A Christmas Holiday to NSW

So much has happened in the past month, Christmas, New Years and... My brother got engaged! Congradulations brother, good on you. All while this has been going on we were in NSW.
 If you follow me on Instagram, you will see I have been away for the past couple of weeks , that is where we have been, and if you don't follow me on Insta you should (you can find the link to my page just under the blog header or here).

Anyway, it all started about a week before Christmas...
The day we headed to the airport, we decided to take a friend to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary just outside of brisbane. If you have been here, let me know what you think about it in the comments. If you don know, it is a small koala sanctuary which also houses many other Australian animals such as: the platypus, wombats, kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, birds of all kinds, echidnas, snakes and cassowaries... it is a lovely place, all the animals seem well looked after and were really active when we visited. Well, a koala can only be so active. The sanctuary also offers tours and you are able to take a pictures holding a koala. This place is were many celebrities such as Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift have been to hold a koala while in Australia. If you didn't know, you can only hold a koala in the state of Queensland.

Tasmanian Devil, can you spot him?

They must have known I was coming

Do you know what a cassowary is?
They are viscious and I suggest you
avoid one as much as possible.
I AM NOT JOKING!

Hello Mr Koala

After the sanctuary we decided to have lunch/afternoon tea at South bank and while we where there went on The Wheel of Brisbane. Lovely panoramic views, we were only expecting to go around like twice but it just kept going round. In the end I think we went around about 8 times, maybe.

We headed to the airport after this to catch a plane to Newcastle, NSW. In Newcastle we stayed with some family, which was lovely. So While in New South Wales, just before Christmas we went down to Sydney for a few days. It was great :) I have decided to put the Sydney stay in a different post, just to shorten each a little other wise you may get sick of reading. so That is what is happening.

We got back to Newcastle and stayed the rest of the trip with our family. We had a realxed Christmas, nothing too fancy because I already got my Christmas present. Over the rest of the holiday we did many things such as:

Walk along the Anzac Memorial Bridge. This beautiful walk was covered with information about the wars and people from the towm who went to war. It had lovely 360 degree views over the ocean, beaches and town, as seen below.

We went kayaking a few times in some of the many rivers in the area. This was the first time I had ever been kayaking and I think I have found a favourite activity. I also learnt in this time I realy need to do some arm workouts becasue apparently I have zero muscle.
On New years eve we had a barbecue and then went to watch the fireworks, which were beautiful, and had a beach day at Fingal Bay on New Years. The days we were able to o these things, were the only few real summer days we had while we were away. By real summer I mean the sun was out, skies clear and didn't need a light jacket, in other words the best days. After the beach on New years day we went to Nelsons Bay for lucnh and then a gorgeous lookout.

We visited the vineyards, cheese factories and chocolate factories in the Hinter Valley, which was great. I love going out there, even just for the views. I of course bought so much good chocolate from the factories, in particular this dark chocolate bar with bits of home made honeycomb in it. Yum. I think my favourite place was probably the Audrey Wilkinson Winery because it was just so beautiful. It is a the top of a hill, in a gorgeous building surrounded by the most beautiful scenery. It even has a helicopter pad and you can hold weddings there. 

The night before we left my Dad, Cousin, Uncle and I drove into Sydney one last time to watch the Liverpool and Australian legends match, it was lots of fun and Liverpool won, WOOHOO! It was a good game, good night, great atmosphere, bad chips and an overall good time. I love events like this, when everyone gets involved, like concerts or other sporting events. 

So This is mostly what we got up to while away, all lovely ways to enjoy northern NSW. Other than that we went shopping, stayed at home, spent time with the family visited a small small towns, spent time at home in the pool and ate.

Are there any particular things you guys want me to write about?  I'm just curious,I have a few planned so far.

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I hope you have a wonderful day/night..

TTFN

Mads xx