Back to reality

We are home again after a fabulous holiday to Australia.  We had a wonderful time, checked out Dreamworld, Seaworld and Wet & Wild.  Lots of rollercoasters, exciting rides and getting wet!  Our girls had an awesome time, and we have all come home with a good suntan.  The weather was pretty good, a little rain now and then, but some lovely hot days as well.  It's been a bit of a shock to the system to come home to flooding in our province and some very wintery weather.  Here are our girls with Spongebob and Patrick at Dreamworld(with their new Spongebob bags of course). 

The dolphin show at Seaworld was incredible. Such beautiful, majestic, and intelligent animals.

This is the Giant Drop at Dreamworld, which was the most terrifying experience I have had in a very long time.........you get winched up to the top of that tower, sitting in a row of eight people in the little platform you can see nearly at the top.  You then freefall 39 stories in about 5 seconds before coming to a braked stop at the bottom.  Our seven year old was keen, so we did it with her - I am pleased I have done it but nothing could have prepared me for the feeling of having your body pushed up so violently as you freefall down. Once you have been winched up, you sit for about twenty or thirty seconds, knowing what is coming, but having no warning of when you will actually start to fall.  Hideous!!!

On ANZAC day(25th April, a day of commemoration and remembrance for our soldiers who fought for New Zealand and Australia in previous World conflicts) we travelled up to Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast for the day. The weather was gorgeous and the beach was very busy. It seemed strange to not be at home on ANZAC Day, as we normally attend the dawn service at our local War Memorial. It didn't alter however, that our thoughts were very much with those who had gone before us and fought for the freedom we enjoy today. This year was the 95th anniversary of the beachday landings at Gallipoli where so many thousands of New Zealand, Australian and of course Turkish soldiers lost their lives. Both of my brothers have attended the dawn commemoration service at Gallipoli. and it is something I would like to do one day. I guess I'll have to add it to my 'bucket list'!

While we had a fabulous time, it is also nice to be home again.  This weekend is the opening weekend of the duckhunting season in New Zealand.  My husband, father, father-in law, and brother are all keen duckshooters, so they are all away out for the day along with other friends.  We have several duckponds on the farm, so I'm sure there will be lots of tall stories being told, and fun being had out there today.  

I am planning on catching up on some blog reading, and doing some more stitching on my April and May blocks of A Gardener's Journal.  I took them away to Oz with me, but didn't get a whole lot done.  If I get some fabrics cut up over the weekend I can hopefully get block G made up this coming week and posted to the SAL blog.

Hope you are enjoying a great weekend wherever you are......... Nicky