Back on the mainland.

Early in December and with the summer sunshine warm on our backs we find ourselves at our latest (and last), house and pet sit here in Australia.

Our home for the next 6 weeks is a lovely one-level brick-built house in a very quiet and secluded suburb of Wollongong. The Illawarra Escarpment rises dramatically at the back of the house and the pleasant and green area provides us with plenty of opportunity to see the local birdlife not to mention the resident Blue Tongue!

Since arriving we have explored the local area, taken a trip out to a local vineyard for some long overdue wine-tasting(!), relaxed at the local beaches, and spent Christmas at North Wollongong Beach and spending some time at the Wollongong Harbour watching the locals do Christmas ozzie-style!

A quiet but lovely Christmas came and went (as did the mountains of food we lovingly prepared in the run-up to the festivities!!), not so sure the extra kilos will disappear so rapidly!! Christmas in the sun (a first for us), and it was very bizarre to be so warm, eating Christmas lunch outdoors and seeing cockatoos fly by......an experience in itself!

Boxing Day we went to the nearby vast Nan Tien Buddhist Temple, the largest in Australia.
A superb day out, beautiful, peaceful, spiritual and inspirational........









No sooner was Christmas over and we were preparing for our NYE celebrations - we were lucky enough to get cash gifts for Christmas so with some of the dosh we splashed out on a trip to the Blue Mountains for a couple of days before New Year......we had a fabulous time - read all about it in the next post!!