25km...7 bridges... and sore feet!

We have had a really good week. Nigel is doing really well at work, his company are processsing our new visa and a fun weekend with friends. I have started working at a new school and it has been going well. Yesterday Kath and Chris came up to Sydney with some other friends, the boys went to watch some football and me and Kath had a girlie evening chatting, sipping cocktails and enjoying the view at the Sydney Opera bar. Couldn't sleep this morning so decided to get up and go for a run across the harbour bridge. When I got there I realised I hadn't checked the schedule for this weekend and there were lots of people starting out on their walk across Sydney in the aid of Cancer research. Every year there is a 25km walk over the major bridges...7 in total and 7 villages. I carried on with my run through the crowd and by the time I had made it home I had reached the decision that it would be a good idea to do it! I now just had to convince Nigel the same... it was a lot easier than I had anticipated and after a quick shower we headed off full of enthusiasm for the task ahead.

On arrival we were presented with a booklet and told that we should reach stations along the route with people to stamp our booklets to say that we had completed that part of the course. Challenge on! It was a really good day and despite the last 10km being mostly uphill...which I have to say is very unfair when you have already done 15km! The views were spectacular to say the least and the 25km loop gave us some great views back over the city and took us past some beautiful parks, bushlands and amazing houses. It took about 5 hours in total and we were very glad when we reached the final check point and had filled our booklet. Needless to say that we are taking things easy this evening and tending to our very sore and slightly swollen feet and sunburn! Now we just need to get a good nights sleep and start looking for our next challenge!

Half term break in Melbourne...

As a reward for working really hard all term we decided to book a trip to Melbourne to relax. We had an amazing trip although relax we did not, it was fairly busy but well worth it. We decided to go back and visit the couple that we stayed with for 2 months and catch up with the horses we were looking after. Here are two that I we weren't even able to catch before we left. They have settled in to life at Highfields well and as you can see they are very comfortable around people now. Last time we came to Melbourne we spent a frustrating hour trying to find a very famous street with little success. This time we would not fail and off to Ramsey Street we went! Here are our pictures hanging out on the street...shame they weren't filming.






The next day we set out nice and early to tacle the Great Ocean Road. Despite having some patches of rain we had a good but very long day. The views were fantastic and Nigel saw his very first wild Koalas in the trees. We stopped along the way to see the many amazing beaches, rainforests and rock formations.







The next day we drove 2 and a half hours north of Melbourne to a town called Echuca. It was like stepping back in time with the old boat port. We spent a lovely afternoon on board one of the paddle boats and enjoyed a long lunch and glass of wine while we sailed down the Murray River. Then we went for an afternoon horse ride at an out of town activity centre. All in all a great trip and well deserved after 2 months of both working very hard!

A couple of friends get engaged...

As many of you may know our friends Chris and Kath are getting married at the beginning of next year. Last month we went to their engagement party here are some pictures below.