Hello,
Well things are going great in the world down under!! Christmas, given the circumstances away from home and family was absolutely amazing. We ended up going to Mike from Vancouver's place and hanging out with him and the Kiwis during Christmas day then went to our staff Christmas party that evening (Which resulted in getting home at 5:30 am and working at 6am) which didn't go over well. Christmas was hard but it's over and done with so now it's all good.
Emma and I were feeling a little bit crazy the other day and went down to the transit station in Surfers and booked a plane ticket to Sydney the next morning(Dec 31) to meet up and have New Years with all of our friends in Sydney. Thank goodness we did because it was absolutely freakin remarkable. Sydney is supposed to have some of the worlds best fireworks shows and it definitely lived up to its rep as it was the coolest thing I have ever seen. They had a show at 9pm and then the big sha bang at midnight and we were right down by the Sydney Harbour by the Opera house and nothing could've topped our New Years!!
The next morning we hopped on a bus to Brisbane as Chris and Kelsey are arriving here in 2 days. The bus ride turned into quite the adventure as we got about 1 hour out of Sydney and were heading threw a valley when some spot forest fires started in front of us due to the 45 degree Celsius weather it was yesterday. We ended up in a major traffic jam pretty much at the front of the line and ended up being stuck around these fires as they were trying to evacuate all the vehicles and homes in the surrounding areas. It was pretty cool though because we stuck there for a couple hours and watched these forest fires getting bigger and bigger and there were tons of emergency vehicles and helicopters all around us. We ended up getting turned around and having to go back to Sydney and taking an alternative route which all together added about 10 hours extra on the bus. It was worth it though; definitely a cool sight to see and we got lots of pics.
Other than that, things are going extremely well and we can't wait to get back into the backpacking mode once they arrive. We just booked into a hostel in Brisbane and I love the atmosphere and how cool all backpackers are. The only thing is that it is getting so unbelievably hot and apparently Jan is the worst month. Yesterday it was plus 45 and only getting to plus 33 during the night and today is a staggering plus 47, Yikes!!
Anyway I hope your Christmas was absolutely wonderful and all of the best to you and your family in 2006. Have a Happy New Year and I look forward to seeing you when I get home.
Lot's of Love and Best Wishes
LaRae
