New South Wales

Sorry for the lack of updates. As per usual we’ve been doing too much traveling and not spent any time in internet cafes. Good for us but not good for the blog!

We’re writing this in Wanaka in Otago, South Island NZ. More about New Zealand shortly (we’ve been here 11 days with Jan and Ray and have managed to pack in quite a few things already!).

Since last we spoke we took ourselves off in a car again out of Sydney – Northwards this time. In brief we had a great time – Paul had some surfing lessons in a tiny place called Pacific Palms, managing to stand up quite a lot by all accounts. The guy teaching him was apparently in the top 41 in the world at some stage.

Our first night was quite funny – we ended up camping in Seal Rocks, but had driven to such a remote place late in the day that it was chocolate bars and nuts for dinner!

We moved on up to Coffs Harbour for some diving off the Solitary Islands (marine park). We were rewarded with grey nurse sharks -much closer than in our photos. The second dive was a bit of a shock though – we have never experienced current like it. On the ascent we were grasping onto a barnacle covered mooring line (very sharp) for dear life – we must have looked like flags in a gale. The current was of mask-ripping-off proportions. It was a relief to get on the boat – albeit not the boat we jumped in off!

Next day back down to South West Rocks for some diving with http://www.fishrock.com.au/ – the boat was miniature but the diving and hospitality was great. Far more sharks than the Solitary Islands and an amazing 128m swim through a cave. Our photos are rubbish, but they gave us a dvd for free that we can bore you with when we get home that shows how great the dive is.

Back to Tim’s via Hunter Valley (wine tasting) for a last few days sightseeing in Sydney. If you go there you must visit the Aquarium if only to see the platypus – a busy little creature that was fascinating.

THANKS SO MUCH TO TIM for having us! He even gave up his bed for us. We had a great time, finished off with a lovely meal down the road from Tim’s house. Looking forward to playing more scrabble Tim and watching the rest of The Sweeney !

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