Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year Eve. We’re really looking forward to this year; another great 6 months working in Australia, and then heading home for the next chapter in our lives – settling in Britain, after what will be nearly 2 years of living and working in mainly Greece & Australia. We’re also really looking forward to the wedding of some of our best friends Kas & Jon, who got engaged on Boxing day! We are so excited we’ll be there for it, and I can’t wait to be Kas’s maid of honour! Congratulations again guys!

Ready to start our hike

So to re-cap on this very big month…We had 2 weeks of training before Christmas which included a 3 day bush-hike through the Blue Mountains, and then some Sail training.

The Blue Mountains has some of the most stunning views in New South Wales, but sadly we had very grey weather which meant for most of the hike we could only see about 10 feet in front of us due to fog! Often hard going as there were many steep hills and crags to scramble/climb up and down. But it was still a great trip – we love our training group and really enjoy spending time with them. We camped our first night under a big overhang/cave, which gave us nice shelter. On the second day we decided that due to the bad conditions, we would walk straight to our final destination, cutting out one night camping, and therefore doing two days of hiking in one. The skies however actually cleared that afternoon and we got some incredible views. On our walk we saw 2 lire birds, and more than enough leeches! Sam was prepared and brought a saltshaker on the hike, which we used up completely whilst getting them off us!  If we get the chance, we’d love to visit the Blue Mountains again in better weather.

Sailing in Sydney Harbour with my team

For the basic sail training, Sam turned from trainee to trainer as he was asked to teach us for 2 days. We had perfect wind, as he taught rigging, tacking, gybing, points of sail, man over board, picking up a mooring, and plenty of theory to go with it. I already knew most from my sailing in Greece, but it was great to refine my skills and really improve. The others really seemed to enjoy it, and Sam loved the opportunity to teach again, and apply all his skills and knowledge from working with the RYA for so long.

At the end of term there was a great staff Christmas party where everyone gathered for a BBQ. During the day my (Katie’s) team had our term social. (Sam’s went canyoning a couple months ago). We spent the day sailing around Sydney Harbour on a yacht, belonging to Sam Hudson’s family. It was my first time in a yacht and we had so much fun sailing around and seeing the sights. We moored up near a beach where we jumped off and swam around before getting back on board for some lunch.

We wondered how Christmas would be for us this year, spending it away from family, and in the middle of summer. We were a bit homesick running up to Christmas, but God provided for us and blessed us so much with some amazing friends, that we had an absolutely amazing time throughout Christmas and the New Year. We treated ourselves to a meal out on Christmas eve to spend some time by ourselves, at an amazing seafood restaurant on the beach. It had glass walls so we could watch people surfing in the sunset, which was beautiful.

For the rest of the Christmas holidays we were completely looked after by the wonderful Hudsons. We woke up and shared presents at our place, before being picked up by Sam Hudson and taken to his parents, Andrew & Keena, for a really nice Christmas lunch with all their family. It was fairly similar to a British Christmas dinner, just that we had everything cold, and had salads as well. It was so good! Later in the afternoon we went with Sam & Lex to Lex’s parents, where we had another Christmas dinner! Similar again, but we also had prawns, and Sam had a swim in their outdoor pool! It was quite surreal spending Christmas day in the sun, but we had such a good day.

The two yachts that came first 1st and 2nd at Hobart!

Boxing day was epic. We went out on the yacht into Sydney Harbour, to watch the start of the Sydney to Hobart (Tasmania) yacht race! It was incredible, hundreds of other boats joined us at the sides to try and get a view, it was so crowded and an amazing atmosphere. 86 yachts took part in the race, and it started in quite windy conditions so the water was pretty rough with the wind blowing right into their course. This meant there were lots of tacks made in front of us, and no less than 10 helicopters above to record the action! Sam was pleased to be able to sail the yacht back after the race to a little bay – his first ever time. He loved it and did really well, as it’s not too different from dinghy sailing.

We were blessed to spend a really relaxing week then in the Hudson’s holiday home in a place called Waggstaffe, about 2 hours away. It was great to relax, sleep, read books, sail in the bay on their catamaran, take lots of pictures, and play lots of Mario-kart! I got Sam a really nice power kite for Christmas and his Birthday, so we spent lots of time flying it on the beach, and even in the sea. Sam also did plenty of wakeboarding over Christmas which he got really good at. Annoyingly, I’ve had an ear infection and a cold so didn’t spend much time in the water, but did go out once on the cat which was fun, and pretty fast! It was great to be able to spend a week with Sam & Lex’s new baby Max. He’s started smiling and is so adorable.  We’re sad we wont get to watch him grow up after we leave, but are very grateful to be here for his first 9 months!

New Years eve was a night we’ll never forget, as we got invited to spend it in Sydney, at Sam’s Grandma’s apartment. She lives right next to the Harbour Bridge, and from the balcony has the most breath-taking view of the bridge, harbour, and opera house – so exactly where all the fireworks are! We had a lovely night there, and there was such an exciting atmosphere from the thousands of people celebrating beneath us!

Our view for the New Years eve fireworks!

Our night got more eventful though, as about 5 seconds before midnight, when the whole city was counting down, Sam Hudson quickly turned to check on Max, and walked into the glass door of the balcony! The whole thing shattered as he fell down with it into the living room, and then midnight came, and the whole sky exploded with the most incredible firework display we have ever seen, and continued for the next 20 minutes! We were all in shock with what had just happened, and with the fireworks going on at exactly the same time that I nearly fainted and had to lie down, half-watching the fireworks, whilst others helped to bandage Sam up. The ambulance came, and he later went to hospital for plenty of stitches. He’s doing fine though, and we were amazed to see how God’s hand had been on us all. Both babies were in the other rooms, safe from the glass, and slept the whole way through, Sam’s wounds were all on his limbs – none on his face or torso where things might have been more serious, nobody was cut at all and the ambulance happened to be right beneath us at the time, so they got to us in no time at all. God is so good.

Then 2 days later, Sam turned 25! It was a beautiful day, and we spent it together at Jambaroo water park. It was crazily busy and therefore had lots of long ques, but we had such a fun day together. In the evening lots of our work friends were back on-site after Christmas, so we had a great BBQ with them. Sam is used to often going out sledging in the snow on his birthday, so he loved the change of having a birthday in the summer for once!

We don’t go back to work till Monday 9^th, so we’re currently really enjoying being at home, and not doing much at all. Rest is so good. As is monopoly deal, and scrabble, and flying Sam’s kite.

Next week we have our last hike, which will be done without a trainer, followed by a few days canoeing training, with camping again in between. After that we’ll be back on site working as normal. Please pray for us as we start to get back into the work mode, pray that God will renew our heart for work and for the children he brings us into contact with, that God will be glorified in all we do.

We’ll try not to leave it as long until we next write. Thank you to everyone who sent us Christmas cards – they’ve been lovely to receive! We miss you all a lot, and look forward to seeing you later this year! All our love, the Knotts xxx