Adelaide

In January, we had the opportunity to re-visit Adelaide - this time for a friend's wedding!

We were planning a visit out to Kangaroo Island during our time there, but it proved to be too difficult to squeeze in. Instead, we threw in a beach day in addition to another tour of the Barossa Valley. Although we visited many of the same wineries that we toured in 2009, we also stopped by a few others that we didn't have a chance to visit last time. And...just like our visit in 2009, the temperatures were up above 40 celcius. Very, very hot!

And here are some shots from Glenelg, the beach town we stayed in for the wedding!

Australia Parliament Visit

Before Stacy's parents left to head home to Canada, we took them on a visit to see the Australian Parliament.

For those whom have visited Canberra, you will know that the Parliament building is one of the main focal points of the city. Being built in only the 1980's (completed in 1988), it has a rather modern design. The building itself was built into Parliament hill, allowing citizens (and visitors alike) to walk on top of it. Many also do not realize that the front architecture is designed to be shaped like a boomerang. If you stand at a distance, you can see this distinct shape.

Photo Credit: John O'Neil via wikipedia

We completed a guided walking tour of Parliament the day we visited. We were able to see The Great Hall, The House of Representatives, and The Senate. Here are some of the pictures we took that day.

The House of Representatives

The Senate

New Year's Eve 2013

For the second year in a row, we spent New Year's Eve in Sydney. This year, however, we booked a 4-person table on the balcony of the Novotel at Darling Harbour. The meal included a fantastic all-you-can-eat buffet, all-you-can-drink alcohol, and a perfect view to the fireworks at Darling. It was a great night, and allowed us easy access to our room in the hotel after the celebrations were done (thus avoiding the ridiculous crowds at the end of the evening).

Here are a very few photos of our NYE celebrations.

 

Blue Mountains

A few days after Christmas we all made our way towards Sydney for our NYE reservation. We had planned this trip with a stopover in the Blue Mountains as we had never been there ourselves and Stacy's parents wanted to see them before they headed back to Canada.

We had a very busy 2-night stopover, with us cramming in both Jenolan Caves and Katoomba's Scenic World all in one day. It was a day full of beautiful sights, but by the end of it we were exhausted.

Here are some photos of our stop at Jenolan Caves:

And here are some pictures from our stop at Scenic World:

The Famous 'Three Sisters'

The steepest passenger railway in the world

Another shot of the steepest passenger railway in the world

It was BUSY! (between Xmas and NYE)

Christmas 2013

Once again, sorry for the delay in getting these posts up. We have a personal goal of getting all posts updated before Stacy heads back to work in 6 weeks! :o

------- Anyways....

Christmas 2013 was a special one to us as it was Matty's first. We also had Stacy's parents here, so we had even more to celebrate.

Christmas in Oz, however, has never felt like Christmas to us. It is just too hot and there are so many traditions that are just so foreign to us (bbq on the beach anyone?). Nonetheless, it is fun time, but we always try to incorporate some of our own traditions into it. One of these traditions includes having a turkey dinner. Unfortunately, turkey in Australia is a bit difficult to come by.  First of all, the only time of the year that they are sold here is at Christmas time. Not many Aussies buy turkeys though (they prefer to buy seafood for Christmas) - so I speculate that they only sell them here to appease the expats. ;) Second of all, turkeys are ridiculously over-priced. We're talking $80 AUD for a standard-sized bird. Furthermore, it's never easy finding the standard trimmings that you are used to. For instance, cranberry sauce (jellied or whole) is not sold down here. They do have cranberry "jam" though (which was suggested as a substitute to us our first year here - barf). So this year we were prepared - we had Stacy's parents bring all the necessary trimmings down with them from Canada.

So everything was looking good for this year's celebration - that is, until the day before Christmas Eve when Blair came down with the norwalk virus. And as everyone knows, norwalk is quite contagious, so it was passed along to Stacy next. This meant that we needed to delay (gasp!!) Christmas by a day. So, in the end, we opened our presents on boxing day and had our turkey dinner that day too. All in all, it was a great celebration, but still fell short on feeling like a proper Christmas.