Christmas Dinner in Australia

Merry Canadian/American Christmas to everyone!
It is Boxing Day here. We had a lovely Christmas Dinner with friends from New South Wales (Noosa) who had invited us to join them at their camp site. Their son, Thomas works here in Canberra and they were having their celebration here with him as he is a single fellow.
Everything on the menu was served cold with champagne at every course. The temperature was 32C. We brought the prawns and wine. And of course, she is a retired nurse too!!

Michael Roach our host in their camper.

Their Christmas tree outside the camper with gifts waiting for their son's arrival.

Michael and Jay Roach preparing the feast in their camper.

Jay, Thomas and Michael Roach

Cheers!!

Jay & I wearing our hats, and we still got a little too much sun.

The watermelon soup. Two parts watermelon to one part cantaloup in a blender with light ginger spice. Cold of course.

Make sure you click on this picture to enlarge.
The steak strips are kangaroo. Grilled on a hot bbq for 11/2 minutes on each side then wrapped in foil and set aside to finish cooking. Can be very tough if over cooked apparently. Well this was done every well and tasted like steak.
Other ingredients : watermelon, grapes, cherries, lettuce, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, prawns, potatoes, snow peas, asparagus mango and red & yellow peppers. A drizzle of white balsamic vinegar for the dressing. Very scrumptious.

Home made meringue with whipped cream and wild berries marinated in whiskey and sugar.
And of course more champagne and then coffee. The meal lasted about 2-3 hours. Loved it all.

The Blue Mountains and the awesome Jenolan Caves

After we left the wine country of Hunter Valley, we travelled to The Blue Mountains, and what a treat.
The weather was a little wet at times and the locals said it was 10 degrees celsius cooler than normal but wow, the scenery is still fanatastic. Enjoy.

Grey kangaroos on the Petty Road taking us through to The Blue Mts

Mystical as the mist dissipates over The Three Sisters at Katoomba in the Blue Mts just 11/2 hrs north west of Sydney

Yes we did walk to the base of the Three Sisters

Gondola tram system. No we just watched it go by!!

Upper Katoomba Falls. Dave did this hike, while I waited for the pictures that he took. Now that's the way to do it!

lower Katooba Falls

Down town Katoomba. The lower floors  were restored for business.

Brown wallaby at Jenolan Caves about 1 hour from Katoomba

Irene did the Lucas tour, awesome!! 

And Dave did the River Cave Tour

Crimson Rosella parrot at the caves

We actually had to drive through this cave to get to the parking lot

One of the formations in Dave's tour

This formation was called the Jelly Fish

From Bundeberg QLD (turtles) to Tamworth, NSW

Hello again from Tamworth (how can you tell by that name that Scots settled here!).
Decided on a jaunt inland after stopping in Noosa Heads & Tweedheads in Queensland to Byron Bay and then inland  to Tamworth, New South Wales. Heading towards Sydney and the vineyards of "Hunter Valley" inland and north west of Newcastle, NSW.
Posting pictures from along the way and some wildlife.

Walking in Noosa Nat'l Park looking for koalas in the wild...no luck

Noosa shoreline

 Light house overlooking the main beach at Byron Bay

The color of the water is awesome at Byron Bay beaches. Dave & I were particularly interested in the topless sun bathers.

 Byron Beach again

Photo taken by a lovely blond from Sweden 

The light house at Byron Bay

Photo taken by a young Canadian from Kelowna, BC. He was down here for a year.

The "Golden Guitar" in Tamworth, NSW the Aussie Country Music hub

Now this is a crested pigeon

 And the pretty Galah birds

the masked Lapwing

 And the famous Kookaburra

Bush Turkey

 And Rainbow Loikeets

The Eastern Water Dragon that Dave filmed at Noosa

 a Carpet Python in a tree at Byron Bay. We would have not seen it but were attracted to the tree by a very noisy bird that we wanted to identify. Dave guessed it might be 7-8 feet long

The white ibis