Tag Archives: Australia

March of the Birthday Penguins!

After a mammoth driving session the day before it would just be a short jaunt down the A3 Coastal Highway to our next stop and more importantly the site of Karen’s 30th Birthday celebrations – Bicheno. But first up it was time for Karen to open up her cards and presents. Karen always aspired to […]

You…Your Bay is on Fire!!

So two points of our Tasmania Triangle have been done – Launceston and Hobart and it was off the the last point – St. Helen’s on the eastern shores. We plotted our course and the best way to get there was to go back down the Heritage Highway (partway) and then to take the a […]

Driving Miss Hazy

One of the top things to do in and around Launceston is to take a tour of the nearby Tamar Valley – especially a wine tour amongst some of the over 20 vineyards and cellar doors that dot the riverbank.Since we always explore our surroundings it would have been rude not to sample some of […]

Heritage Highway

After 12 months on the road we had worked out some strategies to make the commuting days less stressful and to pack in as much as possible on our journey. With a 180km drive between Hobart and Launceston in store we decided to take our time and add some stops along the way. You can […]

Sydney Diaries: Year of The Sheep

So the Horse has bolted and we are left standing alone. Alone that is, until we felt something licking at our boots. Looking down we see a big white wooly jumper with 4 black legs and a curious look in it’s eyes! Aha.. it is a Sheep and this is it’s year! Outside of China […]

Down in Tasmania… Here in Tasmania…

The third week of January is always a week of celebrations in our house, John junior turns a year older on 19th and Karen 4 days later. For many years we have celebrated with a birthday trip. Destinations have included New York, Morzine and Goa… This year we had one more occasion to celebrate our […]

All Your Basin Belong To Us

Leading up to the middle of January we had to make an emergency dash to K-Mart in Chatswood to purchase some camping equipment. The Reason? Our friend Allan was celebrating his 30th name day by going camping in a place called The Basin, in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. So there we were in the […]

Sydney Diaries: Oh Dear Oh Dear I Shall be too late!..

One of the more cultured ways to spend a few hours in Sydney is to follow the White Rabbit, or more accurately pay him a visit. Located near the award winning One Central Park Tower, the White Rabbit is a gallery showcasing 21st Century Chinese Contemporary Art. The collection, one of the largest in the […]

Parliamentarians!

It was up bright and early for our last half day in Canberra. A quick check out was followed by an amazing breakfast in a local deli before we hailed a cab to our main destination for the remainder of our trip …. Australian Federal Parliament Building. It is here that both branches of the […]

Capital Idea!

We had been settled for a while in Sydney so we both felt it was time to do a bit of travelling again. Looking at the map there was a very ideal candidate not far away. We earmarked a weekend and went on Wotif to get a ‘mystery hotel’ deal close to the center. Next […]

Hotmanay!!

Normally when we celebrate Hogmanay we are in Scotland and it is “baltic”, as the locals say. This year was different…close to 40 degree heat and glorious sunshine. Quite a lot of people in Sydney camp out from the early hours of the morning to stake the best spot on the shoreline for one of […]

Reeling in the Year:2014

Today marks one year since we pulled on our rucksacks and said goodbye to Lucy and Martin in Greenwich, London. We boarded the train to Heathrow with a one way ticket to Perth Australia via Delhi, Bangkok and Bali. Our tummies were tumbling, there was mixture of excitement, fear, sadness and nerves inside. Little did […]

Christmas Day

We celebrated our first Christmas Eve together at a new place for us, The Butler in Potts Point with some new Australian friends, Millie and Alec. The Butler is a lovely new bar/ restaurantopened overlooking the city. Several glasses of wine and scrumptious sharing plates were devoured over travel stories, wedding plans and film trivia. […]

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Not as we know it with sunglasses, sun-cream, shorts and t-shirts added to the mix! Sydney hasn’t done a bad job dressing itself up for the Festive Holiday but it’s hard to take it seriously with brilliant sunshine! Know what we mean? Our first christmas together as a couple (out of 8) would be celebrated […]

Sydney Diaries: Battle of the Galleries Part 1

So with Karen settling in nicely to her ‘return to the workplace’ and John spending a few tough weeks engaging with recruitment agents (or ‘Lemons’ as one of pal refers to them) it was time for him to take a Friday off of the job hunt and check out some of the galleries in Sydney. […]