Since it was my birthday we decided a few treats were in order. Starting with a jet ski safari we blasted off to Beqa island passing over a notorious shark infested channel. The island contains a lagoon and as we rode up into it past a private mansion it felt just like entering the secret lair of a Bond villain. After Helen showed off doing donuts we jumped off and snorkeled in the turquoise water. The visibility was amazing, putting our Thailand diving trip to shame. Fish were everywhere we looked and I had a very close encounter with a terrifying but harmless black tip shark. On our return we rode the jet ski flat out, jumping through the waves and crashing back down into the water until it abruptly stopped in the middle of the channel, 30m above a sea full of far more serious sharks. Fortunately with a bit of tinkering our guide managed to save us from a long swim back to the shore and the prospect of being something’s lunch.
We marked the end of our stay in Fiji with Caz, Asa and their family with a trip out to the Mamanuca islands for a day in paradise. Cruising out past picture perfect desert islands we got glimpse of what our backpacking trip might have been like if we’d recently won the lottery. Though we only had 5 hours in the resort everyone made the most of their time snorkeling, hammock swinging and dining on fine food. We could have both quite happily spent the rest of our trip luxuriating there but at around $1000 a night room only we’d have spent the rest of our lives washing their dishes to clear the tab.
After two months in Australia recharging our batteries and bank accounts we packed up our backpacks and set off to Fiji for the next leg of our adventure.
Arriving at Nadi airport we were picked up by Caz and Asa our occasional travelling companions since way back on the Trans-Mongolian Express. We had eight days to spend on the island and thanks to their excellent planning we barely had to worry about anything other than topping up our suntan lotion. Travelling between beaches, most days were spent swinging in hammocks or snorkeling in the crystal clear water being amazed by the quantity and colour of fish. My birthday was celebrated in much the same way but with more cocktails added to the mix.
Reality TV fans will be delighted to hear that we stayed in the resort used for the location of the ultra-cheesey ‘Celebrity Love Island‘. Fear not, the spirit of Paul Danan is still strong here
We spent the weekend staying with Caz’s parents in the island’s capital Suva where they were throwing Caz’s Dad a party for his birthday. We tried some Kava (aka Grog) a South Pacific ceremonial drink that gets you stoned if you drink enough. Looking a lot like dirty dish water a few coconut cups full gave us both numb mouths and throats. It tastes a bit like earth and roots so we soon switched over to beer.
Spirits ran high despite the Fijian national team being dumped out of the Seven’s Rugby tournament half way through the party. Everyone quickly recovered however with some dodgy crooning to the karaoke and round after round of Tequila shots.
Our daily routine whilst living on Bondi has been to drag our bodies across the road for some relaxation on the beach and a swim. On Pancake day however we were relieved from this monotony by going into the city instead! We went for the much anticipated pie, mash, peas and gravy that Mark had wanted to experience after I went with the olds.
I’m happy to report they were as good as ever and we finished this culinary day with Loub over for dinner, which ended with the classic pancakes sugar and lemon.
Loub took us away from the madness of Bondi at the weekend to the quieter beach resort of Avoca up the East coast. It is a Facer family favourite and we stayed at their regular haunt of Riley’s B&B; a stunning place set in beautiful grounds and run by the lovely Glenice & Quentin Riley. Their large veranda was a great place to sit and enjoy the home baked biscuits and watch the family of kookaburras who lived in the surrounding trees.
Being typical Brits we didn’t let the dark storm clouds shift us from the beach and after eating our sarnies in a light shower we then proceeded to body board (badly) in the heavy rain. We had a great dinner at the Funky Kitchen before an earlyish night in preparation for our early start…I had told Quentin I enjoyed swimming, so at 6.30am we were all jumping off rocks into the sea and swimming back to the beach. I borrowed a pair of goggles and began to regret it when several blue bottles and some jellyfish passed by. We all survived however and were very proud of our achievements.
On the drive back to Sydney we visited lots of the local sights, ate so much delicious food that I could hardly move, visited look out points and saw some (hard to identify) aboriginal carvings. It was a great weekend and we’re very grateful to Loub and Monty (the jeep) for getting us there and back safely.
This feat was so monumental it deserves a post all of it’s own. Mum, Mark and I climbed the Sydney Harbour bridge at 8:30am on Thursday 12th February. It was a fantastic experience and so professionally carried out by our hilarious guide Ronan, that despite being ridiculously high we all felt really safe and actually enjoyed ourselves.
The best photos I’m afraid are currently in Tahiti in Mum’s suitcase, which I forgot to take copies of before she left. Watch this space for those being added, but for now you will have to suffice with some highly attractive ones of us in fetching jump suits!
Thanks Jacq & Jon for our brilliant birthday and first anniversary gift!
We had heard great things about the Blue Mountains, a National Park 2 hours west of Sydney. The colours and landscape are supposed to be spectacular, but we couldn’t really comment on that considering as our whole time there was under a blanket of mist and rain! To actually appreciate the views we had to visit the local imax cinema where they showed an impressive film of what we had hoped to experience first hand.
I had booked the four of us into Possum Cottage in Katoomba for the weekend and it was a little bit of heaven away from the weather. The cosy abode had a big fire and outside was a jacuzzi set to 39 degrees in the private acre gardens. Between these 2 locations we just about managed to while away the weekend. I have never enjoyed staying in quite so much. We watched films and even played my first ever game of scrabble, quite an achievement for someone whose spelling borders on dyslexic. My smart arse husband on the other hand leapt to the lead with an huge scoring “Aquatints”.
Being very British we decided that despite the pouring rain we were going to make the most of their huge gas BBQ. I was amazed to see Dad donning a pinny and cooking…It’s such a man thing!
On Sunday we drove up to the Hunter Valley wine growing region where we thought we should make the most of mum; our T-total chauffer. While the rest of us slept off the booze, or in dad’s case his cold (man flu), she safely drove us back to our Bondi pad. Unfortunately when we arrived we found that during the heavy rains a roof and wall had leaked soaking our bed amongst other things. Instead of being able to offer Mum and Dad a comfy bed to rest in before their early morning flight to Tahiti, we had to share the sofa!
At 4.30am they left us for the last time and I’m not embarrassed to say I cried like a baby. We’ve had such good fun with them both and have many happy memories to treasure forever. We really appreciate you coming to the other side of the world to see us.
Well sure enough the promised crappy weather arrived just as Mum & Dad docked in their big fancy cruise ship in Sydney Harbour. They were back for their final week with us and whereas in Melbourne they were 40 mins away on the other side of the city here they were 10 doors down to road, I can see we’ll get no peace 
I had planned for Mum and I to do a coastal walk from Bondi to Clovelly. It didn’t look as though the rain would ease all week so we got our macs and off we went. The promise of a fish ‘n chip supper at the end kept us going and despite of the weather the walk there was beautiful and exhilarating. The walk back was cold and gave me stitch, so we took regular breaks to watch the crazy surfers out in the sea after a shark attack on Bondi only the previous day!
Dad hates the beach and especially sand between his toes so I was very impressed when he agreed to walk the length of Bondi beach. A few faces were pulled and mutterings under his breath, but he completed the challenge and was rewarded with breakfast in Speedo’s cafe, a Bondi institution.
The open-topped bus tour was another day’s adventure and thankfully we had a reprieve in the weather for this. We stopped off at Sydney’s institution of ‘Harry’s Cafe De Wheels’ for a lunch of pie, mash, peas & gravy…bloody lovely! These Aussie’s sure know how to bake a pie.
We have moved to Sydney’s world renowned Bondi Beach hoping to catch some surf and escape Melbourne’s intense heat. Unfortunately the heat seems to have followed us and it has slowly crept up from blissfully sunny to scorching during our first week. Poor BLT (Ben, Tan & Lillianna) came for a bit of reprieve from the Melbs heat only to touch down in Sydney’s hottest heatwave in decades. We have become the typical whinging poms complaining about this, but as soon as we heard rain was on it’s way in the coming weeks we couldn’t help ourselves but groaning at that prospect too!
Skank was quite the domestic goddess throwing a dinner party at hers for 9 people (plus Amanda’s bump) without batting an eyelash, I was very impressed. Ness & Rowan and Amanda & Jonny joined the rest of us for a scrumptious dinner of skank’s famous Connecticut Chicken.
The heat in Melbourne reached temperatures we have never experienced before, 3 consecutive days between 43-45 degrees! The powers-that-be decided they had to shut off the electricity to various sections of the city to save overloading the power supply. While poor Tan & Lillianna had to sit in their flat like two contestants in a wet T-shirt competition to cope with the heat, Mark and I escaped to the coast. The villages of Portsea and Sorrento were our destination and they were beautiful, great sea, sand and all importantly for me food. After tucking into the best salmon ceasar salad I’ve ever eaten we had a swim in the crystal clear water and saw an amazing sting ray.
Louby (Skank) came down from Sydney to stay with Tan, Ben and Lillianna for the Australia Day weekend. It was lovely to have a mini reunion of three of the five uni girls together again (Lis & Aims you were missed). We met a few times for drinks in town and brunch on Brunswick street, the bohemian arty area in the north of Melbs. Mark and I leave for Sydney on Saturday to live on Bondi Beach for a month. Our place is round the corner from Skank’s flat so I’m sure she’ll be appearing on many forthcoming blog posts.
