Return of the Tasmanians

Well folks, heaps has happened since the last post. I'll just give you a few highlights...

Back in December, we packed up our place in Darlington and popped it all into Nana and Pa's garage. It was a mighty effort by all concerned - including Noah - it involved my first time driving a truck (in Sydney traffic!) and a bunch of wonderful friends helping out.
We then spent five weeks in lovely Tassie. Suds and Del (friends from Sydney) popped down for a visit. And otherwise we spent the time catching up with friends and family, eating Chrissie food, playing at the beach, and all the other great stuff of holidays :)
Kate and I even managed to spend a night away at a B & B down along the Huon River. I've been down that way a million times, but it struck me on this trip, especially, just how beautiful it is.
And then there's the return journey... whoa! Ok, in two parts.

Part 1: Me. I drove back (a little before Kate's return). I realised that the only way to do the Spirit of Tasmania was a day-sailing: no sleep deprivation, no horror-snoring-stories. I then slept at Tracey's place and met a bunch of her wonderful friends and housemates - thanks for the lamb, Phil. Even Manny came over to say hello.

The following morning I embarked on the longest single-day's driving of my life. Left at 7am, arrived at just before 6:30pm. It actually wasn't nearly as bad as I'd expected. I had a few fun stops, a nice lunch in Jugiong (at the Long Track Cafe), and then this...Suddenly the traffic had bunched up (see the rear-view mirror) and was absolutely crawling... the next thing I know there's this. What you can't see in the picture is the owner taking a photo just to the right of the picture - I guess there wasn't much else to do! Maybe he put it on his blog ;)

Oh yeah - and I managed to get a (fleeting) picture of this little spot. Four of you out there should know it: it's the entry to a truck stop just north of Yass. The site of the famous Skyline Club 5 breakdown of 2000.Part 2: Katie's journey. I'll leave it for her to tell, I think, but in short the plane ride with Noah was remarkably painless. Noah was great. They arrived in one piece. And we were back together again :)

Two of my favourite people in the world at the moment are Aidan and Uncle Bruce. They were the guys who helped me (one at each end) with re-loading the truck and then unloading our things at our new home. - our lovely new home, which is working out really well... but that's for another post. Anyway, it was very heavy work and they were both brilliant. Thanks guys.