Run, Topp Boys Run!

A big highlight for all of us lately has been the boys' achievements in cross country.  At their school cross country parade they both came 2nd in their age/grade categories (out of 50 or so kids in each category). 

We are so proud of them - as is the local politician who sent them letters (Dear Master Topp,...) congratulating them on their achievements and on their "future endeavours".  I guess he thinks the parents of good runners will be good voters?

Politics aside, we are super stoked for our little runners.  For mother's day we are all running in the Brisbane Mother's Day race (8km). 

 I think there will lots of walking along with our running, and lots of fun too.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you!

Boogie Boarding

Camel Riding in Coff's Harbour

xo

The Blue Mountains are the Topps

Ok - so that's a bit of a cheesy title.  Hmmm - so that's a really cheesy title.  That said, Adam and I were truly blown away by the Blue Mountains.

Imagine if when the Rockies were discovered there had been a race for the tourist trade - and if people had then built trails up and down cliffs, and through waterfalls, and in between overhangs and underhangs...and if the tops of the cliffs seemed to have an entirely different ecosystem from the bottom (well, I guess that's true anywhere).

The point is, the Blue Mountains are a complete phenomenon. We've never seen anything like them.  Millions of years ago they were pushed up from the land around them, and then erosion started doing its thing.  Now - the mountain edges are sheer cliffs - kilometres of them on both sides- down to lush, temperate rainforest.

Fern Canopy

It was truly jaw-dropping.
 We could have easily spent our entire holiday there, even though we had to put on jackets...actual layers of clothing...in Australia...

Now there's a stair workout for ya!

We'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

One of the overhangs

And up...and down...

                                

The Three Sisters, Katoomba

Happy Days

Hanging over at Wentworth Falls...

...just like in the old days!

Finally, before we caught the plane back from Sydney to Brisbane, we went out to Botany Bay, to the first landing sight of Captain Cook. It was a mixture of sad and beautiful:  landfills, oil refinery and the National Park, with plenty of reminders of the Aborigines who were displaced.  We've just added a couple of the beautiful pics.

Botany Bay at Low Tide

Sea Art

xoxo J

Wine Times

Greta Main was all Ours

After we left Sydney, we headed a little way north to the oldest wine valley in Australia: The Hunter Valley.  We had a bit of a spooky experience there:  our guest house, the Greta Main Pay House, was a former coal mining pay house (from the early 1900s). It was the long weekend and the owners like to keep it low key - so it was just Adam and I and five other empty rooms.  I admit that it was a bit eerie, but we took advantage of the quiet to sleep long and have quiet breakfasts reading magazines and drinking coffee.

A picnic with style.

OK - the plastic cups aren't that stylish

We had a wonderful time touring wineries and tasting olives, wines, and fine cheeses, but we also realized that our "gourmet" needs are fulfilled after about 24 hours.  One day was perfect - two was a bit much.  That said, it was awesome to see the vineyards and taste the wines of the small (Little Wine Company for example) and big (Lindemans, Tyrells, Wyndham Hill)... wineries.  Our best day was touring a few wineries, having a perfect picnic (see photo) and then going for an impromptu hike for a couple of hours.

Tasting at Tyrells

View of the Vineyard Valley

This year they left the grapes on the vines - too much rain!

Ta