As per Barley Aussie holiday tradition, our return flight from Hobart was delayed. We made it home 00:30. Must have just missed Santa and his sleigh as we drove back from the airport.

Our tour round Tasmania was in summary a ten day exploration of Tasmania's wet, wild and wonderful. Wet being various rivers, oceans and of course wine. Wild being the wildlife (look at the cute baby devil in the photo - just so adorable until he grows teeth and starts biting), and wonderful covers everything else!

Given it was such a long trip, I'll just provide highlights and snippets.

Day 1 we took an early morning flight from Melbourne (it's just over an hour) and enjoyed a lunch of very fresh fish and chips before hopping on a bus tour of Hobart. Funnily enough the vintage bus that picked us up was from South Yorkshire so probably spent its early life on the streets of Doncaster or Sheffield!

We met up with our travel companions in the evening. The tour company we travelled with, Inspiring Journeys, specialises in smaller tour groups with probably at most 16 people which is one of the reasons we chose to go with them. However a couple of days before departure I found out that there was going to be a maximum of 5 people including us! As it turned out, there was only one other couple! We met Toni and Peter who are from Christchurch, New Zealand. Toni is a retired nurse and Peter a former agriculture farmer. They were lots of fun and really put us to shame with their energy levels.

We also met our tour guide, Dan and driver Darren. Dan and Darren are great professionals. They have worked together lots mainly on Contiki tours (18 - 35 travel groups) so we will have been a boring crowd compared to the youthful antics of Contiki travellers! Then again after so many years of Contiki perhaps it was refreshing to not have to do tequila shots and drinking games every night or stop the bus so people can be sick on the roadside!

The following day we headed to MONA with Dan taking the ferry from the pier whilst Darren drove the truck to meet us there later. MONA is the Museum of Old and New Art and is a private collection owned by Tasmanian millionaire David Walsh. He's an interesting fellow judging by what he likes to own. The museum itself had many weird and wonderful exhibits that opened our eyes and other senses. Some of it captured our imagination including lightbulbs that flashed to the rhythm of our heartbeat, rainwater that spelt out words and some metalwork by Wim Delvoye. Other things challenged us to accept it as art and enjoy it such as machines that mirror the human digestive system turning food into poo complete with the necessary odours and videos of things I really don't want to watch.

On the same site is MONA is the Moorilla winery and we were treated to an exclusive winery tour and tasting session. A session we extended well beyond the proposed end time. The wine at Moorilla is very good and we enjoyed tastings galore including straight from the tank pre bottling!

Day 2 of the trip was also the day we familiarised ourselves with our transportation - a Mercedes 4wd truck / trailer thing. It was huge! And the seats were very comfy. We felt like rock stars. This huge bus would pull up and park and then 4 of us would jump off along with two men in uniform!

The bus had a little kitchen area with a fridge full of goodies and cupboards with snacks. There were television screens linked to the roadcam which gave us front row viewing of the road ahead. Darren kept the bus spick and span throughout our trip and gave it regular washes so it was always gleaming.

Day 3 highlight would be an uphill hike to the Wineglass Bay look out for the view above. Pretty spectacular.

_Day 4 was renamed Day Food. First stop was an organic fruit farm where we had tea and fresh scones.

This was closely followed by a really interesting session at an oyster farm called Lease 65 where we sampled oysters straight from the sea. We also took some away with us to eat as a pre lunch appetiser in a beautiful bay called Binalong which is part of the Bay of Fires.

_Steamed Vietnamese style local flathead, cucumber noodles, fragrant herbs, miso aioli and tomato nam-jim

_Slow cooked crispy skin pork belly,red apple sauce, green chilli caramel and pickled apple salad

_Fourteen day dry aged Lenah wallaby (North East, Tas), green spring garlic, smoked tomato, green raisins and tomato beurre blanc

_Twice roasted duck,braised lettuce, cucumber and carrot with mandarin and tamarind broth

_Mandarin semifreddo, glace ginger, mandarin jelly and ginger snap biscuit

After Launceston we headed towards Cradle Mountain but before then we had the very exciting activity of seeing some local wildlife. At Tasmania Zoo we found out more about the Tasmanian Devil breeding programme that is sponsored by Inspiring Journeys. These little critters that sit at the top of the feeding chain and eat everything else including pests and rodents like possums, are facing extinction due to facial tumour disease that is a cancer which is spreading throughout the species.

They look cute but are extremely vicious; 12 times more powerful than a pitbull apparently. We watched four of them fight over chunks of possum meat and certainly the squeals and screams and chomping of bones demonstrates the not so cuddly side.

Talking of cuddly though, we did get to have some fun with a wombat. What a cute and affectionate animal - one that thrives on hugs and love. He clambers and tries to scale the wall to get some human contact. Apparently wombats make great pets up until a certain age where they become so dependent on human contact they will burrow and make their way through walls, doors, any barriers to get to you! Also interesting fact about wombats; their poo is cube shaped. We haven't been able to figure out how they get it like that. There are different theories; mine being they must have square bum holes but probably more likely is that they roll it to that shape.

Back to devils, we also get to stroke the cutest baby devil ever. So small and cuddly but already nipping at fingers with soon to be sharp teeth.

Our time at Cradle Mountain was hindered by rain unfortunately. We managed a short walk to some waterfalls but decided to spend a rainy afternoon in the spa enjoying the outdoor but sheltered hot tub.

_Next stop after Cradle Mountain was a small township called Corinna. To get there we headed towards what is known as the Tarkine region which is the largest temperate rainforest in Australia - and is the northern most point where the famous Huon pine grows.  We arrived at the banks of the Pieman River and had to call the barge to take us across.

Corinna was inhabited by white settlers in 1881 and proclaimed a town in 1894, following a flood of people coming to the area in pursuit of gold. The township of Corinna (in the Pieman River State Reserve) is singularly placed in Tasmania's history as a unique example of a remote mining town that has survived.

Reminiscent of a wild west town or like something from Little House on the Prairie, we had our own little unit and were tasked with cooking our own breakfast the following morning. We managed to set off the smoke alarm several times though and took comfort in the fact that Dan did the same and he's stayed there before!

The afternoon we arrived in Corinna, we felt adventurous to take out a kayak and go for a paddle on the Pieman River. It was quite scary as the river is 30m deep in places. Rumour has it a former owner lost a Range Rover and it's never been found since!

We took the kayaks as far as a point called Lovers Falls where we moored up and walked up to the falls to have a look.

Our return journey was hard work though going against the current and the wind but we worked through it. It was a 2hr trip but we were proud as the activities guide suggests it as a 3hr activity.

From Corinna we headed to Strahan and stopped off at Ocean Beach before going into the town.

Activities in Strahan included a cruise on the Gordon River. It was a sunny day and the reflection on the water was beautiful. We also had some shore excursions as part of the cruise including a walk round Sarah Island which was a convict colony for repeat offenders where they were tasked to build ships from the Huon pine in the region. We saw Sarah Island on a sedate sunny day where the views were picturesque however we were informed that this was unusual. Certainly conditions there were harsh in terms of climate and work.

Back into Hobart and we enjoyed our final group meal and Steve and I spent the Saturday exploring the market at Salamanca place and tasting local produce.

Tasmania was a fun trip for us and certainly we enjoyed having things planned for us. Dan and Darren added to our enjoyment as did Toni and Peter. It's a beautiful place and remains relatively untouched compared to lots of the other destinations we've been to.

Christmas parties kicked off with Jazz at the Museum with PwC on a humid Friday evening. There we drank champagne, ate canapés and didn't listen to the jazz band!

The following week Steve had his do at the Moonee Valley Racecourse whilst I had a fancy dress do at a bar in the city. I went as Little Red Riding Hood and there were lots of other fun costumes.

There was Mr T, He Man, Bananas in Pyjamas and Heidi. This just a small selection of photos but I also spent the evening with the Spice Girls, a very sexy nurse, air hostess, cop, Mary Poppins, Tina Turner, several ballerinas, Snow White and lots of other colourful characters.

Rich was BBQ king, Jacqui was hostess with the mostest and the twins instructed us to "look at that bad boy" on the BBQ which was a pretty bad boy lamb joint! Thanks for the great feed family Davis.

We held a surprise baby shower for Skye who starts her maternity leave from Christmas. The wonderful Skye who supports the team so well and is a pleasure to have around. I'll be taking over Skye's job from January - big shoes to fill. Must mention that the beautiful two tier cake was made by the domestic goddess of the team, Tanya. What a great job she did.

This Friday was the Hudson Kids' Christmas Party. This means that parents with kids can bring them into the office and there's a party held for them. Not having a child obviously means can't really party so given that Jacqui has two I chose to take one of them!

There was a great spread laid on with fairy bread (Aussie thing of hundreds and thousands sprinked onto buttered bread), sweets, sausage rolls, mini pies, chicken nuggets and other kiddie fayre. There was face painting and general running around as well as a visit from Santa with a story and a sing song. Santa kept forgetting he was Santa though and often referred to himself in the third person!

We were meant to be going for Christmas drinks with some of Steve's colleagues on Saturday. However after a boozy lunch, I fell asleep and Steve ended up going alone. My little sleep turned into a 5 hour marathon nap! Steve came home about 10pm, we went to skeep about midnight and I woke at 09:30 the next morning so I am feeling pretty good. The last week has been busy and I've not finished work till about 19:45 a few nights so I obviously needed the hibernation.

I have one more day at work before Christmas break! It's very exciting. We head off to Tasmania on Wednesday. We'll be in Sydney for New Year. Our friends Rachel and Tim arrive on 4th Jan ready to settle in Melbourne like ourselves. We have many many plans for 2012 so it's going to be an exciting year.