1. Xmas Day 2009 - Brendan's family at Waihi Beach

2. The girls on Xmas Day - Linda, Taya and Maria and Anna

3. David and Maria - just chilling out

4. Gareth and Maria - Waihi Beach house in background

5. Dave Dobbyn Concert at The Mount - Gareth and Anna, Brendan and Linda

6. Dave Dobbyn live in concert

7. Brendan fishing from the boat near Homunga

8. Sun setting from the boat - Waihi Beach

9. Moon rising over the water from the verandah of the beach house

10. Taya - walking from Homunga to Waihi Beach

11. The start of the track from Homunga to Waihi Beach

12. Homunga

13. Coastline between Homunga and Orakawa Bay

14. Orakawa Beach

15. Orakawa Beach - Taya, David, Stuart and Maria, Anna, Brendan and Linda

16. New Years Eve Mexican Restaurant - Taya, David, Anna and Gareth

17. Brendan and Nick - New Years Eve

18. Falls near Dickie's Flat in the Karangahake Gorge

19. Brendan and Linda - swimming at the falls

20. Beautiful Mr Wally

21. Pamela, Linda and Brendan - our private jetty at the Caloundra apartments

22. Kayaking to Bribie Island - Linda and Brendan

23. Bribie Island

24. Brendan and Linda with Caloundra in the background

25. Pamela, Linda and Brendan - Sunshine Coast

26. Linda and Roy - balcony of our Caloundra apartment

27. Australia Day pool party at our house in Darwin

28. Kate, Brendon, Brendan and Steph, Linda and Brendan

29. Dean at the BBQ

30. Australia Day Olympics - Linda takes a leap

31. Doug surfs the thong

32. Brendan takes a slide

33. Linda takes a dive

34. The trampoline is introduced - Toni Anne's turn to jump

35. The kayak races - Linda and Peita ready to go - On your marks....

36. Get Set - See the determination...

37. And it's over before it begins...

38. Now for the Guinness Book of World Records attempt for the greatest number of people to fit on a floating device at the same time - We did get to 9!

Christmas Holidays – Waihi Beach and Caloundra – then back to Darwin

7 February 2010

Six weeks to go! 

It turned out that we were lucky our plans to be in New Zealand for Xmas came to fruition. We very nearly spent our Xmas sitting at the Sydney airport twiddling our thumbs! We were due to fly from Darwin to Sydney and then onto Auckland on Xmas Eve – making it to Auckland late on Xmas Eve night – yes, it was cutting it a bit fine in hindsight, but with having to work up until the last minute we didn’t have much choice. The afternoon before we were due to leave, we had a text message from Jet Star informing us that our flight from Darwin to Sydney had been delayed by four hours – thus leaving us an hour between arriving at Sydney domestic and leaving Sydney International. We headed straight to the Darwin Airport to see if we could arrange getting on an earlier flight – via anywhere in Australia! – which would connect to our Auckland flight with a little more time to spare. No luck – everything booked out – but we were assured that the Auckland flight would know we were coming and would hold the plane for us…(yeah right).We then arrived in Sydney with an hour to spare – also having to pick up our bags and recheck them in as Jet Star does not allow for through check-in of baggage. We got our exercise – running through both airport terminals and paying for an $18 taxi ride between Sydney terminals. When we arrived at the International, we had 20 minutes to spare before our Auckland flight took off. Check in had well and truly shut and the girls at the desk had no idea (as we had been told) that we were actually coming. We were told that was that – we couldn’t go through. We were lucky however, that it was nothing that a good dose of tears couldn’t fix, and after Linda tried this, we had our bags checked in last minute with the oversized luggage and were rushed through customs with a personal escort right up to our gate. As it turned out, the flight was just starting to board when we arrived and we could breathe a giant sigh of relief. Xmas day spent at the Sydney airport hadn’t sounded like a great option.

Once we arrived in NZ though, we had a lovely and relaxing Xmas with Brendan’s family and friends that we hadn’t seen in a long time (including Wally the cat who took up residence on our bed once again – when he wasn’t in Bob the dog’s basket that is). We spent two a half weeks at the Waihi Beach house, relaxing, reading, walking, talking, a little swimming (though it was bit too cold for us now Darwinites) , eating, drinking etc etc. It was great catching up with Brendan’s brother Gareth and wife Anna and meeting baby Maria for the first time (over from the UK for her first beach Xmas and luckily missing out on the coldest winter in 30 years over there). We spent New Years Eve at The Mount with friends – Mexican restaurant and drinks back at their house afterwards, went to a Dave Dobbyn concert, took a trip back to Hamilton, checking out our old haunts and catching up with Linda’s ex workmates, lots of fishing, walking around Orakawa and Homunga areas and into the Karangahake Gorge etc etc. We will be in NZ again for about three months later in the year – September and October for skiing and snowboarding and November for some tramping in the South Island.

On-route back to Darwin we stopped for four days in a waterfront apartment at Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast to catch up briefly with Linda’s parents. This was our last relax before getting back into the routine of work again and also helped us to acclimatize back to the heat. (As much as the Kiwis believed it was hot over Xmas time, we were marveling at how we could walk for a good hour or two without even breaking a sweat. In Darwin, you can be dripping sweat as you sit in the pool! ) Our time in Caloundra was again filled with swimming, talking, eating, drinking, kayaking, walking, more talking etc etc.

Then it was onwards and upwards to Darwin where they told us that the three weeks we had missed had been filled with nothing but rain. We are not sure we believe them, as since our return it has only rained a little – mostly late afternoon and evening storms. The monsoon weather is forecast to reappear at the end of February, but at the moment it is just very hot and sticky. We are both back into the work routine now. Linda at the Early Learning Centre at St Mary’s School and Brendan for the NT Shire Councils. Brendan has been travelling a lot at the moment – particularly down to Alice Springs and Katherine. Both our workplaces are busy trying to convince us that we want to stay up here for another 12 months – but we are assuring them that it is not a hard decision for us to make – 12 months of work or 12 months of travel – mmmm I wonder…We are busy counting down every day, hour and minute of the next six weeks, but are very conscious that things are going to come to a close up here all too quickly and we will have run out of time for everything we want to fit in.

Our flatmates held an Australia Day party at our house a few weeks ago which included the World Championship Pool Olympics – a lot of fun. We are planning another party in March for Brendan and Peita’s birthdays (which as it turns out are on exactly the same day – only a year apart). We are also looking forward to a light plane flight over Kakadu to see all the falls in flood. We are playing touch football again – and actually won our first game of the season last week! – and Linda is contemplating a four week course of BootCamp before our departure. All this to fit in around work and getting the car ready to live in again.

We have arranged to meet one of Linda’s old flatmates from London, Gemma - who has moved to Australia from the UK and is now living in Adelaide – and her partner Seb – in Innes National Park down in South Australia for Easter. As it turns out, this is the same place we spent Easter last year and really enjoyed. We then head West to Western Australia and continue our trip up the Coast and back through the middle of Australia. We are meeting both sets of parents back in Alice Springs at the start of August. Brendan’s mum and dad are tripping through Uluru, as is Linda’s mum. Our mother’s then fly back home, while our father’s team up in Linda’s Dad’s 4WD and join the two of us on a Grand Finale trek through the Simpson Desert, back to QLD. So much to fit into the ten months of travel after leaving here.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying life – whatever you may be doing.

Love Linda and Brendan. xox.