We’re leaving on a jet plane…….

2nd January 2007

Happy New Year! We survived (just) the carnage of the festive season down under, and I can happily report our livers are still functioning, and more importantly, we are still engaged!

After the fun and games in Melbourne we headed north for Christmas to the small seaside town of Yamba, in north New South Wales. We had been kindly invited to spend Christmas with Nathan and Emma, an Aussie couple who have previously spent a couple of years in Newcastle, where I had met them through our mutual friend Donnie. Nathan, Emma and family made us feel really welcome throughout our stay, and our first southern hemisphere Christmas was great fun. With Donnie and Jen also in town, we managed to celebrate in style, including a Christmas day game of beach cricket (despite looking forward to this for several weeks, I was harshly adjudged out first ball, ok, I was clean bowled, but pitch was dubious at best!), followed by a customary dip in the sea, and finally an al fresco Christmas dinner overlooking the ocean, including the largest king prawns I have ever seen (and quite possibly the highest ever ratio of wine consumed per person at any party in the history of mankind!).

Next on the agenda was a trip back down to Melbourne, and the eagerly awaited boxing day test! We had tickets (thanks very much Karen, a great Xmas present!) for the 3rd day, and although the result was unsurprisingly disappointing, we got to see Shane Warne take 2 wickets on what was his last ever game at the MCG! The MCG itself is an amazing stadium, with a capacity of 95,000. It wasn’t quite full whilst we were there, but the Barmy Army below us did there best to do England proud and create some atmosphere with unrelenting singing all day, a great effort! In the evening we hooked up with a couple of lads we had met on our outback trip for a couple of pints (yep, we were drinking in the ‘official’ barmy army pub, therefore schooners had been replaced by pints to make the beer bellied English supporters feel at home!). This trip to Melbourne also saw us say goodbye to Donnie and Jen, who were returning for New Years back in England!

The final leg of the party went back ‘home’ to Sydney. We enjoyed a day of R&R back in Coogee, meeting up with Dan again, who had some of his friends from Stratford over. It was nice to be back in Sydney, a place we both really enjoyed living in, with the beach and surf only a stones throw away from the hustle and bustle of a major city. The R&R was definitely needed as the New Years celebrations were about to commence!

We checked out of our hotel on the morning of New Years eve, and with not a bed left in the city, we were now officially of no fixed abode, until we were scheduled to check into our hostel on New Years day, in Byron Bay! We headed down to the rocks area, by the harbour, early doors and began to soak up the atmosphere. The place was alive with crowds of party people from 10.30am, and the vibe was excellent, the anticipation of the day ahead meant that everyone was in good spirits and with the sun just managing to poke through the clouds things were definitely hotting up (how cheesy, i should get a job in local radio!). The celebrations officially kicked off at 1pm with the firing of the cannon on Fort Dennison in the harbour, and there was a scheduled event every hour there after until the big one at midnight!

We had booked ourselves onto a harbour cruise for the evening, justifying the expense as a once in a lifetime opportunity! We were clearly still in backpacker mode though, turning up to board our boat at 6.30pm wearing shorts, t-shirts and flip flops, only to realise that everyone else had got dressed up for the occasion, with best evening apparel! Our boat was called Supercat and for the next 7 hours we cruised around the harbour, plied with free drink and all you can eat food! After the initial embarrassment of being underdressed had worn off, we quickly got into the party spirit, and we had the best seats in the house (slap bang in the middle of the harbour!) for the fireworks at both 9pm (the kiddies show) and midnight itself! The theme of the night was ‘a diamond night in the emerald city’ and the show certainly justified the grandeur billing, culminating in a huge diamond shape being lit up in the centre of the bridge (aka the coat hanger!).

After disembarking our boat at roughly 2am, we strolled around the city with the million or so other people trying to get home (taxi anyone?). We knew that the first train to the airport left at 5am, so managed to pass the time with a couple of pies, a quick boogie in an impromptu party in a shopping mall, and a kip in the park, with about 5,000 other people! Needless to say, by the time we actually checked into our hostel at 3pm on New Years day, following our flight up to Byron, we were quite happy to get our heads down, not emerging from our room until this morning!

We arrived in Melbourne after completing the Great Ocean Road on the evening of the 19th which also was the eve of my 29th birthday. After ringing around numerous hostels and not having any luck as they were beginning to fill for Christmas we were able to secure a room in a small place which neither of us warmed to but looking back now Chris moreso than me voiced his displeasure!

After a relaxed breakfast in a little cafe, the morning of my birthday was spent doing a couple of chores, such as taking back our hire car, paying my speeding fine (yep sadly Chris was telling the truth!) and food shopping as we were going to have a picnic in the botannical gardens.

We ambled through the botannical gardens and found a perfect little spot over looking the lake (it is possible to view the impressive city skyline from the gardens but on this ocassion we looked back at a smoggy skyline (think Middlesborough!) due to forrest fires raging in surrounding Victoria). I sat there doing very little (it was my birthday after all!) as Chris set out the rug (well beach towels) and food. I opened my cards and then popped open the Champagne (well bubbly stuff!). It was at this point that Chris produced a fabulous costume ring which a friend of his in Sydney had made and I had admired only a few weeks earlier and took me completly by surprise and asked me to marry him! Well after asking him if he was serious a few times I said yes! I later asked if my response was ever in doubt only for Chris to say that he had a hunch I would say yes!

Chris then told me that I had been to eager to open the fizzy stuff as he had planned to open it afterwards – that about sums me up me thinks!

Anyway the afternoon was then spent shopping for the real ring. After telling Chris I was in no rush to buy a ring and I would much rather we took our time to find the one we both liked than simply rush and buy it in the first shop we found it in the second shop we came to (which I guess was much to Chris’ relief as I’m not sure he like shopping with me all that much!).

We then checked into a five star hotel (with our backpacks!) – I don’t think I have ever stayed in a five star hotel before! There have been lots of Travell Inns and Comfort Breaks but not many five star hotels! Our suite – let me just type that again – Our suite was fab and I could have stayed in the whirlpool bath all night or simply lounged around in my robe (ha ha!) and been a very happy girl (not much opportunity for a bath when staying in hostels and believe me if there is and opportunity you dont usually want to take it unless armed with a 5 litre botle of bleach and a scrubbing brush!). Then Chris whisked me to Bluestone restaurant where we were greeted with a glass of Champagne each and had the most delicious three course meal, a couple of bottles of wine and topped with coffee. It was really the best day ever!