On saturday we went for a walk on North Head which is next to Manly. It’s a massive decommissioned military base next to the ocean that is now mainly parkland. Then we came back to Manly to catch up with an old friend and ended up at a fancy dress volleyball party. The Mario Bros won it. Random.

Apparently I’m the funny man…

So here we are…after all the planning we made it to Sydney to start the next chapter…

First impressions…lots of water, great beaches, and sooo many birds (of the flying kind)

We are staying in Avalon at the moment which is about an hour north of the centre. It is an amazing lush rainforest with a few houses plonked in it, with massive old tropical trees everywhere, and so many multi coloured and sized birds I have never seen before squalking and screeching, flitting and fluttering around the place, especially at sunrise and sunset when the frenzy peaks.

From the deck you cant see one other house, just rolling hills of foliage and the smells, sights and sounds of a jungle. There is even a bird that I swear sounds like a baboon laughing, but there aint no monkeys on this continent except maybe a few locals

Arriving 1 day before New Years was always gonna mean we were a bit spangled for it, but after a huge meal we spent a great evening wandering around the city as it filled with thousands of people partying and watching the fireworks.

I’ve only had a small glimpse of the city so far but it looks like an interesting place.

Midnight was spent drinking champagne on the roof at Flo’s uncles house close to the bridge while watching the fireworks, and they didnt disapoint (at a cost of $1million apparently)

I will post some video of them later but here are a few photos….

Happy New Year!

Done the goodbye drinks, started packing, cleaned the flat, finished the to do list…bring on the mission!

We went for a long walk in the beautiful mountains by Makaroa, a small town on the way to Haast Pass.

Afterwards we came back to Wanaka, drank too much wine and went partying.

The hangover flattened me for a day at least. I think I’m getting old.

In other exciting news, my little digicam has started putting weird multi coloured lines like an ancient TV on some of the images…time to start looking for a new one…