G'day! How are ya?

Not much time to put into words what we've been up to the last 24 hours, so here's the day in pictures :-)

Campervan starts off with a bang!

Good evening! Its been not much time since this mornings post, that actually covered yesterdays doings. Now, time to catch up with the rest of today.
This morning, we bid farewell to the Amora hotel in Sydney that has been our base for the last few days. Time for one last brekkie down at the quayside - but, not on our own. This time we were joined by Rosie! It's been a while since we saw each other last. A couple of years at least, and crikey has she made the most of her like. I wont go into detail. Its simply not my place to, but we are both so pleased the way everything is going for her. It was fantastic to catch up on all the gossip and goings on from the last couple of years. I only wish we had more time, but that isnt something that we are blessed with on this journey unfortunatley. Rosie, you are a legend, and we really hope everything keeps getting better and better for you!
After spotting what could have been hundreds of jellyfish in the harbour, briefly deciding that jumping in the water to find out if they would hurt you or not, and then saying our farewells to Rosie, it was time to catch the train to Mascot and the pick up point for our trusty chariot, and home for the next 8 nights.
Mascot is quite a quiet suburb south of the city. The Britz depot (which is the name of our hire company) is shared with all the other hire companies. This time, we have gone for a small, more compact camper compared to our 2011 machine that we had to drive around New Zealand. However, its only got 6000km on the clock and is virtualy brand new. Bonus!
Our first stop is in the Hunter valley, which meant having the negotiate Sydney, and we got to drive over the Harbour bridge! A big tick in the box there, but with 6 lanes of traffic and no barriers between traffic running in opposite directions, there wasnt much time for site seeing. Leaving Sydney behind, and starting out on the highway, we started to put some miles on the clock. Turning off the highway in search of a supermarket, we took the chance to stop for dinner in the supermarket carpark, because we could. :-)
Then, came the good driving. The country roads heading all over the place, past an observatory just before we got to Bucketty (population 150), we started winding our way through the bush, with the occasional sighting of Skippy having a munch in the fields and scrub either sid of the road. I would have loved to have stopped in the obsie, but time was getting on.
It is at this point that I make my next comparison with campervans in Oz and vans in NZ. Nobody waves in Oz! Too laid back maybe? I shall monitor closely. We also drove past a shop that sold hats. I didnt buy one.
We are now pitched up in Hunter Valley at the Big 4 campsite, and bedded down for the evening. To welcome us to the site, we have already had a belter of an electric storm. No photos unfortunatly. DSLR ran out of batteries.
So, not many amusing things happened today. But still really pleased we met up with Rosie.
Tomorrow, there may be wine and beer involved..... Breweries, vineyards.... When will the madness end?

Today, we were manly.

Morning, everyone!
Well, lets get started. Yesterday was our last full day in Sydney. Sydney is such a busy, bustling and thriving space that from time to time, peope want to get out of the city, even just for a few others. Now, that might sound like we were aiming for some deserted part of the landscape, but no. We wanted to escape the city, but escaping the hoards of people is a little bit more tricky. We boarded a ferry bound for Manly from wharf 5 of the quay, and we were off. A morning of beachwork followed. The ferry over to Manly takes about half an hour, and takes in views of all the waterfront properties around the area. It's my aim to see a shark in the wild while i'm in Oz, and knowing that they are present in the harbour area, i did spend alot of time staring down into the water looing for signs. Alas, a miserable fail, but never mind.
Manly is a clean, modern suburb with plenty of shops and bars along the main drag and lining the beach side road. There are also one or two surf shops. The wind was on-shore yesterday, so surf was small and spilling, but i should imagine it could get quite big here when conditions permit. The lifegaurds were on patrol across the whole beach, dilligently telling people off and advising them of the errors of their ways. We spent the morning on the beach soaking up some sun, something that we don't often do on holiday. In fact, i think this is the first time we have been on a holiday where our objective was to sit on a beach and do naff all. It didnt last long. We left the beach and found a market - yes, another one. We didn't buy anything.
The return ferry trip was just as pleasent, this time having views from the other side of the harbour towards the opera house. I didn't see any sharks.
Quick trip back to the hotel, and we made use of the hotel swimming pool. I was suprised i remembered how to swim. Its been a while.
I might have mentioned before, that its good food, onth in Sydney this month. And, as part of the celebrations, the city has Noodle Night in Hyde Park. We made our way there along with thousands of other people. There was live music, some random DJ bloke, a few bars and somewhere in the region of around 70 odd different noodle bars. Yakisoba it was then!
To round off a very enjoyable time in Sydney, we headed back down to circular quay, and to the Opera Bar for one last drink overlooking the harbour bridge. An excellent way to finish off a straight forward relaxing day.
Today, we meet up with an old friend and hopefully, make a new friend with our ride and accomodation for the next week or so, and the next leg of our trip. Where we go next? Not telling you yet :-)
Oh, and by the way, Ali bought! I haven't. I still want to though.