The O'Kanes come to Sydney

I seem to have settled into a trend of only posting here to report on trips away from Sydney. And I suspect that will continue - inevitably we've settled into a weekly/workday routine and very pleasant as that is, it doesn't make for good writing! This last week has been a deviation from our usual 'another day in paradise' routine, hence the post. 

The flat has been a hive of activity as the O'Kane family (Pat, Karen, Sam, Elliot and Alice) have arrived from the UK for a long planned visit. We expected that the confines of our two bedroomed flat might wear thin after a day or two so we arranged a stay in a lodge in the blue mountains for us all. As it's still winter and the lodge was a few hundred metres above sea level we were half hoping for snow (they get a couple of falls each year apparently). That wasn't to be, but we experienced our first frost in Australia - sad I know but its funny the things you miss :-) 

We've done a couple of day trips to the blue mountains previously but it was good to go further afield this time and explore more of the stunning landscapes up there. We also took a drive to Bathurst, the first inland town to be settled here and also the site of the mid 19th century gold rush - all interesting stuff. Bathurst also sport a motor racing circuit, it's a normal road for most of the year, all be it one with chicanes and crash barriers. It was slightly surreal to be driving round a race circuit at 60km/hr in an 8 person automatic Kia , in Australia, with friends from back home?!

I've posted photos of the trip as usual on flickr - if you fancy a look.  

Pat, Karen and Alice are now doing a couple of weeks visiting the wider Australia (the lads headed straight home from Sydney) and will be spending another couple of nights with us before flying back to the UK. There's already been tears from Roz but I'm sure there'll be more when they finally leave. That said there's a good few promised visits from others to come, we're not going to be lonely! 

Hunter Valley

It's well and truly winter here so it's not the weather for sitting on the beach and as we've pretty much seen the sites of Sydney we're finding ourselves seeking places further afield on the weekends. A case in point - we did a short impromptu trip to Hunter Valley this last week. The Hunter, as it's referred to, is a celebrated wine growing region two hours north of Sydney. We threw the bikes in the back of the car and having booked a room for the night set off. After a wet start to the day the sun came through just as we got there - as if on cue. We spent the rest of the day cycling from the cellar door of one vineyard to the next. Each had several wines on offer so it would only have been rude not to partake of each. A glance at our bank account reveals that as the afternoon went on we bought an increasing number of bottles at each vineyard. I suspect this is how the economy of the region works! The wineries and the abundant number of restaurants makes it all very pleasant and civilised.

Niall is now in Tasmania doing a couple of months unpaid work at a Hotel/ Eco Village. He's been working reception so I guess it's a pleasant contrast to spending his days in fields picking one fruit or another. This is in aid of getting his second year working visa, a government scheme to encourage backpackers to work in the more rural areas of Australia. And rural it is, he's an hour from the nearest town and is out of mobile phone coverage. So we've only had the one update from him so far - no doubt we'll get more details on his experiences as time goes on.

Canberra

We were away for a long weekend in Canberra last week. It's a three hour + drive from Sydney so a relatively easy trip to make. We had mixed feelings about the place even before we got there - you tend to get a tepid response from Aussies when you mention the city. One colleague in particular advised us to see everything we could on our first visit as he predicted it would be our only visit! We'd also been advised to take our bikes with us as that's the best way to get around the city. And they were right, it's a place blessed with wide open boulevards, a large sculpted lake, lots of green, and lots of bike tracks. And all of this devoid of people! It was eerily empty for a capital city. Our first visit of the weekend was to the National Gallery - we arrived on bikes and so went in via a side entrance. We didn't see another punter until we'd been through at least five large galleries, it was just us and the omnipresent security staff. This is a gallery with a massive budget and priceless art on display. It just goes to show that 'you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink' - or whatever the saying is. Canberra, as you may know, was only conceived a century ago and despite all the money, excellent town planners and the best architects money can buy can't guarantee a buzzing capital city. It's people that do that (and perhaps the gravity of history). That said, we had a very pleasant break drinking in culture between leisurely bike rides and learning a little Australian history along the way. An interesting place, but no, we won't be rushing back.

It was a good five degrees cooler than Sydney so the drop in temperature and a good number of deciduous trees dropping their leaves gave us a real autumnal feel - just in the nick of time as winter officially starts this week. The nights are drawing in so the working weeks are rather routine at the moment. We're already debating about where our next trip should be. Watch this space.

Steady away

We're enjoying a quiet period at the moment. Niall is still away on the Sunshine Coast hoping to pick up enough farm work to qualify for a second year visa so that he can stay on a little longer. As for us, we're enjoying the fantastic weather, mid twenties and sunny most days - perfect. We're settling in to a daily routine in our new home - so just to shake things up we've bought roller blades. I could already skate, all be it a little wobbly. No such luck for Ros, she's learning from scratch and is already sporting a large bruise on a certain part of her anatomy. She's persevering - so we'll soon be powering along the water front here with the best of them. 

It's late autumn down under but a combination of unseasonably warm weather, a lack of deciduous trees (and therefore autumn colours) and a preponderance of flowering plants means it simply doesn't feel like it. Not the first time I've said that I know but neither of us can get our heads around it, the seasons seem, well, upside down!

Ros has now been promoted at work and has a fixed term job until we  leave next September. So no worries on that score. We've just got to get through the year without falling out! It's all a bit too cosy, being in one another's company 24/7 ;-)

Here are some photo's from our travels over Easter:

• Port Douglas
• Out and about in NSW

Phew!!!

We're just coming down from a manic period! Our guests, Mick and Sue returned to the UK at the weekend having spent the last two weeks with us - they arrived just two days after we'd moved into our new apartment. Prior to that we'd had 4 backpackers staying with us (Niall and three of his friends). So now it's just Ros and myself, a chance for the two of us to settle into our new home. We're loving getting up to a wide panorama over the river and sitting out on the balcony eating breakfast while watching the runners and cyclists passing by on the waterfront. We're adjacent to the Olympic Park - a vast green area with cycle / running lanes through mangroves and manicured grassland. So Ros has no excuses for not getting her running back on track. As for me, we're a little further from work now so I've bought a second hand bike for commuting - I'm hoping to get fitter too as I've neglected my cycling over the past few weeks.

Mick and Sue's visit was the catalyst for a couple of trips over the Easter holidays. In particular we spent a few days in Port Douglas, Queensland. It's a seaside resort on the edge of the oldest tropical forest in the world and also happens to be adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef. Two world heritage sites for the price of one! So we spent two days in each! Mick and I went scuba diving on the reef while Ros and Sue went snorkelling - all from the luxury of a large boat. We did three fantastic dives at different sites to see as much of the amazing sea-life as possible. We were so enthralled that we just had to go out and do it all again and found ourselves on the Low Isles a couple of days later, this time diving from a tropical island. In between we did a couple of trips into the rain forest..... spending time with an aboriginal guide, diving into a natural plunge pool, going on a Crocodile safari and pretending to study the massive number of ancient species of plant. I took so many photo's that it's going to be a week or two before I process them all. In the meantime here's one I didn't take myself -

Diving, visitors and a new home

Mmm, I've just noticed that my posts are becoming less and less frequent - sorry for that. It's not as if I'm running out of stuff to talk about, in fact it's quite the opposite - we're going through a very active period.

I mentioned in an earlier post that we were planning on doing some scuba diving and we have since started on that. However it hasn't been plain sailing - we had a false start a couple of weeks ago. A combination of poor instructor, poor conditions and Ros's instinctive fear of drowning (!) led to a panic attack and a bail out. So we re-arranged the training with a more experienced instructor in a swimming pool (rather than a busy beach/bay) for this last weekend. Unfortunately Ros just couldn't overcome her natural fears and despite several attempts has called it a day. I've carried on and so far have completed two of the three days of the PADI Open Water Certificate. Just two dives to complete next Saturday and I'll be certified and ready for our visit to the Great Barrier Reef over Easter.

We had visitors from home a couple of weeks ago, my Auntie Bernadine and Uncle David. They were on their last leg of a tour around Australia and were staying in a hotel in the city centre having booked it before we even came out to Aus. It was good to see them and show them a few of the sydney highlights - felt like we were seasoned locals showing them the ropes. Not only did it make us realise how comfortable we've become in our surroundings in just six months but also provided us with a link to home, short lived though it was.

Despite all this activity we've just signed up for a new property. We move into a smart riverside apartment next week in a trendy district adjacent to the Olympic Park. It's 5 miles from work so in some ways is less convenient than where we are at the moment but there's a little more life down there and will give us more of a city vibe for the next 18 months. We're both looking forward to the change of scene.

Rain, rain go away

Shock, horror, it rains in Australia!

I don't think either of us were naive enough to think that it didn't literally rain but we imagined that it would be more of the tropical variety i.e. brief heavy downpours immediately followed by sunshine . That's certainly not the case in Sydney if the past month here is anything to go by. It's been miserable ... more rainy days than dry ones and when it has been dry the skies have been grey. Not what we signed up for, perhaps we should be asking for our money back? But I don't suppose I'm going to get much sympathy if you're reading this from the UK

Given all the rain I haven't been getting out on the bike as much as I'd have hoped so I braved the weather on Sunday and got a couple of soakings while out on the morning club ride. We set off for a 90k ride on dry roads but I think we all expected to get wet at some stage, the forecast wasn't good. I went prepared as if in the UK, so I had arm warmers on and a waterproof under my saddle - all standard practice back home. As it turned out I was the only one making such adjustments - it was simply too warm for extra clothing.  I was expecting that 5 degree drop in temperature that you get back home, even in the summer -seems like doesn't happen here. And the other thing is that it's a relatively clean drenching you get here, the roads are much cleaner, none of that road dirt blackening your legs and bike. So not exactly a positive experience but even getting wet in Australia presents surprises to this naive Brit.

Niall is away again, this time in Muldura doing some fruit picking (it was Oranges initially, now Grapes). He seems to be enjoying the experience as a whole but is rather disgruntled by the rates of pay. And who can blame him, the Orange farm were paying 40 - 50 dollars for a 9 hour day and taking 10 dollars back for transport costs. So he was getting up at 5 in the morning and getting the equivalent of 2 pounds fifty per hour doing a long day in the sun. Needless to say he's now happier to be moving on, hopefully the vineyard pay more than 'slave' rates.

We've just heard that a couple of Ros's friends from work, Mick and Sue ( - 'Darth' to her students) are coming to visit us over Easter. It did come as something of a (pleasant) surprise when Mick announced they'd booked the tickets and were virtually on their way out here  - though Ros had enticed them with the promise of warm autumnal seas so we shouldn't be too shocked. As a result we've quickly booked a trip to Port Douglas to see the Great Barrier Reef with them. It'll be our first trip  outside of the state, hopefully the first of many!