So as promised here's my long awaited update for everyone. I'm going to do my best to recount everything, but bear in mind some of it goes a bit far back. I'm also going to break it down on a bit of a daily basis:

Wednesday Nov 15th - Today we had a big Sydney day. We got up early and went to Tauranga Zoo in the City. What a neat zoo. I got to see Koala's, kangaroos, wallabies, wombats and even a platypus! After the zoo we took the ferry across the harbor to circular key which is the main port/area of Sydney. The ferry across was super windy, but the views of harbor bridge and the opera house were amazing. We killed a bit of time when we got there by wandering around the rocks and then we went to Minus 5, which is a bar completely made of ice. To go in you get big coats with fuzzy outsides, gloves and even warm Ugg boots to wear. You go in and you only get 1 vodka cocktail drink and a half hour later your time is up. Although Matt was disappointed that the floor wasn't ice, we had a great time.

Thursday-To be honest i have no idea whatsoever what we did. I think we just hung around Matt's aunt and uncles place on the central Coast. Actually now i think i remember. We wanted to go to this random little winery that was near their place, however when we got there it was closed. We went out to the RSL for dinner and that was it. As i've just been reminded i didn't bring a purse (and therefore my ID) with me and i got ID'd and told i couldn't be served a beer! Needless to say i wasn't happy although we snuck around it.

Friday we headed to Adelaide. Matt's fam (Aunt, Uncle and cuz) met us at the
airport and we went back to their place in the Adelaide Hills. On our way home
Aly (Matt's cousin) spotted our first Koala.

Saturday- Matt drove me around the hills and we ate at this fabulous bakery in Stirling and went around to Heathfield which is one of the houses Matt grew up in (or spent half his time in). I met his Dad, Peter, and we checked out his house which incident's has a swing in it's living room. Very cool. Most of it tho was really spent matching up stories that Matt had told me with people and places. It kinda brought a lot of it to life.

Sunday- As Matt's Aunt Jenny had just turned 42 the week before she had opted to hold off on a birthday party 'til we were around. Later in the afternoon Matt's brother Sean turned up and then everyone started to arrive to the BBQ. We had loads of amazing food and just generally a lovely time.

Monday- As Sean had stayed the night we decided to spend the day just driving around checking out things in the area. We went to Handorf which is one of the oldest German settlements in South Australia. We also went to the top of Mount Lofty which is one of the higher points of the area which is also where Matt's mom and Peter were married. We then went to Morialta Falls where i managed to almost step on a brown snake (readers note that 11 out of 15 of the worlds deadliest snakes are in Oz and this is at the top of that list). We dropped him back and went back to hang out.

Tuesday we settled in as for the first we time we had some rain. We opted later in the day to check out Adelaide itself. We strolled down Rundle Mall (i kept the song "Adelaide" by Ben Folds in my head most of the time). And ducked into a few stores. Target it pretty big over here but for some reason i think i prefer the one in the US. Wierd, but i do.

Wednesday we decided to have a day of culture and went up to the Barossa Valley which is amoung South Australia's most famous wine territory. We headed up in Matt's other cousin Alex's little car which due to having a souped up larger exhaust system (on a rusty old Camry held together with duct tape). We first stopped at Jacobs Creek which is probably the most famous winery there aside from Yellow Tail (which is what brought SA wines to the USA). We (well i, considering that Matt was the DD) tried a few wines and i we picked up a bottle of the Shiraz reserve. There's something really quite cool about being able to say that you've been to the winery of the wine you drank on a regular basis while abroad. We then went to the Richmond Grove winery and bought a lively French Cask Chardonnay (which incidentally ranks a 95 on Jeremy Oliver's scale). As we didn't start 'til pretty late we were now starting to push our luck on time and really out of random luck we turned up at the Rolf Binder (aka Veritas Winery. We showed up 15 min before closing and met just met such as lovely lady behind the counter named Julie. She stayed for an hour past closing just generally chatting and talking and helping us sample all the wines. We picked up a few lovely wines, but what is more to note that she took such a fancy to
us that she took our picture and details and currently we are now up on the Rolf Binder website (http://www.rolfbinder.com). We left the Barossa and made our way down to Adelaide and had an amazing dinner with Matt's old mate Kim and his partner (in Australia everyone's girlfriend or boyfriend is referred to as their "partner".)

Thursday--Matt took me to where he grew up which was town about an hour outside of Adelaide called Mannum. Mannum overlooks the Murray river and we had a lovely day eating pies overlooking the river. We then went across on the ferry to Cowirra which is where Matt's house is. I saw the salt flats where he drove his motorcycle and got a tour of the house (Peter spends half the year there and the other half at Heathfield). After seeing the house we went to his grandpa's house and i met the final bit of the family. We got back to Crayfers (which is where Matt's Aunt and uncle live) and then met up with Matt's old friend Alan for a few drinks at...the Bridgewater Inn. Meeting Alan was cool because i'd met his mom Barb several times at family functions in the UK.

Friday-Sean came up and Matt, Sean, and I hit up Cleland Wildlife park. I fed Kangaroos, Wallabies, and Emus. It was really nice and to be honest, kangaroo's
are probably the softest things i've ever felt. After the park we headed to the city and met up with Matt's old friends from school in Mannum. Incidentally while we were outside having a beer waiting for other people to arrive we saw Ruth, an old family friend of Matt's family who came to stay with us in Ireland. Although we thought it was pretty cool we ran into her, it's prolly a bit more rare for her to see us.

Saturday- Matt, Sean, Alan and i played a whooping 9 holes of golf. For me this is a really big thing as well, i've never ever played golf. We made the big mistake tho of scheduling a teeoff time of 1pm--right in the middle of the heat (which it was about 100 degrees F out.) Despite seriously struggling around the 7th hole (well, me and Sean were). We finished and came back. I can't tell you the score since we didn't keep count, but i did enjoy myself, even if i was dragging clubs in the hot sun!

Sunday- We headed to Perth. The best part was that for the first time in 23 years of flying on planes someone famous was on my flight. Chris Issak was in the front row with his drummer and entourage en tow. Suprisingly, in Australia you don't have to be ticketed to get into the gate areas of airports so Matt's aunt, uncle and cuz came to the gate with us. And off we headed. We were met in Perth by Matt's former flatmates (and good pal's) Stu and Emily. Perth was freaking hot upon arrival, but we cooled off by going to Stu's family's house for a swim.

Well, that's about as far as i can take you all up to tonight. I'll try to finish it off tomorrow and add in photos.

x
Lindz