December was filled with birthday parties and Christmas parties. Kai's birthday is on the 8th of December, but since we both had to work that weekend, we just had a quiet dinner at a nice restaurant on the harbour. We spent my birthday weekend camping with Roxie on the beach a couple of hours north of Sydney.
We went to a friend's house for a nice dinner on Christmas Eve, and then we flew up to Port Douglas to spend a long weekend together. It was great to just relax and get away for a while. We also went diving at the Barrier Reef and saw a (small) shark! We had also gone diving in Sydney earlier in the month, but there's not too much to see when you're so close to the city.
For New Year's we went to one of my friend's place in the city. From her apartment, there was a great view of the bridge and fireworks...Amazing!! We've been spending quite a bit of time at the beach and enjoying the summer. We went camping again with some friends over the Australia Day weekend. We stayed at a great place on the beach, and Roxie was able to come too!
One of my best friends in Sydney that I also worked with, Dave, finished his law degree and decided to take a job with a law firm in the city. I'm really happy and excited for him, but work is just not going to be the same now. Of course, in traditional Aussie style, we had many drinks for his last day. :)
Last week we were in Tasmania. We spent about 9 days there. For 6 of the days we were hiking and camping on the Overland Track. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overland_Track ) It was really tough carrying our bags which were about 20 kg each (with all of our food, sleeping bags, tents, cooking supplies, etc), but it was definitely worth it. It is so beautiful there! We saw lots of wallabies and even a few poisonous snakes. Unfortunately, we didn't come across any tasmanian devils. After our first day of hiking, we cooked what was to be our dinner every night - a delicous 'just add water' pasta. One package said it served 4, but we were still starving after that so we made another one! The next day, we very foolishly, decided to walk 21km....At the end of the day, we were exhausted and sore, and we fell asleep immediately....I think it was only 8pm. :) The third day of our hike it rained all day. It wasn't too bad, but there were lots of leeches out that were very disgusting! We had really good luck with the weather...It was warm and sunny every day except for that one. That night we had a visitor in the middle of the night...We had our bags just outside our tent, and a possum came and tried to take my bag away because it smelled the garbage I had accidently left in the side pocket. Kai hit it with a water bottle, though, and saved the day! :) The next day, we went to see a beautiful waterfall. Kai went swimming even though the water was near freezing! That night we stayed at Pelion Hut. It was really beautiful and peaceful until about 20 helicopters went by the next morning to deliver food and stuff to the private tours who were too lazy to carry it themselves. It was really quite annyoying to have that disruption in such a remote place. Our last campsite was really nice - right by the river. Somehow Kai convinced me to go swimming too...maybe he couldn't stand my smelliness anymore. :) Even though I complained a lot at first, I got used to the temperature and really liked it. At that site, there were about a million flies there that were always buzzing around our heads....We had to walk around while we ate. The last day we took a 30 minute boat ride back to civilization. Some people decide to walk the last 5.5 hours, but we were happy to cheat....We were dreaming of chocolate, ice cream, and beer. :)
After our hiking, we spent a day in Hobart and a day in Launceston. We hired a car in Launceston and explored the north east part of Tasmania. Although it was really beautiful, it was also very boring. Unless you're hiking or drinking wine, there's not too much to do in Tassie. It was nice to be back home, but now we're just planning our next trip!
On 9/February I took the Australian citizenship test and had my application approved. Now I have to wait for a ceremony date in a couple of months, and then I'll officially be an Aussie! :) Don't worry, I don't have to give up my American citizenship for it. I basically did it because it will make things a lot easier to travel in and out of Australia....and it will be easier for me to get Kai back into the country after our travels this year and next. I'll be a dual passport holder soon....very exciting!
Paul will be here this weekend...I can still hardly believe he's actually coming! And then Deanna will be here next month. I'm so excited to see them again!! They are going to be so busy....Since they're both only here for about a week, they will have very full (but hopefully exciting) days!
Kai's brother, Benny, is coming to visit us at the end of February as well. He's traveling around New Zealand and Australia for a couple of months, and he'll be staying with us for a few days....We're going to have a full house with all our visitors, but we're really looking forward to it!
some more photos are here:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=14afcsxi.3nljqwcu&x=0&y=-vtd443&localeid=en_US&cm_mmc=site_email-_-site_share-_-core-_-view_photos_button
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