23 August - Sydney, Australia

We left New Zealand and arrived in Sydney a week ago in the hope that the sun would shine. New Zealand was stunningly beautiful and very green probably because it rains most of the time. When we arrived in Sydney after spending 4 hours (!) on the tarmac at Auckland airport due to a mechanical problem it was fractionally warmer than in Auckland. In the week that we have been here Sydney has received more than its average August rainfall! It has been decidedly wet. Fortunately, it looks like the sun will soon be shining and it will get a bit warmer. In spite of the bad winter weather we are experiencing we continue to believe that we are better off here than in England.

Auckland sunset

Before leaving New Zealand we managed to achieve one of our objectives which was to go to a rugby match. Rugby has the same standing as football in England and baseball in the US and therefore gets endless column inches in the newspapers and plenty of air time on TV. New Zealand is one of the favorites for the rugby world cup later this year, so we were glad to get tickets for a game. We saw the Auckland Blues beat Waikato in the Air New Zealand Cup. Some of the players on the field also play for the national All Blacks team that will represent NZ in the rugby world cup. An ex-pat English man who was passionately supporting Waikato sat next to us and we could hear "go Waikato" ringing in our ears for a long time after the match.

Stephen at Eden Park with Waikato supporters in the background

Even if it has been raining we have been able to get out every day, including last Sunday when the heavens opened and put an end to the 7 year drought Sydneysiders have endured. We have been doing lots of walking and have found a great route from Coogee to Bondi; it must be one of the most scenic city walks in the world. The immensely popular coastal walk runs along the cliffs edging the pacific. Enormous sandstone cliffs tower over the ocean before dropping down to golden sandy beaches. We have seen whales migrating south, laughing kookaburras and cackling parrots swooping off the cliff tops. We have also walked north to Watsons Bay and to Centennial Park and south to Maroubra beach.

Walking from Coogee to Bondi with Bondi beach in the background

Pelicans at Centennial Park

Last weekend we made the trip to Berry, a small town two hours drive south of Sydney. Our friends Rick and Reem are building a weekend home in the hills west of Berry and we helped oil some of the exterior walls and also clear their brushland. Stephen did a great job (maybe too good?) of clearing branches and wood and piling onto a bonfire which became enormous. When we lit the fire the flames licked high up into the air and at one point we were all a bit concerned for Rick's and Reem's brand new log cabin. It went well and the cabin is still standing, but the roofer was not too happy about being smoked out.

Stephen stoking the fire at Berry

In September the leaders of the Asian countries are meeting in Sydney for the annual APEC meeting. The security around the meeting is already noticeable with road blocks being put in place and police presence increasing. During our walk to Bondi yesterday two police helicopters hovered so low one of the policemen waved at us! We assume that they were waving and not trying to tell us something :)

Police helicopters at Bondi Icebergs pool

We have another 4 weeks in Australia. On Saturday we head north to Byron Bay with our friends to spend a week there. From Byron Bay we will catch the train north to Cairns stopping along the way at Fraser Island and Port Douglas. After that we head to Thailand for two weeks of cycling, we can't wait to get back on the bikes again. Our withdrawal symptoms got so strong we found ourselves in a Sydney bike shop drooling over the bikes.