January 10th

I have never seen so much rain!! It has rained almost non stop for the last 4 days- Brisbane was lovely but it was really difficult to see or do much with all the rain. We did get out to see Moreton Island on Saturday - the 3rd largest sand island in the world and had a great day touring the island on a 4WD. We also had a chance to go Sand Boarding - like tobogganing except on sand dunes....it was brilliant fun :)

We are now on the Gold Coast where 'the beaches are stunning and the weather is fantastic all year round' - except that it hasn't stopped raining so we can't really get out to see the beaches :( As the locals say - well at least it's warm rain :)

January 6th

We have had a fabulous week in Sydney - what a fabulous city. The highlight was definitely the fireworks display but we got to do and see so many other things too. We spend a day in the fabulous blue mountains, took ferry trips around the harbour, went to Manly beach, Bondi beach and Palm Beach (where they film Home & Away), spent lots of time walking around the city and had a very special dinner at the revolving restaurant in Centre Point Tower, overlooking Sydney at night.

We also got to go to the Ashes cricket on Day 4 - which was an amazing experience . The atmosphere was fantastic and England had an incredible game!! We then travelled to Brisbane tonight and plan to spend a few days here and on the Gold coast.

December 31st

Happy New Year from Sydney!!

We have decided to take a few weeks out and have a really special holiday to celebrate what we've come through over the last year. Dave has been to Australia a few times and loves it and he's always promised to take me here one day and show me around - so this is the day!! We landed on the 30th December (in time for New Year) and are here until the 30th January :)

What an amazing place to spend New Year and see the most incredible fireworks display ever! And what an amazing story we have to tell already....

We planned to watch the fireworks from a garden area that looked over to the harbour bridge & opera house. On the way to get our place, amazingly we bumped into friends from Swindon who were in Sydney for the weekend! We were amazed to see them and stopped to chat for a while, but by the time we got to the entrance gate the place was full and they stopped people going in - we were 3 from the front!! We were devistated as this was meant to be the highlight of our trip. We wandered around for about an hour and thought we wouldn't even get to see the fireworks from a distance and in the end we decided to go to the central area right next to the bridge where we knew it would be impossible to get in. Amazingly, after the 9pm fireworks a lot of families with kids left and they let a handful of people into the Rocks. We somehow managed to get a front row seat - next to people who had been queuing since first thing in the morning or even the night before! The most amazing view we could ever have hoped to get!

It just goes to show that sometimes when what we think are bad things happen, it's because God has an even better plan in store.

December 25th

Happy Christmas to all!

Hope you all had a very special Christmas time with families and friends. We travelled to Ireland and had a really lovely few days with my family. It was amazing to look back to this time last year and the lovely surprise to see everyone turn up at our doorstep but I'm so thankful to have had a very happy and healthy Christmas this year :)