My parents are on their way home and so ends a fabulous 4 weeks. The time flew by but they definitely made the most of their first visit to Australia.

With the exception of Sydney most of their time was spent with us - I certainly haven't got much leave left to take from work for the rest of this year! While they were here they enjoyed trips to the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast; they had a couple of days in Sydney; they saw a lot of Brisbane and the surrounding area, including Redcliffe, South Bank, the CBD, Mount Coot-tha, and North Stradbroke Island; they took in Sea World, Australia Zoo, and Phantom of the Opera; and not forgetting the week in Palm Cove. We also enjoyed many a nice meal out, and got through enough bottles of Aussie wine to launch an Armada, and played countless games of Uno Attack, and Monopoly, and Trivial Pursuit.

In the most part the weather was fantastic for them - certainly better than the two times that we came before emigrating here. I think it's fair to say a good time was had by all.

The last full day that I spent with them was when I took them over to North Stradbroke Island (Straddie). If there's one place that shows off Australia at its best, Straddie is that place. This view is only an hour away from my house, and that includes a drive to the ferry, a ferry across to the island, and then a bus to Point Lookout...

Throughout their visit, most importantly we all had a laugh, particularly at my Dad's efforts with his video camera.

I copied some of his video footage to cheer me up when I'm having a bad day. This is from back in England when he was first trying out his new camcorder (ensure your sound is turned on) ...

http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=49235

Still having problems with the camera, this footage was taken by him when we stopped off at the beautiful Barron Falls on our Rainforest excursion from Palm Cove...

http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=49235

My Mum wasn't much better with it, their petty bickering cracks me up...

http://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf?v=49235

We're going to miss them very much indeed, and I'm going to miss my Mum making me a cup of tea in the morning (I've never been able to get Rach to do that for me on a regular basis). Rach is flabbergasted that we managed to get through 3 boxes of tea bags while they were here!

More new photo's on flickr.