So we left Melbourne and flew to Sydney to meet up with Rhi’s parents Pauline and David, Aunty Lynne and Nannie. We were really excited to see them but even more excited to stay in luxurious accommodation and not having to cook for ourselves for a change…just kidding. We met them in Sydney airport, literally climbed into our mini bus and we were on our way to The Vintage Resort in Hunter Valley.

Hunter Valley is known as one of the most prestige wine regions of Australia, if not the world. We spent the first day wine tasting, where Glenys and Graham who are relatives of Rhiannon, run a tour bus and gladly toured us around. So we returned the favour and visited their home in Nelson Bay, and they also generously gave us a detailed tour of the area and invited us all for a proper aussie lunch…a BBQ! Later in the week David and I, managed to play a round of golf on the Greg Norman designed course at the Vintage (It ended in a draw). While Rhi, Pauline, Lynne and Joan spent a bit of time relaxing in and around the pool. We finished off the week by visiting a few more wineries but more importantly we visited a chocolate shop, where Rhi and I had marshmallows and strawberry’s dipped in Belgian chocolate! We had an amazing time in hunter valley, and throughout the week I think we had 6-7 bbq’s. Excellent.

Our next destination was a 10 hour drive up the coast to Tweed Heads. Where we were staying with John (Joan’s brother) and his wife Carol, and Terry (Joan’s nephew) and his wife Alison. They gave us a great welcome and were excellent hosts. They showed us what Tweed Heads and the surrounding areas had to offer plus much more. We all had a great time with John and Carol, Terry and Alison. And would like to thank John for introducing us to Andre Rieu and for showing us all a brilliant welsh film called Very Annie Mary.

From Tweed Heads to Agnes Waters, another gruelling 8 or so hour drive. We arrived at our house, walked through the doors and were instantly hit by the amazing view over looking the ocean. There wasn’t a lot to do in Agnes waters or its neighbouring town of 1770 but it was great to unwind and relax for a couple of days. We strolled and drove around, taking in the beautiful scenery and coast line. We also took a dip in the sea, we couldn’t believe how warm it was and definitely could have spent the whole day in there. There were tennis courts available, so David and I decided to have a game, all I’m going say on the matter is that David fluked a win. The further up the coast we were getting, the higher the humidity and temperature got. This was the first time that we were all struggling to cope with the humidity, but luckily as we were located so close to the ocean, there was a lovely ocean breeze blowing through the house that did slightly cool us down. The house was amazing, unfortunately we were only spending a couple of nights here before moving on to Airlie Beach.

We stayed in Airlie Beach for two nights, again there isn’t that much to do here because its such a small town, apart from a bit of shopping, relaxing and swimming in the man-made lagoon at the beach front. We really enjoyed our stay here though, the views from the apartment were again amazing and overlooked the whole of Airlie Beach, the harbour area and in distance the Whitsunday islands. One of the most distinctive memories of Airlie Beach, that I’m sure we all will remember is the HILL and the “deadly” turning into the apartment.

We made our last long road trip to Palm Cove, which is roughly 20km north of Cairns. Here we spent 5 nights in a luxurious house that had its own pool. Thank god it did, as the humidity up there was unbearable at certain times of the day. We could escape and cool down in the pool. One time, Rhiannon chose to be thrown in fully clothed. We took a ride on the sky rail that took us over the rainforest for about 7km and had a really good time. We made a short trip to Port Douglas and visited the tropical zoo, where we fed kangaroos, saw crocodiles and other animals.

From palm cove we flew to Hamilton island, which is part of the Whitsunday islands. We all immediately fell in love with Hamilton, our villa was over looking the ocean and other Whitsunday islands it was really beautiful. The main form of transport on Hamilton island are golf buggy’s and we had our very own, which was pretty fun to drive around and explore the island. Unfortunately, a speed restrictor was fitted to the buggy. We spent the majority of the time relaxing and cooling down in the pools. One morning David and I, went on a snorkelling trip on to one of the reef’s off Hook island. We both really enjoyed, got to see some strange but wicked looking coral and a range of colourful fish. Our final evening on Hamilton, we all enjoyed a cocktail whilst watching a beautiful sunset and a perfect ending to our island adventure.

Our next and sadly our final destination travelling with the Rees’ was Sydney. We stayed in a penthouse apartment overlooking Darling harbour, Sydney city centre and the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the distance. We caught a ferry from darling to harbour to circular quay, this gave us a perfect view of the harbour bridge and the opera house. We strolled around the circular quay area and also took a tour of the opera house, which was very interesting. We also climbed one of the concrete pillars of the Harbour Bridge which gave fantastic views of the harbour. The next day we caught another ferry, this time to Manly, where we walked along beach front and did some shopping for souvenirs.

I think its safe to say that we all had an amazing time together, got to see a whole lot of Australia in 25 days and a holiday that we all will never forget.