Tours with Valerie and Bruce

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Day 282 (03.01.08)

Today we had to say goodbye to Sandie and Tony as they were making their way home via Singapore. We fit in a quick breakfast together before they were collected from their hotel and then we had to make our farewells. We'd had such a great time over the Christmas and New Year and it was very sad to see them go. So how about next Christmas in Rio maybe?!

We were also leaving the centre of Sydney today to spend a couple of days with Valerie and Bruce on the outskirts, friends of Mark's parents from when they'd worked together in the Bahamas. They'd kindly offered to put us up for a few days so we went back to our hostel, packed up and made our way out to their house.

After catching up on their Christmas and New Year activities they offered to take us out for one of their visitor tours and we were quick to accept.

Our first stop was the Newport Arms pub - renowned for having the largest beer garden in Sydney (or was that Australia?). It was a popular spot on a hot summer afternoon and we sat and enjoyed a huge and delicious lunch whilst overlooking the water.

Feeling pretty stuffed we continued our journey up the coast to the gorgeous Palm Beach more commonly known in the UK as Summer Bay! Yes, we were visiting the beach used in Home and Away. We made a stop at the 'surf club' and wandered along the beach before jumping back in the car for a drive along the coast and a lot of drooling over all the fabulous houses overlooking the beaches.

Back at Valerie and Bruce's we chilled out for the rest of the afternoon and watched the cricket before a quick dip in the pool and a delicious dinner out on the deck.

Day 283 (04.01.08)

We made the most of having the chance to relax today. We read the papers over a leisurely breakfast on the deck and then settled in to watch some more of the cricket.

After an extemely lazy day Valerie suggested we go and visit the seafood market in town, another of their popular tours with visitors! We'd loved visiting various markets across Asia and thought this sounded like a great idea so we hopped into the car leaving Bruce keeping an eye on the cricket and headed in to town. The Sydney fish market is not like others we'd visited, being a large collection of shops rather than lots of stalls. We had a wander around the shops checking out the variety of fish and seafood that was on offer - it all looked pretty good! We decided to have a barbie that night and bought some oysters, prawns and salmon steaks for our meal.

Back at the house we tucked into our delicious seafood feast and chatted the night away over a few glasses of wine. Valerie and Bruce had thoroughly spolit us whilst we were with them - thank you so much for your hospitality! It had been a lovely couple of days and a great way to forget some of the sadness of seeing Sandie and Tony go.

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Photos

The 'summer bay' surf club
If you look closely it lists the proprietor as A.Stewart!