Hey Everyone, hope you are all well and hope you are all excited for Christmas and New Year !! We are getting into the festive spirit now so we are very excited for christmas !! It will be the first christmas that me and matt will spend with each other (in 4 years) so we are looking forward to it very much !!

Western Austrailia
Over the last month we have travelled the southern region of Western Austrilia and it was beautiful !! We toured the south area with Kathryne and Michael as they hired a luxury campervan for a week (lucky b*****s, they had a microwave and a fridge)!! From freemantle, we started the tour with a visit to Rockingham and Bussleton !! In Busselton we walked the longest pier in the world (approx. 1.8k) so that was quite cool !! Next we visited Banbury which is a nice costal town where dolphins regulary swim into the shores of the beaches !! We arrived there in the morning and waited on the beach for two hours for the dolphins but sadly they did not turn up !! We were dissapointed but decided not to wait any longer as we would see them along our travels !! We then travelled to a place called Margret River which produces most of Australias vintage wine. The scenary in Margret River was breathtaking, you drive along the roads and all you can see for miles is achers of wineries !! Each winery has hundreds of rows of grapes lined along the huge fields so it was a lovely scenic drive !! When we arrived in the town we decided to sign up for a bushtucker tour that took us to 5 of the wineries, a beer, chocolate and cheese factory !! The tour turned out to be amazing as we did lots of drinking at each winery !! They took us to some of the huge wineries that were very grand looking and we captilised on the free tasters !! In total we did 40 tasters each and we tasted a mixture of red and white wine and port !! After about 10 tasters we all started to feel a little merry so it was a very funny day !! For lunch we had a tradtional bushtucker meal which consisted of traditional Aussie food like Kangaroo etc....... and we treated ourselves to a lovely bottle of wine !! At this point we were drunk !!! After the wineries we went to the cheese factory and ate free brie and vintage cheddar and it was the most amazing cheese that we have ever tasted. We then headed for the chocolate factory and we were in luck as at the factory there were huge buckets of free choclate buttons on offer !! Me and kathryne went choclate mad and loaded up on the choc supplies (We each went up four times to get more chocolate, the assistants were not impressed with us !! At this point we were all feeling quite sick as the combination of wine and choclate and cheese was lethal !! To finish the day off we went to a beer factory and tasted the local ale which was very tasty !!

Margret River is also known for its amazing surfing beaches and there was many of them to explore ! The beaches there were gorgeous and there were great surfers riding the waves !! Kat and Mike both did a surfing lesson (and they tuned out to be very good) but me and matt decided to keep our money to buy a surf board at a later date!! Another highlight of Margret River was that we went Lake cave which was a very beautiful cave !! In the middle of the cave was a lake so it was a very pretty setting !! You were surrounded by crystals dangling from the cave walls and they all reflected from the lake so it was very beautiful !! Was my first cave experience, and it did not dissapoint !!

After Magret River we drove through the Karri forest which is home to the huge Karri trees !! They are very tall and thin trees and it was a gorgeous national park !! Our next stop was to Pemberton which was where we all climbed a tree that was 62 meters high. There were metal spikes coming out of the tree which you just climb all the way to the top. At the top of the tree they have built a hut that you can look out of and see the surrounding forest. It was brilliant as you are not strapped in so it was very scary. If you fall, you die, its that simple !! After climbing 10 metres me and katherine were so scared we just froze (by the way i am very scared of heights, so my hate rate was pumping overtime). However the boys convinced us to climb it and i am so glad we did as it was amazing !! The views from the hut were jaw dropping and to know that you could fall off at any time and plumet 62m to the ground was exhilrating and nerve rackin !! It was an amazing experience and we loved it. Also in Pemberton we went to the tree top walk which was a metal boardwalk that is 40 meters up off the ground in the middle of the forest !! It was a cool walk as you were so high up from the ground and as the trees were like gaints it was a great view !! Sadly during our tree top walk it started to thunder and pour with rain so we all got extremely wet! However as a consequence of the rain, a rainbow formed in between the trees so it was very prety and justified us getting soaked !!

Afetr pemberton we drove to Albany which was a big town in the south !! During our stay in Albany we met up with Claire and Andy from our stay in Coral bay, so it was great to see them again !! We visited the rocks that are famous in Albany (they used to be part of the Antartic which was real cool) and we went to see some blowholes which were great!! Matt would stand over the blowhole that was on the cliff and when the gust of air would rise, matt would nearly take off !! It was a very fuuny 10 mins, and matt is now hooked on Blowholes and looks for them everywhere we go !!

After Albany we drove 3 hours to Wave rock which is a rock that has naturally formed to shape like a wave. It is 15 meters high and 110 meters long so it was a beast of a wave!! Driving there we hoped that the rock justified the 3 hour road trip and luckly we were not dissapointed !! The rock is massive and it looks exactly like a wave that is about about to break !! The rock was very steep so posing for the pictures in a hang 10 postiton was challenging !! The rock also had different colours running through it so it was awesome to look at ! It certainly justified the ride !! After seeing wave rock we said our goodbyes to Kat and Mike as they were heading back to perth to fly to New Zealand !! However we are all meeting up again in Sydney for new year and christmas so we would not be apart for long !!

We then headed to a place called Esperance which was gorgeous !! Apparantly they say that it is the only place in Aus that you will find a kangaroo sunbathing as the beaches there are gorgeous !! It turned out that the beaches in Esperance were beautiful and they were in abundance !! Every corner you turned on the great ocean drive would bring a new stunning clear blue sea beach !! One of the nicest beaches that we saw was Twlight Bay, it was lush to look at and there were some small lagoons in the bay so it was really beautiful !! We were very exicted to go to Lucky bay which is suposed to be the nicest beach in West Austrilia and is a must place to see !! However due to unfournuate circumstances we could not go there as the beach was surrounded by bush fires !! The national park where the beach was situated at was in flames due to all the bush fires so we were unaable to go there due to all the smoke !! We were gutted about this and decided to leave Esperance the following day to drive to Adelaide !! The only downfall from the Southern regoin was the weather !! It was very nice and sunny to start with, but by the end of the week it was freezing and very wet and windy, so it did restrict us when we wanted to visit places !!

South Austrilia
It took us three days in total to get to Adelaide which is in South Austrailia, the journey was soooo long (Austrailia is stupidly massive, its not even funny !) !! We drove for 10 hours straight each day and on the 3rd day we finally arrived in Adelaide (thankgod !!). We drove along the longest straightest road in the world that went 90 miles without turning a bend. It was pretty fun to drive, however matt got very bored driving the 90 mile straight stretch (i had a good book to read so i was all good)!! We were back in the outback driving so that was quite fun as the scenary was awesome to look at.

Adelaide turned out to be a gorgeous and scenic city with lots of culture and history !! We really liked it there as the city has so much to offer and has lots going for it!! There is great shopping there and there are lots of cool things to see !! They have a huge indoor market there which was amazing, Matt was in his element !! We walked around the market for hours as there was so much variety to look at !! The food there on offer was great and if we were rich we could have ate all day !! Sadly we made do with a muffin as that was what we could only afford !! During our stay in Adelaide we went to the museum and saw an awesome whale and dolphin display (we love the sea and marine life now so we always love to see stuff relating to underwater life)!! We went to the Adelaide Oval which was really nice to look at !! However we missed the ashes test by four days in Adelaide which we were gutted about, but we are in sydney for the final ashes test so that should be cool. Thou it looks like it could all be over in the next week for England if they loose at the Gabba in Perth, so we will have our fingers crossed.

The buildings in Adelaide were really grand and old looking and there was so much culture to the city !! The whole city is surrounded by grass and gardens so it is very green and pretty !! The botanic gardens there were really nice and we strolled through them for a relaxing walk !! Just outside of Adelaide is a place called Glenelg which was a pretty but posh coastal town !! The beach there was lovely and it was a real lively place with lots of resturants ! There was no tacky shops there so it was a very elegant costal town!! We slept there most nights during our stay in Adelaide as it was easier for parking !! However showering was a nightmare during our stay there as there was few around. In the end we showered at the back of the beaches in our swimware when the sun was gonig down. We got many funny stares from the locals when we washed our hair, but we thought it was funny!!

Our next stop is the great Ocean Road and Melbourne so we will update you on our whereabouts soon !! Take care all, hope that everyone is well and is live and kicking !! Have a great christmas and new year, have a drink on us !!

All our love, Amy and Matt x x x x x x x