Monthly Archives: December 2023

We woke up at 7.30 to open presents. We all did well! I got nice earrings and smellies and phone case. Sadie got animal crossings, a diary and a top model book. Paul got a T-shirt a book and money for sunglasses and Ronan got a t-shirt, gym straps and a water bottle. We hadContinue reading “25th Dec 23: Christmas Day!”

We woke up early as the other three were off to mass at the Cathedral for 8am….except there was no 8am mass so they were back at 8.15. Ooops! We had breakfast at the amazing hotel buffet (waffles, poached eggs, all the things you would want!) and then they went after. The three of themContinue reading “24th Dec 23: Christmas Eve!”

We woke up and went for an early morning swim in the pool at 8am – it was a much better temperature then. We played around for a bit then Sadie and I went to see a talk at the town centre about the aboriginal ways -we learned how they made their tools and bowls,Continue reading “23rd Dec 23: Back to Sydney”

A lazy day today – we just hung out by the pool, had a pool lunch and chilled. We had a drink at the gecko bar and played some poohead. Dinner at the hotel as we were too late to get to the Outback BBQ. Sooo hot!! 08:35

05:38 We woke up VERY early! The bus took us to the viewpoint to see the sunrise over Uluru. We got hot chocolate and coffee to get us going – it was quite chilly! The sunrise was amazing and we stayed there for about half an hour before making our way to Kata Tjuṯa, orContinue reading “21st Dec 23: Uluru and Kata Tjuṯa”

Early start again (5.30!) as we had an 8.20am flight to Melbourne and then on to Uluru. It was chucking it down in Sydney, so probably a good day to travel. We arrived in Uluru about 2pm and it was amazing to be so far away from civilisation! The red earth was so striking .Continue reading “20th Dec 23: Off to Uluru”

It was so good to be back! And it was warm! We got a cab to our hotel – the Intercontinental just by Circular Quay. It was a fantastic location and the rooms were good and spacious (especially compared to Tokyo!). We walked through the Botanic Gardens and had an ice cream. There were lotsContinue reading “19th Dec 23: Arrival into Sydney”

Last day in Tokyo! We went for breakfast in Starbucks across the road and then decided to go the imperial palace before catching the Sky Hop bus to the south of the city. You can only enter the palace on 23rd Dec (the Emperor’s birthday) and 2nd Jan, but you can walk around the gardens.Continue reading “18th Dec 23: Tokyo day 3”

We got up early – about 8 – and decided to go and see the Meiji shrine as it was a couple of stops south on the metro. It was in a beautiful big park and there was a forest walk through to get to the shrine. Sadie and I paid our respects with 2Continue reading “17th Dec 23: Tokyo day 2”

We arrived in Tokyo around 9am and got a cab to our hotel. We had to wait 5 hours to get into our room so we went for a walk around the Shinjuku Gjoen park. It was massive and beautiful. Lots of manicured lawns and lovely trees and plants. We had a Starbucks to keepContinue reading “16th Dec 23: Tokyo day 1”