Trip highlights. Last blog entry - thanks for reading!!

Six months have finally come to an end. We always knew this day would come. It is somewhat inevitable. If there is anything that is constant in life, it is knowing that time will keep marching on no matter what (some Physicists won’t agree with me, but those geeks can shut it!).

When we first boarded our flight to Australia and left a tearful Tina and Rhona (Andrea’s mum and aunt) to begin our trip six months ago, the end of our trip in Las Vegas seemed like such a long time away. But six months isn’t very long, just think back to what you were doing six months ago and you quickly realise that time goes by really fast. It won’t be long until we are saying it was six months ago that we got back to the UK! It means that you have to appreciate every hour of every day and not wish away any moment and I think that is what we have done. It has been the trip of a lifetime and neither of us would change anything. It has been great to spend so much time together and travel around seeing some beautiful parts of the world and meeting some great people. We both feel very blessed. We know that not everyone gets that chance. Travelling isn’t some divine right and we both know that we have been very lucky!

So we have tried to pick out some highlights from our six month stint. There have been so many great things it is really hard to pick them out. We have also tried to put them into some sort of order - we know it’s a bit cheesy - based on nothing more than what we enjoyed the most or what sticks out in our minds (very subjective we know). So before we catch our flight in around 4 hours we’ll do a final countdown of our top 10 trip highlights:

10, Falls Creek. Three weeks into our trip we stopped at this beautiful little mountain resort in New South Wales. The views were amazing, the walks breath-taking and the Viking Lodge totally deserted - always a bonus.

9, Death Valley. What an incredible national park that is. The desert is totally different to anything in the UK. Seeing Badwater and getting to run up and down sand dunes was awesome fun. A must-see to anyone in the area.

8, Penguin Parade. I initially wasn’t too bothered about going to this, but on a cold night on Australia’s south coast, we saw thousands of adorable penguins making the run up the beach to their burrows. There is something really cool about seeing nature at work without mans involvement. Andrea wanted to take one of the penguins back, but after warning her that they eat smelly fish I quickly put her off.

7, Sydney Olympic Park. This is definitely more one for the geeks. Being massive fans of the Olympics, anything with the word Olympic in it, definitely has the thumbs up from us. We were lucky enough to actually stay here twice and properly explore the park. Hopefully it won’t be our last experience of Olympic Parks!! Watch this space ;).

6, Flagstaff. Our second stay at altitude of the trip. We saw some beautiful scenery including the grand canyon and the red rocks of Sedona and met some fantastic people. You guys are always welcome to stay with us!! Please come visit.

5, Universal Studios. The Simpsons, Jurassic Park, Shrek, the Mummy. So many great rides. We had an absolute blast for two days. Thankfully the queues weren’t that long either!!

4, Broken Hill. Only a week into our trip we visited this oasis in the middle of the outback. No towns or villages for 150miles before we arrived, it is literally in the middle of nowhere, but somehow people survive and they even have McDonalds and the internet! There were some amazing views and great wildlife, more kangaroos than you could shake a stick at!!

3, Blue Mountains. This is what we needed just three days into our trip. A few wobbles at the beginning of the trip were quickly dispelled with the incredible views of the blue mountain rainforest. Top that off with getting within a meter of one of the worlds most deadly snakes, it really was an incredible place.

2, KiwiRun. Words cannot describe how much fun we had on the North island of New Zealand. Fantastic places, great food and even better people. Steve, Richard, Craig, Hayden, Charlotte, Nick and Sierra we thank you all for putting so much effort into two fantastic weeks.

1, Andrea winning the New Zealand 10000m Championships. Neither of us wanted to put a running moment as our top highlight of the trip. It didn’t seem quite right as you can literally run anywhere, what is so special about a race in New Zealand? However on that night in New Zealand something changed for both of us, not only was the race a 2minute PB over the distance of 10000m on the track, but we both felt that Andrea finally ran a race which did justice to her current ability. A sort of realisation dawned on us that there are greater possibilities than we had initially thought. After working together on Andrea’s running for around 15months this was a big highlight for us. Hopefully just the start, but as I have said before it is important to appreciate what has passed. There are no certainties in running (and in life!) and this may be as good as it gets. Fortunately we have been lucky enough to enjoy this fantastic but brief moment and it is something that we will remember for a long long time.

Lastly we have to thank everyone at home (and around the world) for reading the blog and being a part of the trip. Six months is a long time to not see your family and friends, it is always great to read the comments and it makes people seem not so far away (what a great tool blogger is!!). Thanks to you all and we look forward to seeing you over the coming weeks and months.

Over and out.

Chrissy & Andrea