Blogs from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania - page 13

As important as first impressions are, Sydney certainly knows how to make a good one. We arrived on Australia day and went to celebrate that at the Circular Quay. It was packed with people, there was live music from several artists, and oh.. those fireworks. I've seen firework shows before, but try to beat a firework show where jet skies are racing around the water firing off fireworks with the Sydney opera House on the background and reflections of the fireworks on the water. It was magical. After planning our next adventure (think rainforests, scuba diving and more!), we went to the Home bar: a multi-level nightclub with house, R&B and hiphop in separate rooms. The hostel had arranged a bus to the Home bar and we met a lot of nice people: I really enjoyed ... read more

Having celebrated Christmas early with the community in Melbourne, my celebration on Dec 25, with my brother Greg, was with our friends Sandra and Keith and members of their family. Normally, after Xmas in Sydney, I drive to Shellharbour for the annual holiday at the beach. This year was different due to the early start of the Sabbatical program. This year, both before and after Xmas, I caught up with Sydney friends and got to know the local train system. Pictured in this blog post are Xmas gift-giving and catch-ups with various friends, among them Moira, Trish and Pauline. There was also Rosemary but, unfortunately, I forgot to get a snap.... read more

Got up nice and early and drove 3km to Sydney airport. Handed the car back and booked in. Once again we were overweight, despite having paid for an extra bag. Another $70 fine and I buy another bag for our flight to New Zealand for $55 but that means we have to buy another bloody bag. How kids go away for a year with just a Bergan and a daypack?.? Arrive into Cairns and upgrade to a Subaru Forrester. Drive to Chantal and Andrews Airbnb in Mossman (sugar cane country). Another spacious place which allows us to spread out. This place only has a bbq so we went over to woollies to get some stuff for a bbq, before dinner we did our laundry and had a pint in the pub. After dinner of kangaroo burgers ... read more

The pictures say it all. Bridge climb, middle tower climb, the rocks, opera house.... read more

Mosman June 2017 For me it was a very short stay in Mosman. Tomas got there a week earlier than me but I finished the house sit in Toorak Gardens, in Adelaide and then started the following house sit in Oyster Bay while he remained in Mosman. It worked out tidily for us in the fact that we could seamlessly move from one to the other, without any gaps. We have got to know Boomer and Lyla, the 2 posh poodles well now, as well as their parents Robert and Barbara as this was our third time house sitting for them. They were our first house sit through the Aussie House sitters website and we feel they took a huge gamble on appointing us when we were still living in New Zealand and had few references ... read more