Happy 2013!

We had a great trip to Sydney for Christmas and returned to Brisbane to celebrate the New Year.  Sydney was a great place to spend the holidays, but it really doesn't have the weather that Brisbane does.  Something has gone wrong with us that we now find 20C cold!

Christmas is really lovely in Sydney.  The city is decked out in Chrtismas trees and lights everywhere and the David Jones department store in the CBD had a fantastic series of automated Christmas themed scenes in the windows.  Even without snow it was very Christmas-y.

Decorated Tree in a square near Circular Quay

Some of the David Jones window displays

We tried to see a couple of new areas in Sydney and we were lucky enough to be walking around Watson's Bay on Boxing Day, which is one of the premiere viewing points for the start of the Sydney to Hobart race.  We had no idea that we were in such a great vantage point, it was just dumb luck!

Looking out over Watson's Bay towards the CBD

The start of the race (all the boats with sails are racing)

The Sydney to Hobart yacht race was started in 1945.  Yachts of different sizes leave the Sydney Harbour at 1pm on Boxing Day and race to the Hobart Harbour, 1170 km to the south.  It gets kind of confusing, becuase the speeds are given in knots and distances are sometimes said in nautical miles and sometimes in kilometres.  Landlubbers like us can't quite follow exactly how fast the boats are going or how far away they are, but we do know they go really fast.  The winner of this year's race, Wild Oats XI, took only one day, 18 hours and 23 minutes.  There are different categories of boats and there are hadicaps for the different categories.  Wild Oats XI ended up winning the entire race, both outright and with the handicap.

This is our last day off before we head back to work tomorrow.  It doesn't matter what you are doing, where you are or how much time you have off, the break is never long enough.  Luckily we are off to Melbourne in just 3 weeks, so we won't be waiting too long until we get our next break.  Happy New Year!