Did we blink and miss it? Now we are on the way home we find it hard to believe our holiday is over. The only thing that proves the last ten weeks existed is this blog….oh and the huge dent in my bank account. The holiday has cost much more than I thought. Petrol prices haven’t helped. I think we’ve spent about £2,000 on diesel alone!

We spent our last night in Neutral Bay in Sydney. The attached picture shows some of the family getting together for the last supper. From the left you have Roz, Robbie’s Dad, Tim (Robbie’s youngest brother) Us of course, and then Teresa & middle brother Johnno. The small hairy thing with Robbie is the extremely cute dog that Bronte mentioned in her last post.

Have things changed since this trip? Yes, Jack has grown loads, not just in height but also in maturity. I’m glad we did the trip this year. Next year Jack probably won’t want to spend time with us and will have turned into a moody brat!! This year he was a pleasure to be with. They both were. Bronte is as cute and cuddly as ever and her cheerful outlook on life and funny accents have kept us all amused. Has she grown. A little I think! Her hair certainly has! Above all they have learnt to be patient and tolerant and to work as a team. They’ve experienced things most kids could only dream about and have met a whole new family. Their new great grandmother in Aus liked them so much she gave them 50 dollars each! Mind you, Jack somehow seemed to manage to bring at least £150 back with him to England!! How does he do that!!

We are sitting in the airport in Korea now. Homeward bound. See you all soon.

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At last we are back in Sydney and I’ve had my first decent meal in weeks.  Sorry you haven’t seen me for a while but the hot climate doesn’t suit my woolly attire.  I’ve been hiding in the esky for several weeks now  (that’s a cool box for you ignorant pommies).

The last few days have been very rainy but very fun. First day of rain was in New England. They didnt call it that for nothing. The second was called the Warrenbunggles that was very good because Ralph,Robbie and i went on a big walk up a mountain. It rained the whole time but we were climbing up the cliff and that was really fun.after that we had a few games of baseball and then headed for Sydney.

Hi everyone did you have a good holiday? Yesterday we were at a place called warrenbungels, and it was good but most of the time it was raining but it was stiil fun.The first night we were there Jade and I saw a Kangaroo and it came really close and it let us stroke it and it was really cool and we called it Skippy. And also when we were just leaving it came up to us again.(it was so cute).Then we made oure way down to Sydney to see Robbies brother again and they have bought a new house and they bought a dog to and it’s name is Tike and it is so cute.It bites a bit and licks but it only a puppy.we are going home tomorrow. See you soon.Bye xx Bronte

hi edd and harry we knew you were coming home and we decided to have a celebration and we bought you a big present………we bought you a shop haha. Also we thought you might have been jealous of us buying a van for Maisie so that was another reason we bought it for you.see you soon bye.xx

hi everybody the weather really hot we came into brisbane yesterday and each year they have a celabration of spring. we went to it yesterday and it was cool because there were loads and loads of fire works and there a jet that flew right over our heads and it was really cool. see you soon bye xx

There are lot’s of ‘dry’ areas in Australia, especially where the aboriginies have a drink problem. The bit about pornography made us laugh as generally there the boards are right out in the middle of nowhere and you’d have trouble finding a newsagent in a radius of 500km, let alone a top shelf to buy ‘Debbie does Darwin’ or the like!

I looked through the photos and there are hardly any of me and none with animals so here is one with the aboriginie!

The sheep station we are staying on is huge. I think they said it was 94,000 acres. It took us about 30 minutes to get down the drive when we arrived. Bill and Ann manage the property on their own. They are both in their late 60’s. It is an incredibly difficult life. We’ve been staying in the sheep shearers quarters. We are all trying to help them out while we’re here. At the moment Robbie, Jack & Bron are off rounding up some stray sheep for shearing. I had a lovely day yesterday with Ann in the jeep, moving sheep from one paddock to another. I loved listening to her stories of life in the outback. The kids are having a whale of a time. Bron has fallen in love with the new sheep dog Bella. Bella should be trained by now but her liveliness makes her completely untrainable. She adores Bronte and follows her everywhere. It was funny watching her today. Bron was sitting on the chair and the dog starts with two paws and her head on Bron’s lap. Then she hitches up another leg, and then the other, squeezing herself into the chair next to Bronte. It was so funny. We think they suit each other because Bronte always sneaks in between Robbie and I in bed each morning.

If I ever came back to Aus, this would definately be a place I’d revisit. Beautiful scenery, tons of wild emus and kangeroos and green grass which we haven’t seen for over a month. We were sharing the campsite with a film crew filming a new movie called ‘the last ride’ We saw the baddie in the film Matrix, Hugo Weaving (something like that anyway!). He was in the same restaurant as us that evening.