Blogs from New South Wales, Australia, Oceania - page 3

It was an easy start today. I woke up with the alarm at 8am. My case just needs a little tweak, all the last bits to be put in. I got a single bag of cereal at the shop last night, I have enough milk left for my cereal, and one coffee, so that’ll be ok. I took Angelika’s pitta bread from last night’s dinner; I’ve got 1 pot of hummus left, so that’ll do for breakfast too. It’s a bit make do this morning, but I’m ok with that! I chose to have a black tea, so I can save my milk for my coffee to go! It’s crappy instant, so I put two in … for good measure. We checked out at 9:00, to leave at 9:15. We were all good to go on ... read more

Sydney, spectacularly draped around its glorious harbor and beaches, has visual wow factor like few other cities. Scratch the surface and it only gets better. Cheeky, brash, intoxicating – this city has been naturally blessed like few other cities on Earth. A 40-mile string of glistening sandy beaches bracket one of the world’s most spectacular harbors: it’s an Australian icon, where getting outdoors is everything, whether you are surfing the waves, marveling on a coastal walk or al fresco dining on sumptuous seafood. This multicultural, hedonistic city has numerous districts to explore. At some stage you’ll almost certainly end up at the Rocks - you haven’t really been to Sydney if you don’t. The Rocks, unrecognizable from the squalid place it was in the convict era, now serves as an "olde-worlde" tourist focus. There are a ... read more

With the family catch-up done we packed our bags and loaded the car to head back towards the coast via Grafton. Our Godson, Lachlan, took a job in Coffs Harbour about six months ago so moved up to the NSW north coast for his work. Since we were (relatively) nearby we wanted to catch up with him before heading back to Melbourne. Just before Christmas he moved into a place of his own, so he very generously invited us to stay with him. The plan was to meet him in Coffs Harbour for lunch and then go back to his place, but this morning Lachie suggested that we meet in Sawtell since he knows we like it so much. We were happy to meet in Sawtell and miss the business of Coffs. Although he has been ... read more

So, my cousin, Keith, with the sniffles does have COVID which is very bad timing. On the plus side he also lives in Casino, so Judy sees him regularly anyway. On the negative side, Judy’s other brothers are visiting from Queensland and Victoria, so it is a missed opportunity to have all five of them in the same place at the same time. Very disappointing. We missed catching up with Keith and Shirley in June last year because they had moved to Casino without me knowing! When we passed through last year, Judy and Mahlon were away so we missed them, but we could have visited with Keith and Shirley if we had known that they had moved to Casino. My cousins are a nomadic bunch and it’s hard to keep track of them! We arranged ... read more

Eat, sleep, repeat! Today was pretty much the same as yesterday! We didn’t need anything from the supermarket, so the truck didn’t get to go out today. Otherwise, we walked again in the morning and swam in the afternoon. Walking back from our swim we spotted a sizeable water dragon sunning itself on a rock beside Saltwater Creek. While we were relaxing during the afternoon it was to news that there is rain in Victoria and rain has delayed play in the Third Test in Sydney. It is hard to imagine as the weather is glorious again today in South West Rocks! Lucky us. Tonight, we went to the Thai restaurant, Thai on the Rocks, for dinner before returning to Chillati Gelato for dessert. We had to find a new walking route back to the motel ... read more