3 men and a Miranda

At the start of March two of James BFFs, Hurrell and Anu came to stay for two weeks. Two weeks isn't really much time when you come all the way to Australia, so James took the same time off and planned a non-stop itinerary for them. They managed to pack in Australia Zoo, kayaking in Mooloolaba, a skydive at Rainbow Beach, camping on Frasier Island, a Queensland Reds Rugby game, sailing in the Whitsunday Islands and a few nights in Sydney. Oh, and Anu also did some diving! I have no idea how they had the energy to keep going! I left them to it for the most part as I had work, plus I had already enjoyed a four hour kayak with James previously... and I'm a bit dubious about camping on Frasier with the Dingos. Anu did say it was one of the worst sleeps of his life. However it turns out Dingos aren't too much of a problem, you need to be more careful of waking up to find drunk half naked (bottom half uncovered...)Frenchmen in your 4x4... (he went for a swim, in the shark infested waters, and lost his way...).

I did join them in the Whitsunday's which was amazing, I'll blog about that separately. I loved having Anu and Hurrell to stay, they are both such great guys and I know James loved having them here. It was very quiet and lonely when they left me to go down to Sydney! Apart from a bit of sun stroke for poor Hurrell, I'm pretty sure they had a good two weeks exploring together. I stole some of James' photos to share...

   

Hello Anu!

Glasshouse Mountains

I loved playing cards with Anu, he gets so angry if he doesn't win!

Sky diving

James landing

Attractive harnesses

I like Anu's socks

BBQing at Frasier

Sydney

 

Anu and a Wombat

Turtles and rum

Last weekend James and I drove the three and a half hours north to Bundaberg, well James drove, I mainly slept...!

For those of you that aren't Ozzies, Bundaberg is famous for making rum. So of course we visited the distillery for the tour and tastings, as James was driving I had all four drinks :)  James treated himself to a collectors port barrel and I managed to resist buying a bottle of the run liquer, which was a delicious mix of rum, coffee and chocolate, sounds dodgy but was yum. Still I knew it would just be me drinking it and I'm trying to save pennies. (By the way, the reason I'm wearing trainers is because you had to for the tour, I realise I look like an American tourist.)

Along we the rum, another popular tourist trap is the Turtle conservation project at Mon Repos. Earlier in the year you would see Mumma Turtles coming to the beach under the safe cover of darkness to lay their nest of eggs, (usually a clutch will be 100 eggs). At this time of the season you see the babies hatching out of the sand and making their way into the sea. As we only booked a few days before we were the final group of the evening, getting down to the beach at 11pm after a 7pm start, they keep you back at the site until they find something on the beach for you to see. So we didn't see a whole hatch erupting but watched the ranger dig up and already hatched nest and rescue a baby that couldn't get out. Then we watched the baby make it's way to the sea, where she will swim non stop for the first week of her life. We know she is a she because it's the temperature of the sand that dictates the sex. All in all it was a cool evening.

The following day, after a yummy breakfast, we made our way back down south and stopped at a small winery to wine taste and buy some goods.

Me with Bundy - the Bundaberg Bear

Enjoying the free rum samples

We love Bundaberg Rum

My driver

Our hotel for the night

Pretty stars

Baby turtles

Yummy pancakes - I only managed half!

Wine tasting

Catch up on kayaking

A few weeks ago, back when it was sunny, James and I rented a kayak for the afternoon. I nearly fainted when James told the lady we wanted to take it out for 4 hours. 4 hours?! That is a lot of paddling. It was actually really fun despite a hairy moment when I saw a fin and honestly thought that was the end for us! On closer inspection it turned out to be a pair of dolphins!

Long time no blog

Hello!

I have been a very bad blogger recently. My excuse is simple... I made it my New Year's resolution to blog more, and we all know that resolutions never get followed through. I cursed myself!

Also there hasn't been a huge amount to report on in the last few weeks. Basically, my life has consisted of working at the restaurant (it was crazy busy during the school holidays), working on the magazine, going to the gym, eating and sleeping! During the last two weeks it has rained pretty much non stop, limiting what we can do in our spare time... We've even taken a few walks in the pouring rain to avoid getting cabin fever!

We have had some fun with friends though - James' friends from work had a party a few weeks ago in their amazing apartment - 360 panoramic views and hot tub on the deck, and, best of all, a beer pong table (we beat all the other couples, mainly due to my skills - James was past his peak due to the beers). I've started seeing the girls from work more, going for beach walks and working out together. Diana from work recently celebrated her birthday (25th ;) hey?) so a bunch of us had a fun afternoon at a tapas bar.

James has finished his 10 weeks on emergency and is now back on normal hours - yay no more nights on my own, I find it hard to sleep when he's not there now. We've decided that we've got into a bit of a food rut recently so each week we both have to find a new recipe to make. Last week he made a yummy chicken and spring onion risotto  and I made chicken with mascarpone and pesto. 
I'm not sure what to make this week - if you have any suggestions then let me know?

Sorry if this is a bit of a mundane blog, we're planning trips to the Whitsundays and Byron Bay in March so will have much more to tell you then. James' friend Anu is coming to stay in February too which will be fun, James is very excited. For now we're just happy living our little lives and hoping for this rain to stop and let the sun come back! I'm getting pale!!

xoxo

Bumping around Fraser Island

I've been behind on my blogs, so here is a catch up from Dec 22...

Just before Xmas we took a day trip over to Fraser Island with Ian. We had originally wanted to go for a few days but work schedules only allowed a day trip. (Plus this meant we avoided camping over - a big plus for me. James seems to think camping in a place with snakes and dingos roaming is a good idea...)

We got picked up at 5.40am and driven up to Rainbow Beach where we crossed the water onto the Island, which is the largest sand island in the world. We then drove up through the rain forest as the tide was too far in on the beach to drive along it. We were one of the last pick ups so boarded the bus to find the only empty seats in the 16 seater 4x4 were on the back seat. What followed was a 12 hour day (about 8 hours of it driving) being bumped up and down, a similar feeling to that fairground ride where you all sit in a row facing the crowd and go side to top to side to bottom, and round again. The Island was really beautiful though and we had some time a Lake Mackenzie (although it was overcast by this point) and a rain forest walk (luckily timed in between big rain storms). 

James and I are defiantly going to go back and spend more time there, fingers crossed staying in a hotel - I've seen the snakes!

Losing at the races

On Boxing Day James arrived home at 9am, had a few hours of sleep while Ian and I took a trip to the Mall and then we all headed off to the races in the afternoon. Usually I do ok at the races and come away either a bit up or evens, but I didn't win a single race this time :( But it was still a great day, the weather was perfect and there were some other people we knew there so we had a great time choosing our horses and swapping theories - jockey colour, names of horses, size, colour etc - none of which worked! 

Afterwards we went to Kawana beach for a stroll as the sun went down, great end to a fun day!

Here's to 2012...

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope you all enjoyed your NYEs and felt ok yesterday!

I worked at the restaurant on NYE and although it was a very busy night had great fun. We had 330 people dining between 5pm and 11pm - 100 of which were in my section. Everything went smoothly and people were in good spirits and even tipping - a rarity here! James finished work and got home for 11pm and came to get me from work. Mooloolaba was crazy with an estimated 40,000 people around for the music, events and the teo sets of fireworks that were laid on. We got down to the beach just in time to see the fireworks set of the boat at midnight. It was a perfect way to end our year and see in the next.

2011 was a really good year for me, obviously we moved to Oz in October and have had a great first few months. James and I also city tripped to Berlin and Rome earlier in the year, and I sunned myself in Portugal and Cyprus with friends and family. I became a godmother to gorgeous Lucas and heard the happy news that my friends Nikki and Sam are getting married (but was sad that I missed Kat and Lee getting hitched). I've reconnected with my Mum's family out here and still keep in constant contact with my amazing Dad and Sister. James and I have grown closer than ever (sometimes too close, hey James?!{his farting!!}) and I can't wait for the next 12 months... Happy 2012 everyone, I wish you all health and happiness. xoxo