Trip to Australia

Early start with Peter, taxi driver, to Tauranga Airport for flight to Auckland. Bags checked through to Sydney so all good. Easy journey apart from long wait at Auckland airport. Only mishap was at customs where my bag was taken aside and my large brand new toothpaste was confiscated because it was over 100 mls! 

Got to Jill’s by 5 pm and then to The Haven for one night. Collected hire car eventually via a lock box and electric garage doors but all good from there. Terrigal is one and a half hours from Sydney and our AirBnB is great.

Halfway through the trip and been out for lunches and coffee. Tomorrow night booked for an Indian meal and then Friday, Simon, Tam and Lilly are meeting us for lunch.

Another lunch out today.  This time in Terrigal Sports and Recreation bar, overlooking the beach. Beautiful sunny day, about 28 degrees. Just seen a fairly large lizard walk through our back yard. Looked like this

Lynn said it must be local as yesterday it was sunning itself in the garden!

Met with Simon,Tam and Lily for lunch at The Avoca Beach House. Ordered Tapas for six of us so plenty of variety and lots to share. Great spot overlooking the water.

Highlight was spotting Tam use a timer for the selfie, so another skill acquired!

Saturday drove home with no road events. Dropped Jill then checked into our Apart Hotel. The Veriu hotel.

It is great. Really clean and comfortable. Last lap was to return the car by 3pm. Got into the underground car park ok but getting into the space was horrific. Had to go in forwards with little space to manoeuvre due to the inequality between the size of car and the size of the parking space! Finally, the situation was capped by not being able to open the lock box to return the keys. Only choice was to keep the keys and get the car owner to collect them from our hotel! Nice man who we asked to help open the lock box couldn’t, but gave us a lift to our hotel. Phew! Exhausted when we finally packed up for the day

Sunday met Sarah, Ant and family for lunch at the pub. Monday met Jill for coffee and home for quiet day. Next highlight was today for our harbour trip to Manly for lunch. Beautiful day.

Great lunch…… just as we remembered. Jill loved being out on the water.

Thursday involved business in Broadway. Later, we did wine o clock with Jill before taking the bus down to the Spanish Tapas bar to meet Simon, Gemma and Gemma’s fiancée, Ronan.

Friday arranged to meet Jill at Cafe Kappercino , which is owned by the nice man who tried to help us in the underground car park last week and gave us a lift home. Seemed only fair that we bought coffee off him as a thank you. Sarah and Antony joined us too and then they all came back to our Penthouse for a gawp!

Sarah was working in the pm and Ant was preparing for a 45k run on a trail in the Blue Mountains! In contrast Lynn cooked Jill Atlantic Cod for her lunch and in the evening Lynn and went to a lovely Italian restaurant in Glebe and had two exceptional pasta dishes.

PizzaeVino. A sign in the restaurant said” A meal without wine, is called Breakfast!”

Just heard that Ant completed the 45 k trail in 6 hours and 4 mins so congratulations to him!

Tonight we are all heading off to Simon’s for a meal so looking forward to that. Then tomorrow we are going to Sarah’s for lunch for our final goodbyes. It won’t be for long as yesterday, with the war in the Middle East and the impending grim news re fuel, I booked all of our flights in August having secured this accommodation for our stay for Jill’s 80th birthday.

Great night with Simon and family. Ended the evening playing Newmarket with matches! I cleaned up at the end having played the mystery card. Sunday was spent with Sarah and family. After lunch we all went to the house they are going to rent while having major works done in their home. Kids chose their bedrooms so all went well. We then headed to North Sydney to watch Simon play cricket. Missed his 8 overs, 2 for 35. Impressive! His team won the game chasing 184 in 40 overs.

Last but one day. Coffee out with Jill then home to washing, packing and checking in for our flight to Perth tomorrow. Flight time 4hs 50 mins just across Australia!

Looking forward to tonight as we are going to a swanky steakhouse overlooking the water.

A snapshot of our trip tonight!

Early start tomorrow for our 10.25 am departure to Perth.

Flight all good and pretty much on time. 5 hr flight and 3 hour time difference made for a very late night. Good to catch up with Karen and enjoyed a long sleep. Karen working today (Wed ) so took the beautiful day to find a leisure pool. OMG what a pool. It has everything for everyone including the less mobile with a walk in ramp! Brilliant first day in WA. Weather is set for 30+ degrees all week so more of that me thinks

Karen was working today so we were tasked with accepting her new gym equipment to be erected in her garage. Three hours after arriving, it was all completed. However, we had lost our desire for two trips out and stayed home before heading out to meet Karen in a swanky grill and fish restaurant. Photos to follow.

Today was the river boat trip and had a fantastic time. Big jet boat with six passengers and two crew. Saw Pelicans, jellyfish, black swans and cliff jumpers.

Where this guy is cliff jumping is a breeding ground for Bullheaded sharks!

Saturday took a trip to King’s Park, which is a fabulous facility for the city. Bigger than Central Park in New York and larger than Singapore!  Beautiful trees and gardens. While having our morning coffee the Kookaburra I photographed, flew down and snatched a chip off a woman’s fork just as she was about to eat it!

Didn’t get it in flight. It flew right over our heads with stolen chip in its beak!

Beautiful views of Perth from Kings Park.

The Aussie football girls are playing the final of the Asia Cup today in Sydney v Japan so we are having Jo over to watch. She came with Karen to NZ Christmas 2023.

Sadly Australia lost the final 1-0 but they put up a major fight in an entertaining final. Good to catch up with Jo and are going to her house on Monday for drinks and nibbles. Janice text Karen tonight to say Jan Sebire had died. Sad news as I spent a lot of time with her sharing my buggy, at Romney Warren.

Karen is working today so we took ourselves off to the leisure pool for a swim. Absolutely beautiful way to finish off our holiday. Sunday lunchtime and hardly anyone there. Out for a Nepalese curry tonight so that should be fun.

Nepalese food was vey nice…… marinated lamb chops and a beef sir fry for us. Karen had this…….

Monday we took off to Hillary’s Harbour Town for lunch. Then ended up at Jo’s house for drinks on the deck. Back to Clive Street and the continuing story of  Karen's South American trip. Patagonia tonight!

Last day so went Freeo for lunch. Busy doing all checking in for flight tomorrow so will finish this blog when we get home.

Flight home was excellent. Business Class with Qantas was well worth it. Arrived in terrible weather in Auckland and Tauranga. We wouldn't have wanted to land later in the day as it got steadily worse!!!

Back home now with improved weather conditions. Last day of summer today so moving into winter with very lettle planned. Next trip will be to Sydney for Jill's 80th birthday middle of August followed by a week up on the Gold coast for some early summer sun. Blog 41 will be after that, I expect.