Bliss and double bliss

The days since Christmas have been fantastic! We are all still in holiday mode, having been away for a week..back at work for a week..and leaving to go away again tomorrow for another week!

We had the most unbelievable time on our first week's holiday.
We were invited by friends to go with them to Kangaroo Island, off the coast of South Australia. Nic's parents live there on a beautiful isolated property on the north coast of the island. They live in a home built from rocks collected on the beach at the base of their hill. Their electricity is solar powered, they only use tank water and they live in perfect luxury. From their home, there is nothing else man-made visible as far as the eye can see. At the foot of the hill is a rocky, secluded beach which pods of dolphins swim past many times a day. There are wallabies hangin' out round the clothes line and goannas strolling along the veranda basking in the sun.
Every day a combination of kids and parents and grandparents took a trip on the back of the ute, down to the beach, into the boat (backed onto the water by a rust encrusted tractor) and around into the neighbouring cove to check on the catch in the cray pots. "Any colour?" was the cry as the pots were dragged out of the water onto the side of the boat, "colour" denoting the haul of rock lobsters. Here's a photo of me & Nic with my first haul.
It was rough I tells ya.
Every day we feasted on lobster tails cooked on the bbq or freshly caught King George Whiting, or vegies lovingly plucked from Jude's spectacular vegie garden by the youngest darling, Fletcher. Every morning Nic's dad lined up a host of ingredients and custom made "toasties" for breakfast, using battered old campfire jaffle irons on the bbq.
Needless to say, I have put on a bit of "holiday condition", also in part due to the excessive consumption of Graham & Jude's fabulous wine. (did I mention they have two vinyards and a cellar full of bottles?)
We ate and drank and played Carcassonne noisily and very competitively every night and every day swam or played with crabs in the rockpools and it was heaven on earth!