Happy New Year!

Tyson and I decided that New Years Eve was the perfect time to take another Aussie roadtrip.  Especially since we knew that we'd probably be extremely lonely and sad sitting around our all-of-a-sudden empty again apartment.  So, after driving my family to the airport on the 30th, we wiped away our tears (okay, MY tears) and headed North from Perth on New Years Eve.  Once we left the Perth city limits, we found ourselves surrounded by the true Australia Outback!  (And this Outback does not serve delicious steak and bread like the one we know at home all too well!)  This was the first time since we've been in Australia that we've actually seen the barren, dry, dusty, yet surprisingly pretty landscape that IS the land down under.  Talk about adventure!  We drove for four hours through much of nothing but desert and twisted shrubs to the coastal town of Geraldton.  And all along the way we prayed for no punctured tires and thanked the Lord for our mint condition Hyundai Accent! :)  We settled into our hotel room and then drove around the city and explored some of the beaches close by before going out for a New Years Eve dinner.  We ate at a quaint Italian restaurant where we had the best table in the house and spent our night talking about how fortunately blessed we were in 2008.  And then, K&T brought in the New Year by playing dominoes on our balcony overlooking the gorgeous ocean!  We certainly missed all of you more than you could ever possibly know.  We'll never forget the start to 2009!

On New Years Day we woke up and drove 2 more hours through what looked like an even MORE intense and deserted Outback to Kalbarri.  Kalbarri is a small town known for its huge National Park and its beautiful ocean cliffs and river gorges.  We had a blast exploring this tiny town!  Our favorite part was definitely the views of the ocean cliffs and all of the red rock that they were made from.  We hiked through the Aussie Outback to see the river gorges in the National Park.  Hello HEAT!  It definitely felt like we were in the middle of the desert and we can now attest to the true intensity of the Aussie SUN!  Unfortunately, the "river" was a bit dried up, which meant that the gorges did not look near as pretty as all of the pictures in the magazines I had seen when I planned our little hike.  Oh well!  It was still worth the adventure!