Home from home!

We can’t believe how quickly time has flown by-we will be home in a month’s time. Since our last blog, we’ve had lots of holidays, seeing friends and family from blighty and relaxing. Fi’s only worked 4 shifts in 2011 so far!

We welcomed the new year in with friends Alex and Amy in beautiful Sydney. We stayed with Alex’s aunt and uncle and Amy’s sister, Margot. They all showed us great hospitality and secrets of Sydney including a cocktail from the Shangri-La hotel overlooking the harbour and bridge, Bronte beach and sea-kayaking at Balmoral Beach. We had a civilised New Year’s Eve dining in style at Pott’s point, from where we watched the awesome fireworks. We also squeezed in some more cricket at the SCG, on day 1 of the Sydney test and Dave also returned on day 3 with Rob-he is now officially a cricket addict!

On arrival back to Melbourne, we had visitors Liv and Izzy Hunter which was lovely. We also greeted Fi’s Mum, Hazel. We had a great time with her, showing her where we live and some of the local highlights. We also took her to a house party where she showed us she’s ‘still got it’, out until 3am! We then had 5 nights in Cairns together where we did lots of day trips-to the Great Barrier Reef, Daintree rainforest, Cape tribulation and the town Karunda which involved a skyrail over stunning rainforest and waterfalls. When snorkelling we had to wear ‘stinger suits’ which made us look like the teletubbies – see attached photographic evidence. Hazel had to get rescued twice due to some initial teething problems with the concept of snorkelling. Somehow, she still loved it despite this!

We parted ways and we headed to Darwin, where we met our friend Dan. It is the wet season in the Northern Territory at the moment-the humidity was overwhelming. We had a road trip to Kakadu National park which we almost had to ourselves! We stayed there for 3 nights and explored the expanse that is Kakadu. It was incredibly lush and green and lots of the park is under water at the moment. We did as much walking as was possible, but we were limited due to flooded areas and the risk of meeting crocs! We did a sunrise and sunset river cruise, catching a glimpse of two crocodiles and loads of birdlife. En route back to Darwin we called into Litchfield National Park which complemented Kakadu nicely, especially as there are lovely waterfalls where you can swim. We didn’t risk it, however!

We returned to Melbourne for this weekend as we had Fi’s university friends Fi and Alasdair to visit. We went to the Australian Open and saw Tsonga, Isner, Cilic and Andy Murray....on the big screen(!) The highlight was the very close game of Isner versus Cilic-we were concerned at one stage it would rival Isner’s historic 70-plus set match from Wimbledon 2010! It was really good to have a weekend with Fi and Ally and also catch up with other Edinburgh medics, Sally and James.

We’re off to Uluru on Tuesday and then Fi returns to work next weekend. Dave will visit New Zealand before we head off to Japan. We are sad that our time in Australia is coming to a close, but very much looking forward to seeing family and friends again.