Hi Everyone!
Sorry it's been so long since I last wrote anything on here, we've been spending lots of time visiting family. After Melbourne we went to Sydney and stayed with my cousin Sophie and her flat mate Jenny in Surry Hills which was lovely. On our first day we met my other cousin Katherine and her boyfriend Ben who live in Manly and we walked through the botanical gardens to have lunch in the Harbour. We had lots of nice meals while we were in Sydney including a lovely picnic in the botanical gardens after a big night out, a meal in Manly with Katherine and Ben and dinner at ripples restaurant on our last night with a view of the harbour bridge.

We didn't spend the whole time eating though, we managed to fit in a 14km fun run from Sydney to Bondi called the City to Surf, and Sean and I did a lovely walk from Coogee to Bondi beach.

From Sydney we headed up the coast to Byron Bay to meet Sean's brother Barry and his partner Nicole who live in Brisbane. The weather wasn't so great though, we arrived at the start of the first storm they'd had in 5 years! But we ignored the rain and had a great time visiting the lighthouse and Nimbin and then we went back to their house in Brisbane where we did a tour of the XXXX brewery.

We escaped the rain by going to the Sunshine Coast. On the way we went to a secret spot that Baz and Nic know where there are loads of wild kangaroos right next to people's houses, we even got to feed some. We stayed at Nicole's mum Vicky and her partner Jonny's homestead. It's an amazing place, Jonny has built everything, it's really very special. From there we visited Noosa, had a picnic on the cliffs over the beach, Sean had his 1st swim in the ocean in Oz (it was still a bit cold for me!), said a sad goodbye to his aerobie frisby (it was lost to the sea, they don't float, doh!), and we went boating on the Noosa river. We also had a huge fire while we drank port and watched the red moon, and spent lots of time playing with their dogs Podge and Eric!

Back in Brisbane Sean and I visited Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary which was lovely, we got some Koala cuddles and held some tiny chicks. Baz took us on a great tour of Brisbane and we ended the walk with drinks at the powerhouse and a great view of the riverfire fireworks over the Storey Bridge from Newfarm Park. We also went go karting, I was a bit of a Sunday driver but the other were really fast.

Sean and I spent a few days at Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, we got one really sunny day and I did make it into the sea this time, however it got a bit rainy after that so we did some bowling and mini golf. We also went to a shooting gallery and shot a semi automatic and a 44 magnum.

As I'm writing this we've just got back from a couple of days on Moreton Island, a big sand island just off the coast of Brisbane. It was beautiful, we rented a boat, drove round the ship wrecks on the coast and fished, there weren't many fish but Sean managed to catch a bream. In the afternoon we took advantage of the Tangalooma resort activities and played boules, archery and basketball. That evening we watched the sunset and fed dolphins, a group of wild dolphins come to the shore every night and we got to feed fish right into Tinkerbell the dolphin's mouth. It was amazing, they're such beautiful animals.

Today we rented a 4x4 Jimny and explored the whole island, we did lots of beach driving, sandboarded down dunes in the desert, saw more ship wrecks, swam in the blue lagoon and the ocean and had a picnic in the rocky honeymoon bay, it was such a good trip...

We're having a lot of fun, I can't believe how fast it's going. We're staying with Barry until 19th Sept when we fly over to Perth so I'll let you know what we get up to there!

Keep in touch, love Vicky xx