John and Steph

Have a look at our previous BLOG entry to read about our NUIE trip in July. Hope you enjoy looking at our underwater shots. Must get a better camera!... read more

Had a great dive at North Solitary Island on December 30th 2008. The sea temp was 22 degrees so has a way to go yet before it gets to 26 in late summer. The visibility was between 20-25 metres so we were able to see some of the bigger marine life that periodically frequent these islands including: grey nurse sharks, eagle rays, bull rays and approximately 30 to 40 adult guitar sharks who appear to be using the shallow areas as a birthing pool. There were lots and lots of baby guitar sharks buried in the sand. I also found a turtle rubbing himself against a table of hard coral to get rid of parasites and it totally ignored me. This island is north of Coffs Harbour and we dive with Divequest which is based at ... read more

We took a last minute holiday in Fiji, Coral Coast; this is a popular winter destination for Aussies. The Fijian people were just delightful at Hideaway resort, the weather was great and we were surrounded by lovely, mature tropical gardens. We booked in for 6 dives, there was a distinct lack of big fish, the locals 'fish to live' and there are 'token' controls in place to prevent over fishing in the area. Our dive guide thought his boat would be trashed if he reported anyone infringing the fishing zones. This is really sad because now there is little chance of the fish stocks replenishing and soon no one will have any fish to eat on this stretch of coast. There were lots of pretty little reef fish and the deep wall drop offs were really ... read more

Thought you may want to see how we are doing with our new home? It's so very different to Swift Cottage, lots of space, big windows, heaps of light and high ceilings, some of our English furniture looks small here.......... Most of the pictures are of the outside, as you can see we have a lot of landscaping to do. Our home is on a corner and we've had a low wall built which will have wooden horizontal slats to finish it. The house is designed to take account of the breezes, solar panels heat our water, a large in-ground concrete tank captures rain water and this is used for the washing machine, toilets and watering the garden. There is no water shortage here, recently we had a week of heavy rain, 6 inches fell in ... read more

UP THE CREEK We are about 20 minutes from Yuraygir National Park, a beautiful area which protects an expanse of coastland from Corindi to the far north of NSW. There are strong Aboriginal links to the park and the name of the park is a phonetic interpretation of the local Yaygir people. The park consists of vast coastal plains, sand dunes, scenic headlands, pristine beaches, rivers, estuaries and lagoons. There are 6 visitor areas and we were told Station Creek is well worth a visit, so we decided to go there for a picnic when John’s niece and her boy friend stayed with us on their second visit to Woolgoolga. It was a beautiful winter’s day (by Oz standards), sunny and about 19 degrees with a coolish breeze. Sorry, I know its been crap in England ... read more