Phew!!!

We're just coming down from a manic period! Our guests, Mick and Sue returned to the UK at the weekend having spent the last two weeks with us - they arrived just two days after we'd moved into our new apartment. Prior to that we'd had 4 backpackers staying with us (Niall and three of his friends). So now it's just Ros and myself, a chance for the two of us to settle into our new home. We're loving getting up to a wide panorama over the river and sitting out on the balcony eating breakfast while watching the runners and cyclists passing by on the waterfront. We're adjacent to the Olympic Park - a vast green area with cycle / running lanes through mangroves and manicured grassland. So Ros has no excuses for not getting her running back on track. As for me, we're a little further from work now so I've bought a second hand bike for commuting - I'm hoping to get fitter too as I've neglected my cycling over the past few weeks.

Mick and Sue's visit was the catalyst for a couple of trips over the Easter holidays. In particular we spent a few days in Port Douglas, Queensland. It's a seaside resort on the edge of the oldest tropical forest in the world and also happens to be adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef. Two world heritage sites for the price of one! So we spent two days in each! Mick and I went scuba diving on the reef while Ros and Sue went snorkelling - all from the luxury of a large boat. We did three fantastic dives at different sites to see as much of the amazing sea-life as possible. We were so enthralled that we just had to go out and do it all again and found ourselves on the Low Isles a couple of days later, this time diving from a tropical island. In between we did a couple of trips into the rain forest..... spending time with an aboriginal guide, diving into a natural plunge pool, going on a Crocodile safari and pretending to study the massive number of ancient species of plant. I took so many photo's that it's going to be a week or two before I process them all. In the meantime here's one I didn't take myself -