A happier Christmas

We're just settling back into a work routine this week, having taken a couple of weeks off over Christmas and the New Year.

Calum and his girlfriend Jess made the trip over to spend the festive season with us and see something of Australia. So in contrast to last year we had a family Christmas, complete with the swapping of presents etc. plus stockings for the kids (yes, despite the fact that our sons are now 22 and 23!!). We couldn't quite go as far as trimming up the flat, it still doesn't feel right in 30 degree heat, but it did feel like a joyous time this time around. We did the expat thing of meeting friends at the beach on the big day. So we joined the Forrests, Flowers, Atkins plus Goran to swim in the ocean followed by a shared Christmas dinner al fresco. All in all, a perfect day!

This was followed with a busy week showing Calum and Jess the highlights of Sydney, culminating in a New Years eve in a perfect harbour-side vantage point to watch the spectacle of the fire works. 

We began the new year with a family trip to see the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland and then Uluru in the so called 'Red Centre' of Aus. Highlights of the Queensland leg were undoubtedly the two dives on the reef itself. First up we did a Scuba dive from a pontoon anchored close to the Agincourt reef. There's nothing like joining the fish to weave in and out of multi-coloured coral stacks several metres high. It is literally another world! Then a couple of days later we went snorkeling off Cape Tribulation. The reef is less spoiled there and is teeming with marine life! We swam with multicoloured fish, stingrays and turtles. We even saw shy clown fish (aka Nemo) and reef sharks hiding in the coral. Northern Queensland has a tropical climate so it was no surprise to get some rain there most days - I guess it was fitting for what is a rain forest region. That said, we didn't expect it to follow us into the desert! The weather in Uluru was a big surprise. It was cool from the moment we touched down, by the next day it was raining and didn't really stop until after we left. According to the locals this is a once in a decade occurrence. It was a mixed blessing as we were able to do a few of the more energetic activities we'd dismissed as unsuitable for summer heat. So we were able to cycle around the rock itself and to take the rim walk around Kings Canyon for example. On the other hand we never saw the star filled night sky we were expecting and only got a brief glimpse of Uluru in all it's sunset glory. Such is life, we experienced the red desert under conditions few people get to do.

We returned to Sydney and Calum and Jess flew back home on Wednesday. So the flat is feeling a little quiet now with just the three of us. Niall continues with his tele-sales job, Roz and I are back to developing medical courses for imaginary students for a living. Next up is a trip to New Zealand -  plans already in process. 

I've put together a couple of photo sets if you're interested:

• Christmas and New Year in Sydney
• Port Douglas
• Uluru

A day at the races

Niall and I spent the day at the Sydney Olympic Park yesterday watching motor racing. A street circuit had been set up around the Olympic arena to host the last race of the V8 Supercar national series. (I’d happened upon the circuit earlier in the week while out on the bike and had fun doing a few laps on virtually closed roads.) V8 is the big thing in Australia, the nearest equivalent would be Touring Cars in Europe. The race cars use the bodies of standard saloon cars but with massive, powerful V8 engines. The noise is incredible! Despite the fact that the circuit was narrow and had short straights (think Monaco) the cars were reaching 250 km/hr -  all very exciting.

This being Australia an earlier race had featured ‘Utes’ i.e. Utility Vehicles. As far as I know Utes are exclusive to Australia, they’re essentially flat bed vans and would normally be driven by workmen (aka ‘tradies’). I don’t think racing was foremost in the mind of the engineers who developed these vehicles so stability at 200 km/hr isn't their strength! It made for an entertaining hour.

We’re into the rainy season here and we’ve had thunder storms virtually every evening for the past two weeks, yesterday was no exception. In fact the deluge came early and ruined the main race, it was abandoned half way through. We had a good day nonetheless and felt we'd witnessed another slice of Aussie life.

More visitors from home

We've just had the Cleggs to stay. Ros's cousin Rebecca and husband David have spent the last two weeks with us. With the exception of last weekend we've continued to work so Rebecca and David have been heading into the city to do all the touristy things Sydney has to offer (with Niall tagging along on several occasions). We've then been meeting up in the evenings and doing trips together at the weekend. It's always good to have friends/family from home and the Clegg's are good company anyway. If nothing else you realise how much you take for granted after living in a place for a while. We went to Shelly Beach on Saturday to do some snorkeling, for example, and they were blown away by the number and variety of fish just off the shore. We are aware that this sort of thing is special when compared to home but we're no longer amazed by it, is that a bit sad?

Since Rebecca and David wanted to catch up with friends in Melbourne we all took the trip down there last weekend. Melburnians Keith and Andrea played host to all four of us in the end so we spent a couple of days travelling down the Great Ocean Road and two days in the centre of Melbourne itself. The road trip was fabulous, as the name suggests the road hugs the coast as it winds south of the city for over 200 km from one dramatic bay to the next and so on. We had perfect weather for the most part, clear and sunny, so we were looking out over azure water as far as the eye can see with waves smashing into and over beach after beach. There are a series of stone stacks at one point, the so called twelve disciples, vast gold coloured rocks projecting upwards, the highlight of the brief trip without a doubt.

This was our first trip to Melbourne and we were struck with how European it felt. It was tempting to make comparisons between it and Sydney. Sydney has it for the natural beauty of the sea, the harbour and the beaches but Melbourne has far more sophisticated architecture and as a bonus a more efficient transport system (the lack of which is a daily frustration in Sydney). We intend making another trip back to Melbourne before we head home that's for sure, it did have a good vibe going on.

Here are a couple of sets of photos:

• Blue mountains trip with Rebecca and David
• The Melbourne trip

Central Coast

We've spent the last couple of weekends exploring the Central Coast. This is a stretch of coast an hour north of Sydney  (from the Hawksbury River north). The first weekend was spent with the Flowers and the Forrests in a hotel in Terrigal - a small resort with fabulous beaches. On the second weekend just the two of us went off camping in Budgewoi, a narrow stretch of land between a lake and the sea. In many ways the scenery is no different from other areas of the NSW coastline, in other words ….stunning! What sets it apart, certainly from Sydney, is the suburban hinterland. It might be stating the obvious but things are so much more relaxed than in the big city -  people are able give you the time of day. Things are a lot friendlier and it worries us that we are getting the wrong impression of what Australians are really like. I suppose it's a big philosophical question - what is the real Australia? Is it the rich mix of first generation immigrants  all desperately trying to get a foothold in the busy city? Or is it the relaxed, established Australians of European extraction? TV and films suggest the latter and so inevitably it was the picture we had in our minds before we came out. We're finding out that the truth is more complicated - which has to be one of the benefits of living in a place (as opposed to merely visiting).

Encounters with the local wildlife

I seem to remember talking about the absence of dangerous animals in an earlier blog, despite all the talk of deadly creepy crawlies prior to coming out. I've now come into contact with an example of one - though not one that I was expecting! The local birds are busy tending their nests as spring is in full swing here but one species in particular are particularly vigorous in their defense of said nest, namely the Australian Magpie. The male magpie sees any fast moving animals coming into their territory as a threat and do all they can to discourage him coming anywhere near a second time. In the eyes of the magpie cyclists fall very much into the category of threat and swoop down from behind to attack either the back of the head or preferably the eyes. Just to add to the fun the bird has a very good memory and attacks the same individual if and when they return. So I'm now taking a detour at both the beginning and end of my regular ride to work and will be doing so for the next 6 weeks. Two birds have currently got me marked down as public enemy number one and no matter what I do I can't persuade them otherwise, so that's that!

Niall has now returned back to Sydney having done his 3 months of service to rural Australia. He's successfully applied for his second year visa and is now considering his next move. Possibly staying in Sydney for a couple of months if he can find work or maybe going back to Queensland with friends? Time will tell.

Sunday was the first beach day of the spring so we took advantage and met everyone at Balmoral beach. It made us realise why we're here. The winter hasn't exactly been cold by UK standards but it's amazing how quickly we've acclimatised and how relatively colder weather has affected us. It's good to be swimming in the sea again!

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.