Quick trip back to AUS 2020

After our Xmas ski trip, our holiday was far from over. Ellen and I headed back to Australia for 2 weeks from January 2nd. In the last post we wrote we said our holiday was officially over at the end of the Ski trip – but that was a decoy to throw Louise fully off the scent! She had no idea we were coming home 🙂

We caught the red-eye flight out of Vancouver. It is a very interesting airport, there is a waterfall in it – very relaxing! Anyhow – we flew through Hong Kong and into Sydney. Fairly uneventful flight, with the exception of around 15 or so 5-12 year old kids getting business class seats on both fights! Geez there is some money coming out of Hong Kong!

Ellen’s friend Julia picked us up from the Airport on a Friday night, and we departed ways for a few days. I stayed at Ryan’s, and Ellen at Julia’s. Good to be finally horizontal, I went straight to sleep like a baby.

Ellen had a hens to go to on Saturday, her cousin Lauren, aka Loz, Loz-dog, L-dizzle, “Big Loz gotta eat” etc – is getting married to a fellow balding man (so he must be a good guy), Kieran while we are home! So we really timed our trip well. Ellen also met up with Di & Joe, Jordan, Pete and the new baby Morgan! I wasn’t there when she met him but I bet there were tears!

Ryan and I spent the day cruising at Clovelly beach, and then headed to Day 2 of the test match between Australia & New Zealand. It was a super hot day to be at the cricket, 40 degree heat! We had enough beers by 3pm and then headed back to Clovelly via the fancy new light rail that I spent 3 years working on.

Sunday was just a beach and hang kind of day. Ahhhh I miss this warm temperature. We also caught up with Tim and Britt for breakfast – it was good to see them both and finally meet Britt!

Our Sydney visit was over and we headed up to Gosford for Di’s 60th, where we were staying for the week with Di, Joe, Alex, Emma, Jordan, Pete & Morgan (aka Morgz). It was a nice week, full of lots of coffee, cards, reading, puzzles, swimming and Morgan chats.

On the Saturday the rest of the Monro clan turned up for the day. I don’t remember much from that day, but I remember there was lots of food and I was also really really full. Oh, we also had a table tennis tournament, I paired up with Jordan and we dominated, taking out the title in an epic final thriller against Di & David. All that practice against Tim during my childhood paid off.

Now it was time to head back to Oaklands. Up until this day, Louise still had no idea we were in Australia. We were trying very hard to stay off social media, which was hard for Ellen with all the Morgan spam she wanted to post! But we did it! We got a lift with Joe & Di back to Albury where we met Megs and she took us back to Oaklands. We walked through the back gate and Megan got Mum to come outside, and Man o man, did we give her a scare! Sorry Lou!!! Video is in the photo link below.

The next couple of days we did a few different things. We went on a road trip with Sporty to Yarrawonga to get some food. The Smith household didn’t have any food because they weren’t expecting guests!!

We also went to Beechworth for Mum’s birthday – I had never been there before so it was cool to checkout. And we also went to a Winery outside Corowa for lunch for Louise’s birthday and a few of her friends. Nanna was also there, she still thinks I have the beard because I am compensating for my loss of head hair. Only partially true!

Ellen & I headed into Corowa for a night to see the Howley side of the family. Mary & Ivan have this you beaut new camper trailer for their planned trip around Aus which was making my eyes water! This thing screamed travel with comfort – I think it even had a washing machine. One day we will have one of those things to travel Australia in.

The next day Sporty took Pete and I for a morning fish. Pete got an insight into Sporty’s new business plan called “Sporty’s Rough As Guts Fishing Tours”. I think the name speaks for itself – but I’ll give Sporty this, we all did catch a fish!

Our short but sweet Oaklands/Corowa stopover was done, now it was time to head up to Mudgee for the wedding! The wedding was beautiful, we were so happy we were able to make it to their day. Loz & KO’s 2 year working holiday to England did inspire us a bit to do one ourselves! It was a fun (and rainy) night, and we all got to bed at a half decent hour.

The next day, it was time for us to head back to Canada! A few teary goodbyes in the morning and we were off to the airport. Lots of skiing to be done – we both couldn’t wait to SHRED! More photos here