Tasmania

Well what can I say about Tasmania! Its Australias most forgotten tourist place I reckon! So many people miss it when they travel here and they are definitely missing out! Leigh-Ann came to visit, and a trip to Tasmania was on the cards!



The tour we did was with Adventure Tours, and it was called 6 day taste of Tasmania. www.adventuretours.com.au/6-day-taste-of-tasmania-tour-package It had all the highlights of the state, and the pictures here say it all!!! For me the highlight had to be quadbiking over the Hefty Sand Dunes! Was the best way to spend an hour, and had so much fun chasing each other around and trying to keep up with the guide!


Tasmania also has a lot of stunning hikes to do. We did so many that led us to waterfalls (in fact we thought the country was nothing but waterfalls in the first few days!), but 2 of my favourite hikes were up to Mount Amos in the Hazards to get a view of wineglass bay and up Cradle Mountain. Both were particularly challenging, and I was very proud to make it to the top!

We also stopped at Bay of Fires, which was one of the prettiest beaches with bright red rocks hanging around. It was amazing to see, and we certainly had fun playing around on the rocks for an hour!

On one of the waterfall hikes, we encountered a crazy Indiana Jones type mental bridge that was suspended across cliffs to get a view of the waterfall.... Was the scariest thing ever trying to cross it as I had visions of Indiana Jones style moments and the bridge collapsing. Was so pleased to make it over the other side, and absolutely terrified of heading back on it!! Survived though!

The week just flew in and within 12 hours, I went from backpacker to bank worker.... I know what I'd rather be doing!!!!!

Emmas arrival!

Well Emma hits town, and its been amazing since she arrived!! So much going on I don't know where to start!!!

Well first there was the weekend introducting Emma to Melbourne, and going to Taste of Melbourne food festival where I ended up having an argument with a posh restaurant over ysabi... yuk yuk yuk!!

The following weekend was spent skiing, with a very random bunch of people. The highlight was undoubtedly the spa after skiing all day, I had totally forgotten how hard is was on your poor wee legs and thighs!!! Need to get back up there next year for some more action!!!

A trip down the penninsula was had the following weekend where Emma saw her first roos, we had a disasterous attempt at guitar hero, we won a $50 bar tab and Emma broke a few hearts!! We also witnessed our first bogan wedding, and had a lot of fun in Portsea pub! Sun was out and life is good!!!

The funniest strapline for this picture ever is "spot the driver"... lol!! John drove us all out to the winerys at the Yarra Valley and this is our visit to the 5th one after wine tasting all day! Was a top day!! Sandy is visiting from Scotland and he got a great tour of Melbourne from us Scozzies, having a Sunday session at Riva with the St Kilda footy team, a great gig at the Corner with Aussie band Little Red, and a big night out at the Indie club in Richmond!!! Work is so getting in the way of life!!!!

Scotland July 08

There are too many funny stories to write about, so thought I'd just stick on some of my fav pics from an amazing trip back home!! From Loch Lomond, to Thai food, to T in the Park, to 3 sisters, to International Starters, to the Garage, to Ben Nevis, to Ashton Lane, and finally to good old sunny Johnstone, I had the best time ever!!!! Thanks everyone for making it so special!

The last of the autumn days....

Can hardly believe how quickly the rest of autumn went! All of a sudden winter has started, you can see your breath, big scarfs and gloves are out and the fog is hitting every morning! Brrrr!

Anyway, going back, the highlight of the past couple of months has got to be the V-festival! Being honest, the line up was pretty crap, but such a top day and the last of the awesome Melbourne festivals until at least September! Crazy shennanigans going on, with the night ending up with everyone having stolen festival bags, and at a party in the suburbs with playstation 3 karaoke sing star! Hilarious!!

St Andrews seemed to be the place to be aswell, with 2 weekends away down there in May. First was just an excuse really to sit in a spa all weekend, and boy did we try our best to do so! Lots of drinking games, whiskey shots, and forefits going on. Lets just after the 'lycra incident' a few of us are scarred for life!

The second of the St Andrews weekend was Christmas in May! Its generally a tradition in Oz, that all the ex-pats celebrate Christmas in July, when it actually really does feel like Christmas, and not in the height of the summer! So 20 of us hired an amazing house, with an east wing and a west wing, and celebrated Christmas in May - randomly a couple of months early! The weekend was amazing, with top range of games, take that dvds, twister, Christmas punch, Christmas dinner, mulled wine, a spa, pool table, ping pong and no dodgy relatives coming round!!! Any excuse really to have Christmas.... thinking about another one in July! haha!!!

Autum in March is just all wrong, but great fun!

March was a brilliant month with more public holidays and short weeks than you could wish for! The highlight of the month was a trip up to Sydney to catch up with some mates from Scotland who have recently moved there. Spent Friday night dancing around to cheesy tunes at the Rocks, Saturday afternoon with hunky American men on Bondi Beach, and Sunday drinking expensive cocktails in the rather posh Opera Bar, enjoying the view of the harbour. Top fun, perfect weather and good girly banter!!

The Melbourne food and wine festival was also on, which meant doing rather a lot of wine tasting, both in the Yarra Valley and in Southbank. Becoming an expert in different wine types and an expert in dealing with the hangovers from mixing different types!!! Great fun though, especially when you top off the day by having curries in Brazillian restaurants... random!

Easter was earlier this year and a group of us took a road trip up to Yarra Ranges to go camping. However there were no campspots available, so we had to camp illegally in KingsLake National Park. Lessons learned from the trip is never to put your tent up on a hill, never take a dog camping, it bloody freezing at night here and get your tent packed up quick smart before the ranger comes round in the morning!! Was good fun overall though, and a top way to see a bit of the countryside!

Lots of good gigs this month too, with Maximo Park, Jack Johnson and Maroon 5 all rockin up to Melbourne to show us their stuff. Highlight had to be Jack Johnson, except for the cold rainy night that he played on. A sure sign that summer is leaving us behind...

Fun times in Feb

Lots of fun and games happening in February. My birthday hit (and yeah turning 27 was painful), and I had a big party in the flat, with a lot of punch and a tim tam eating challenge, that proved to be too easy! 3 tim tams in 1 minute is Achieveable! Even if you do look like a pig!

The highlight tho had to be Craig and his gay-boy competition with my neighbours. I'll leave it there!

The backstreet boys hit Melbourne and strutted their stuff in style - well they defo haven't aged as gracefully as Take That. Lets just leave it there before I upset any backstreet fans reading, if there are any left!

Had a wee camping trip in Feb down to Bwron Heads, which is south of Geelong. Was so much fun putting up a tent and sleeping outside and the highlight of the trip was a visit to the Bwron Heads hotel - man what a scary place that is! Actually on reflection a lot of things went wrong that day, including nearly getting lost, putting up our tents in the wrong park and a dodgy bbq! But survived the trip overall!! More camping trips is the way forward!

Chilling out in Hawaii!

I've wanted to go to Hawaii since I was about 8 and seeing in on a Saved By the Bell episode special, where the gang goes there to work for the summer! So finally get to visit the islands of Aloha! After a painless 10 hour flight, I arrive, and head firstly to Pearl Harbor to check out the scene. Totally amazing to see what happened all those years ago.

First island was the beautiful isle of Maui, and the early morning adventures are what I'll remember about Maui! Started off by going up a volcanoe and biking down it for sunrise - gotta love the cheesy pics, then getting my open water SCUBA certificate the following morning, after getting yelled at by American boat driver for being late. Man she was fierce! The rest of the time was spent chilling out on the beaches, driving along the Road to Hana (Great Ocean Road of Maui) and visiting a traditional Laua - where they cook the pig in the ground and put on a show! Lots of hula hula dancing going on, I even went up on stage to perform! haha! Obviously after a couple of cocktails!

After 4 lovely nights, it was then off to the isle of O'ahu where Honolulu and Waikiki beach are - the most touristy spots on the group of islands, and boy was it touristy! Spent the 4 days driving around the island to get away from the touristy beaches, and find peaceful quiet beaches, however since its winter, the waves are massive up on the north shore, so spent a couple of days watching the sufers and lying around on the sand in different beaches all over the island! Managed to fit in a massive shopping spree, gotta love Discount Premium Outlets, and eating and drinking cocktails, gotta love Cheesecake Factory and International House of Pancakes. Those places must be to blame for obesity in USA!

Totally amazing trip, just so relaxed and chilled out the whole time, would highly recommend a wee visit to Hawaii, so worth it!

No more hating January!

Normally in the UK you just hate the month of January, cos of the snow, the cold, the scary credit card bills, the dark nights and the thought of it all continuing for months on end! But here I reckon January is the best month of the year! Guaranteed to be sunny, always outdoors and so much going on, that you need to chop yourself into bits to do everything!

The highlight have to be the return of the Melbourne tennis open, and Big Day Out. The tennis was enhanced by getting front row seats to see the Police have to use capsicum spray (yeah its really called that) on a bunch of greek fans to calm them donw, while the greek player watched on in amusement! And Big Day Out's lineup, although dissappointing, was still one of the best festivals I've been to in Melbourne, with the atmostphere and the choice of bands to hear amazing! As always I think its the craziness of the people at BDO that make it so much fun. Makes me value my pals for being normal (ish!)!

Had a whole new experience too with a group of mates by having a weekend on a houseboat up in the Hawksbury River, just south of Newcastle. Top weekend, once we got used to using dingys and getting our hair wet, and being filthy. The highlights were Andrews very public display in the shower, taking a koala bear with us and watching it in an unnatural habitat, watching people fail the mighty impossible tim-tam challenge, and watching macca and knoxville almost getting swept away out to sea..... And I won't go into the traditional game of charades here!!

The month was topped off by a multinational Burns supper bbq down at Albert Park, with French, Malaysian, English and Welsh peeps. Luckily we didnt get into the poetry! Was a truly unique event Burns supper tho as there was not a sniff of haggis in sight.....!!!!