To say we were excited about getting back out into the world is an understatement, we were and are so ready for adventures. Different landscapes, different cultures, new sights, sounds and smells.
That said, we are incredibly grateful to have experienced so much joy and happiness the past few years, again we got to spend time with family and be nearby, if not physically then emotionally for all those we hold near and dear.
As 2022 is quickly drawing to an end I wanted to look back at our ambitions for this year and share with you our top highlights and what we achieved in 2021:
- Completed our Advanced Open Water Dive course
- Continue to kite board, on the Central Coast, in Melbourne and kiting all over Queensland including two trips to Cairns
- Explored Tasmania, driving a campervan from Hobart to Devonport and then across to Melbourne (via the Spirit of Tasmania)
- Had a great time catching up with friends in Melbourne, during a snap opening
- Continued diving, including a live-aboard on the Great Barrier Reef where we did our first self-navigated dives and our first night dive, plunging into the darkness to watch the sharks circle the boat above and then venturing out to see giant sea turtles estimated to be more than 100 years old.
- Went grey nurse shark diving at the ‘Looking Glass’ at Broughton Island in Port Stephens, a narrow trench that goes through the island where the sharks congregate.
- Drove a luxury motorhome from Cairns to Brisbane (Over 2,000kms)
- Visiting the Whitsundays, swimming at the famous Whitehaven beach
- Celebrated a milestone birthday albeit from afar, and a wedding although not the one we had anticipated which has been postponed until end of February next year
- Went boat diving the HMAS Brisbane, a double dive and also our first wreck diving – swimming through the ship we also spotted a lion-fish and a turtle
- Swam with whales in Mooloolaba, we were within a few metres of three humpback whales including a calf who we could hear underwater, magical.
- Celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary
- Stayed well and got vaccinated
- Continued to work towards our saving goals
In 2022 our we had really been looking forward to attending my sisters wedding, but covid had other plans. We did make it to Antarctica which was incredible and I got to celebrate my sister in the Maldives. I celebrated my milestone birthday with friends and received the most incredible gift of swimming with whales. Ben and I celebrated another year of wedded bliss.
Ben has so far travelled to Canada, the US, Fiji and the Philippines to visit his overseas teams. He’ll be headed to the UK in December as well. I completed my career change and secured a role as a developer which is fantastic, very challenging but perfect for our lifestyle and we’ve continued to house-sit for the entire year as well as secure some return sits into 2023 when we’ll start house-sitting abroad for the first time since 2019.
We finish our next Australian site on the 23rd of November and start our next in early January, before that we have a small round the world trip booked, totalling over 50,000kms and taking us to our seventh continent in just under 10 months since we left Australia bound for Antarctica. Stay tuned for more on this adventure!
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