We had a few more days together in Melbourne before Karen flew back to Townsville and Sally and Ren flew back to Perth. Before everyone went their separate ways we had some pre-dinner drinks at Marnie’s apartment in the Docklands, followed by one last big family dinner at our favourite Chinese restaurant in Hawthorn.
The view from Marnie’s apartment. The whole family together!!
My fam: Sally (super pregnant), Marnie, Mum, Dad and me.
Our family friends the Sellars took us out for a sail on Port Philip Bay, which I haven’t done since I was a kid. It was a hot summer’s day and perfect for sailing.
Adri takes the helm. The city by the bay, from the bay!
The last time I’d been home for Christmas was way back in 1999, so it was a great to be around family and friends this year. It was especially important for me to be home because my older sister Sally was pregnant with her first baby, so it was definitely a time to celebrate! In fact, the last time we’d been together as a family was for Christmas in Spain way back in 2002.
We were able to catch up with some of my friends over the days before Christmas. I had a great catch-up with some of my old friends from university at Katie and James’s place in Richmond. I hadn’t seen some of these guys in five years!
Christmas Day at home was fantastic! We had the whole family there – Mum and Dad, Marnie, Sally and Ren flew from Perth, and my Aunt Karen flew down from Townsville. We were joined for lunch by our good family friends the Owens, and through the afternoon many other friends dropped by.
Christmas Day at the Anderson’s. Far too much fine food and wine consumed… Enough even to wear the silly paper hats from the Christmas crackers.
Boxing Day (26th December) means one thing in Melbourne – the Boxing Day Cricket Test at the MCG! It was a gorgeous day so I took Adriana to see her first game of cricket. We also met up with some of my friends from Berkeley who were traveling around Australia over the break, and we went to the match together. There was a huge crowd of 75,000+ at the ground for the game, and we had a relaxing day in the sun swilling beer. Not sure what my American friends thought about cricket though…
We made our way up north along Highway 1, which follows the coast for most of the way to Brisbane. Our first night was in Port Macquarie, a small coastal town popular with Sydney beach holidayers. It was great to unwind at the beach after a day’s driving, and we were able to find some really fresh seafood (king prawns and "bugs", which I’d been wanting Adriana to try) that we gorged the next day when we were up in the mountain rainforest up along the Waterfall Way.
The next day took us to Coff’s Harbour, which didn’t do much for me – the beach was good though, and there was some big surf running so I spent a few hours body-surfing.
This huge goanna joined us for lunch! Our picnic spot for lunch.
We had just one night in Byron Bay. It was really difficult for us to find somewhere to stay, and I was amazed just how touristy the town has become since I was last there (admittedly that was a long time ago!). The next day we took a detour to beautiful Mount Warning National Park. The mountain is an old extinct volcano and its slopes are covered in lush, tropical rainforest. We took a few hours to hike the lower half of the track to the summit.
It was a bit of a sentimental moment to return to the Gold Coast. My grandparents retired up there and we used to visit them for a week or two for several years when I was a young kid – good memories!
Left: Adriana polishes off a watermelon. We’d just bought a couple of kilos of fresh king prawns and about a dozen Moreton Bay "bugs" for lunch, and we drove to this rocky headland looking over Burleigh Heads to dig in. It was a great meal with fantastic views.
Right: The view from Nobby’s Beach (near Miami Beach) north towards Surfer’s Paradise. My grandparents retired just a few hundred metres from here, and we used to visit them each year when I was a kid.
On our final morning in Queensland we went to Currumbin Sanctuary for a good dose of Australian fauna. It’s a great place to see everything in one spot, and it didn’t disappoint!
Sleepy. Big Red.
Adri. Echidna.
Tassie devil. Tree kangaroo.