Kristie and Dennis' Engagement Party

Kristie and Dennis celebrated thier enagagement last weekend. Tamara was able to join with family and friends for the occasion, despite taking an unexpected over night stop in Melbourne. The day turned out to be a beautiful sunny day and everyone enjoyed the food, the weather and the company.

Scott's First Student Graduates

When Scott started instructing at Tamworth his very first student was Owen. When Owen finished at Tamworth he continued his training in Pearce WA. Scott was unsure if he would be able to see Owen graduate because Scott was based in Tamworth. As you know, circumstances have changed and Scott was able to reconnect with Owen here in WA. He was recently able to attend the postings dining-in, where Owen found out the aircraft he would be flying.

Nanna's 80th

We flew down to Melbourne, the day after moving into our Perth house, to surprise Nanna on her 80th Birthday. We arrived in Melbourne, where Deb picked us up and took us back to her house where we would be staying for the weekend. Ian had been unwell, so he waited for us at home. Saturday morning, we had a little sleep in (to help with the time zone shift) then headed to the hall to help with final details. On the way, we rang Nanna to wish her a happy birthday because she thought we were still in Perth. When she arrived and saw us in person, she was shocked and overjoyed. That was only the first of a number of surprise visitors that day, including a favourite singer of Nanna's, Brendan Scott. Mum did a tremendous job and did not leave a single detail undone. The day was a huge success!

Perth - The city

We spent a day in the city of Perth having a look around and doing a bit of shopping. Perth is a nicer city than Sydney and is much, much smaller. We walked down by the Swan River and saw the Swan Bell Tower, which houses bells presented to WA from London to commemorate Australia's Bicentennial.

We enjoyed a lovely lunch in London Court, a mall in the heart of Perth, built identically to a street in London. The small shops, narrow street and the type of shops make you feel like you are stepping into a London street.

Goodbye Warwick Rd and hello to life in Perth

We were sad to leave our house in Tamworth (above) because it was a fantastic house and perfect for visitors (as anyone who visited would know) . However...
Today we moved into our new home! After two weeks in a hotel and a week travelling before that, we were more than ready to have a house of our own again. We have been blessed with another nice home (with four bedrooms to accommodate visitors). We already have a number of people booked in to visit, but we'll always welcome more. We miss having friends nearby and are going through the steps of establishing new friends - always a hard process.

Our first two weeks in Perth

When we first arrived in Perth, we were put in a hotel right on the water. There was a King size bed, beautiful views but no kitchen. We had already been on the road for over a week and we were ready for some home cooked food.



Scott soon rang up to get us moved to a different place. The air force apologised as they thought they had booked us a hotel room with a kitchen. Much to our surprise, we were moved to a different hotel and given a room with a kitchen, a spa and even better views. The view, by day or night, was spectacular.

Just near to our second hotel was a place called Hillary's Boat Harbour. A popular tourist destination with lots of restaurants and souvenir shops, but best of all there was an ice creamery. In Tamworth, there is no ice cream shop at all! We had a couple of walks during our stay, to try out some of the local food. One of the greatest things about Perth is the weather. It may sound strange to eat ice cream in winter, but Perth is so much warmer than Tamworth, it only feels like autumn. Hillary's is also home to AQWA (Aquarium of Western Australia). We enjoyed an afternoon wandering the aquarium watching the seals entertain us and learning about some dangerous sea creatures.

From Tamworth to Perth

On the 25th June, we set out from Tamworth to begin our epic journey across Australia. The journey was a great experience (and we didn't have to put up with any screaming kids like some of our friends would). On the first day we travelled 11 hours to Broken Hill. The countryside was incredibly flat and we saw a variety of different animals along the way. On the second day we travelled 4 hours to Port Pirie where we were able to catch up with Tamara's friend Alison who she taught with in Tamworth last year.

On day three we made our way to Nundroo which is a VERY SMALL hotel about 160kms west of Ceduna. It was one of those experiences we can say that we have done and don't have to repeat! Actually, it wasn't that bad. On this day we past through Kimba which is known as the half way across Australia mark.

After an early start (3.30am Sydney time to be exact) we began our longest leg of our journey. Originally we were going to stay in Norseman, but decided to continue an extra hour and a half to Kalgoorlie. All up we drove about 13 hours on day four. It was a long day, but the spa suite in Kalgoorlie made it worthwhile. We saw even more wildlife on this day with Scott seeing a wedgetail eagle (one of his favourite animals) and even a whale whilst standing on one of the many lookouts across the Great Australian Bight - sorry no photos of the real thing, but below is a whale we saw at the Nullabor Roadhouse.

One of the reasons we went to Kalgoorlie was so Tamara could see the massive super pit where a massive hole extends deep into the earth for mining. It was dark when we arrived so we decided to wait until the morning but there was a thick fog waiting for us and we couldn't see too much.

After Kalgoorlie, we only had about 6 and a half hours to Perth. Although it was a long trip we really enjoyed the experience and we are planning to return to Sydney at the end of the year by travelling the road again. We are already planning the places we intend on staying which is exciting.

The Woldhuis Girls

While Scott was away in Victoria, doing the conversion course to enable him to teach on the PC9 in Perth, Tamara's sisters (Kristie and Rachelle) came to visit Tamara in Tamworth. They had a nice weekend together and went for their second trip to Koolkuna Berries. It is an hours drive from Tamworth, heading up the mountains. The last time they visited was this time last year and it was just as cold. They warmed themselves by the fire with some hot chocolate and delicious berry scones with berry jam and cream - unbeatable!

Our First Anniversary

Wow can you believe it, a year already!
We celebrated by going out for dinner to one of our favourite places, the local Thai Restaurant. We delayed going away for a few weeks because Scott was about to have a big test and Tamara was teaching, so we would have only been able to go for the weekend. For our trip away we went to Coffs Harbour for three nights , where we enjoyed a spa room and a lot of time relaxing with each other. on the way back we stopped at Dorrigo National Park. As we arrived, so did a bus full of Seniors. Needless to say we avoided the cheek pulling and 'hello dears', had a quick photo and continued on our way.

Windsor Baptist Visit Tamworth

What a great time it was when some of the musicians from Windsor Baptist Church came to Tamworth to share some of their music experience with Tamworth Baptist church. It was quite a few months in the planning and it was well worthwhile. Those of us in Tamworth enjoyed learning a few new songs and learning from some of Windsor's experiences. Andrew P shared what worships really was and explained how people have had disagreements about music styles for centuries. Since then, there have been some changes implemented and there are plenty more ideas planned for the future. We really enjoyed having some of our friends from Windsor coming to Tamworth. I believe there are more music visits planned for the future!