Mr M and I have just booked our big holiday for this year - visiting my Mum and Dad in Australia at Christmas time. For 4 weeks! ;D
I am thrilled ;D It will be the first time I've seen them in 2 years.
Going to start praying for a hot Tasmanian summer - it can be like here some good and some not so good (like this year so far :-\)
Saved hard and paid for it all up front this time - no overdraft or credit needed.
Good for you Moggle! We returned to see hubbies rellies and all our friends, after a 7 year absence in April, spent 3 weeks and realised how mad my mother in law drives me, and how much I miss my mates! ;D (Love her dearly tho!!) Did manage to ring up the cards :'(, will take us another 7 years to pay em off, but as we say in our family, its only money! (till you have none!) Bet you have a great trip, and your Parents must be SOOOOOO excited!! What a lovely Christmas present for you all ;D HOPE it is hot for you! (surely gotta be better than this!!) DP
|know the feeling! Me and OH are hoping to get to Aus this christmas, or more likely Jan, to meet my rellies, also have to get there quick as "We are a godmother" !!! His Mum ( my coz) needs me!!
Oh I am green with envy now! We went to Australia for the first time a couple of years ago, with my then 6 month old daughter. It was my brother's wedding and we had a wonderful time. I thought it was a lovely country, although we did only see a tiny bit. I know we will go back again one day. To all of you, have a wonderful time!
DP I really hope it is going to be HOT! But they are having their coldest winter for something like 7 years, I'm hoping that's not a bad sign. Either way, it's just nice to have a break from the winter here. Yes, Mum and Dad are thrilled, as are all the other rellies.
CL the sooner you book, the cheaper it is! We are going from start of Dec to NYE, which has made it cheaper too. Friends went in Feb earlier this year, and apparently that was quite cheap too.
Plocket which bit of Aus did you go to. It's a big place. You can look on the map and Tasmania looks tiny, but it's about 3 times the size of Wales, and takes at least 6 or 7 hours to drive from one end to the other. Not very densley populated though, only about half a million in all that space.
I'm really looking forward to all the FOOD! Tasmanian Pinkeye potatoes - Yum! And there's a food festival between Christmas and NY - guess where I will be every day ;D ;D
Sydney, Gloucester (north a bit from Sydney, for the wedding), Hunter Valley, and Sydney again (where my uncle lives). My husband wants to do more of the wine regions! I want to do Perth which is where my brother now lives - he loves it there - better than Mount Isa where he was!
It might be hard to believe, but I've never been to Sydney - 2 hours by plane from where I used to live in Hobart. Always visited Melbourne or Brisbane instead where I had relatives or friends.
Hunter Valley - one of my dad's favourite and much visited areas ;D Lots of lovely vineyards in South Australia - the Coonawarra is meant to be excellent - I know the wines are! Plenty of vineyards in Tasmania too - we make some nice bubbly and good reisling and Pinot Noir mmmmmmm :P :P :P
Mr M's uncle lives in Perth, so I am sure we will visit there at some stage, perhaps not on this trip though. Meant to be lovely and warm there :D
Sydney is very cosmopolitan! Very friendly. We liked it.
Hunter Valley is GORGEOUS! Coonawarra = fabby wine! Pinot Noir is my FAVE grape - particularly in champagne! Perhaps Tazzie should be next on our list...
I want to go to Perth but as I say it will be a few years yet! We also want to go back to San Francisco and Napa (more wine!). Hum. One day.....
And that's just reminded me. Chris Tarrant used to do a morning show on Capital Radio. He used to play a theme tune from Tasmanian radio - can't remember it now though.....
Hey moggle have the most fabulous time ever. My nephew spent a year touring OZ and said it was wonderful one of the best things he has ever done wants to go back and travel a different route somtime in the near future. all the best to you & yours. Rosebud.
Moggle I hope you have a fab time. My sister lives in Oz (Gold Coast), we visited 4 years ago and had a lovely time. Although I dread the flight there and back, too long for my liking, especially with young children. It will be lovely to be there for Christmas, hope you have good weather. When we visited the Gold Coast we have not so good weather, I was surprised as I always thought the weather in Oz was perfect all the time! But seeing family after a long time and just a change of scenery makes up for it. Have lots and lots and lots and lots ....... of fun! ;D
Plocket, my favourite Coonawarra vineyards are Wynns, Brands and Hollick - Yum! :) You really should put Tassie on your list though - although I admit I am biassed. Lovely countryside, and the best Pinot Noirs (biassed again) from really light refreshing strawberry-ish ones to rich and deep and earthy complex ones.
Rosebud, thanks for your wishes. I have probably seen more places in Britain and Europe than in Australia, but we intend to move back there at some point, so we will see more of Australia then.
Thanks Jesseveve, I find that it's a common misconception about Australian weather - people always ask me why I came to the UK. Australia has ski fields too, and Tasmania's climate isn't that different to here - a little warmer in the winter, but we do get the occasional bit of snow, and my home town is overlooked by a snowy mountain for a lot of winter.
I've visited the Gold Coast/Brisbane in the middle of summer (loved the theme parks!), and found it the opposite - too HOT. 35 degrees C or so every day - too much for me, unless you can spend the entire day lounging in a pool ;D
We were there in March and most of the time it was hot but not very sunny and lots of rain, lots of humidity and lots of things that want to bite you! But we still had a good time despite the itching all over all of the time. I don't miss the heat or humidity at all (from SA). I love having snow in winter, I always complain that we don't get enough here in the south, and seeing each season is such a pleasure, you can get tired of having summer all year round, nothing to look forward to.
When we were in the Hunter Valley they offered to show how to work the heaters for the evenings because they were having a "cold" spell. To us it was hot (on average 25 degrees during the day) - we were the mad English using the outdoor pool, barbequeing and enjoying the heat! We had to keep the air conditioning on at night!!!
Oh yes, that's the worst thing, trying to sleep at night when it's hot and sticky and then you always get one ...... a mosquito that is, intent on buzzing around you, that high pitched zzzzzzzzzzz, I don't miss that one little bit. Although a better summer than we have had this year wouldn't be missed!
Can't say I love the winter Jess, but I do love the spring :D
And it's so green here, it's fantastic! :) I don't miss mozzies one bit either - they do seem to love me :-\
Plocket, that sounds like my mum and dad when they were in Alice Springs quite a few years ago. Locals freezing - mum and dad thought it was lovely and warm :D
Hahaha Plocket, reading this thread, first of all, have a great time Moggle, I am very jealous! My mums sister emigrated to Adelaide years and years ago, and we have never been! Tis on our list of things to do, but I cannot imagine taking the kids on a plane for that long, a couple of hours in the car can be hell! Now back to you Plocket, oh you brought back memories of me getting ready for work whilst Chris tarrant played that jingle....Hobart Tasmania, it's a wonderful town..la la la for a minute I could remember all of it, and as quickly as that it has gone from my brain again!
It was a belter wasn't it!!!
"Hobart has the river ????,
Hobart has Mount ????
Hobart has the best, but better yet,
Hobart has Radio 7HO!"
Oh boy would that stick in your brain all day!
Thanks for your good wishes EJ.
And Plocket, never heard that jingle, but then I never listened to 7HO. But I can enlighten you about the river and the mountain bits in the song. The river is the river Derwent, and the mountain is Mount Wellington which is about 1300m high and towers over the city.
What a wonderful trip to look forward to. Reading all these happy memories of holidays and visits down under has made me think that the arrivals hall of any international airport is just about one of the happiest places to be. Its fantastic when families, friends and loved ones are reunited. Its happened to me with my relatives in Canada. The excitement and anticipation of seeing everyone again is overwhelming, even better if you've got a distant land to visit as well and its great to be standing against the barrier with lots of others watching eagle eyed at everyone emerging from the customs hall.
Hi Moggle - now the rest of the jingle will bother me. I guess I could try to find a Radio 7HO website.....