SoMe HoLiDaY sNaPs.....

Hi all!

Well, I finally won - with a lot of patience and a couple of hours to spare (!), I managed to get some photos uploaded onto my blog! *CHEERS*!!

As most of you have observed by now, we have returned from a cool, relaxing holiday. We were only away for about 10 days but did a lot of travelling in that time (The last quarter of the trip alone clocked up over 2000k's on the the trip metre!). It was cool though - saw a lot of the country and managed to visit places in three states!

We obviously saw some places in New South Wales, and then we headed down to Victoria before heading across to South Australia before coming back home.

Here are a few snaps that I managed to upload to make the story telling slightly less boring!!....

• This is the paddlesteamer Emmylou. We spent our first night on the road in Echuca, which is just on the Victorian side of the Murray river. It's a gorgeous little town - very touristy. Has a very nice looking hospital if I ever decide to move down there...!! As nice as all the other places we visited were, Liv and I were probably most taken by Echuca - just because I had no expectations of it and it was really cute - old worldy because of all the paddle steamers. Plus, I love rivers! We had a hour and a half river cruise on this little baby - it was fantastic. It was just nice to relax and watch the world float by. Beautiful day too.
  
  

• This is a pretty boring pic but it was taken in Ballarat, where we spent our second night. The picture ordinarily would be of a lake, except it is all dried up because of the drought! All the way back, to the line of trees, used to be water! They have boating ramps and everything! It was used for the rowing in the olympics when it was held in Melboure - I cant remember the name of the lake now though! The drought is bad in Victoria - everything is so dry and this pic just proves it. the park around it was pretty though, and it had an awesome adventure playground that I couldn't resist running around!
  
  

• (Liv and mum are gonna love me for putting this one up!) This is beautiful forest walk on the other side of Apollo Bay, on the Great Ocean Road. It's called Mait's Rest, and it's so peaceful and quiet. I love foresty areas, with all the birds and insect sounds and the earthen smells. There are enormous trees in there that have been growing for centuries. I always feel really close to God in areas like this because they are so peaceful and full of God's beauty. The walk is supposed to take about 30 minutes but I think I spent just under an hour in there - just meandering around and taking it all in.
  

• This is a pic of Port Campbell, where we spent our 4th and 5th days. It's right on the Great Ocean Road and in between all the popular lookouts, like the 12 Apostles, etc. It was a cute little coastal town that basically survives on tourists. The town population is only about 500. It's got the perfect little sheltered beach and everything. This is taken from a lookout high above the town in the hills behind it.

• This is from the beach of Gibson's Steps. Although it wasn't a beautiful day (in fact, it was blowing a gale and freezing!), I like this picture because it picked up the colours of the stormy sky pretty well. The ocean was so wild - it was so cool! The coast down there is just huge cliffs that break away into the sea. This is my fave photo for some reason!
  

• And of course, here's a pic of the 12 Apostles. This was taken on the same day as the photo above, so it was still blowing a gale and freezing! When we had past it the day before, it had been a beautiful afternoon but I couldn't take any photos of them because the sun was just in the wrong place and the it was all glazy and shone right in the lens! But this is still a pretty cool pic anyway.

Well, that just about covers the first half of our holiday. When I get the patience and a couple of hours free again, I will post some other photos and wrap up the rest of the holiday! :)