we had to climb a steep embankment to get to a safer place. luckily the police came out and blocked the road off till a tow arrived. The rac guy just said the engine had seized bcos all the coolant had leaked out, so it was time to take this one back and get a third van, hopefully this one will see us down to adelaide. FINGERS CROSSED. weve been very kindly given a flat to use in the centre of sydney for xmas, it even has a rooftop heated pool and tennis court !!!! Christmas day was spent eating luxury x'mas foods, Drinkin some beers while trying to relax around the pool, only there were a bunch of crazy drunken party peeps from the flat next door rockin it up!! However after an hour we made our escape!! lol

Today is boxing day and we will be having a traditional cooked dinner, chickens just about done so will have to go love to all hope your enjoying the festive period x x x

We head out to the blue mountains until new year then were gonna come back to sydney to watch the fire works, and then head south, we will upload some pics soon,