Saturday 8th December

Today we leave for home. We've stayed in hotels, apartments, lodges, villas and private houses and one penthouse. We caught up with old friends and met interesting, friendly and enthusiastic people wherever we went. We've eaten wonderful local produce and drunk world class wine, and seen the vines from which one special bottle was produced. We've taken 18 flights in aircraft from the largest passenger plane flying, a twin turboprop, a single engined plane and a helicopter. We've been on trams and trains, buses and 4 wheel drive vehicles. We've taken chain link ferries, an electric eco boat, a jet boat, monohulls and catamarans, big and small, slow and fast. We spent 10 days on our charter sailing catamaran. We had 4 hire cars, went on 18 walks, 20 excursions, 3 theatre trips, 2 cinema visits, went through 5 time zones and sat in one hot tub watching the sunset. We've gone from cool to hot, to very hot and back to cool and wet. We've seen crocs and kangaroos and wallabies and wombats and lots of dead possums, birds who can fly and some that can't, shy and curious, brown, green, white, red and black. We've sailed tropical coral strewn waters, sampled the power of the Southern Ocean, cruised lakes and rivers and sounds and inlets and fiords. We've been to cities, to lush forests full of strange creatures, along seashores that were tranquil and manicured and others that were jagged and windswept and rough hewn. We've climbed mountains, stood on a glacier and walked deserts and forests and sheep filled pastures. Now we need a holiday.