Sydney

Our Southern Hemisphere phase started in Sydney staying with my former fellow student from Brighton, Nesta and her husband Richard who live in North Sydney in the Kilarney Heights area. They generously entertained us for 3 weeks on our previous world tour and we really enjoyed Sydney and the surrounding territory. It was lovely to have a chance to visit again. Nesta is still teaching English at the nearby school for children with Japanese parents, where the Japanese curriculum and terms are followed. Richard works freelance on photo editing for magazines and other publicity - yes, he is the one who makes the models look even more perfect than you, as well as many other tricks of unreality. Their daughter Natalie was at home and is currently working amongst other things as a guide for people who do the Sydney Harbour Bridge climbs, which she loves. Ruben was away this time, taking part in a sponsored tuc-tuc race covering most of the North to South length of India. A very interesting family all round!

The weather started off cool but quite quickly rose to a pleasant warmth that made Nesta's swimming pool very inviting. We were welcomed in their garden when we arrived early the first morning by a wonderful chorus of kookaburra laughter, cockatoo shrieks and rainbow lorikeet squeaks, backed up by constant chirring of insects in the trees. Rainbow lorikeets are very tame and routinely come to demand fruit from the Sydney residents. Interestingly they only like the soft parts of fruit. They don't eat seeds and even leave the skin if possible. I spoke to one of them on the first day as it sat begging and when I held out my hand it extended its little claw as if to shake hands. Of course what it was really hoping was that my finger was a tasty bit of fruit it could take hold of. Once they have been given some fruit they call in their mate and very politely take turns to eat. The Mynah birds follow up for the scraps.

Ironically one of our first visits was to a Chinese Buddhist temple, South of Sydney. It was very interesting to see one in that context. A lot of the same features we had seen in the ones in Shanghai but with a lot more space around it and the garden much drier of course. We had a very nice vegetarian lunch there on our way to stay with Nesta and Richard's friends Janny and Bevis near a town called Berry.

Berry is a classic Australian small town with some nice old buildings and interesting shops. I should own up that it was everyone else who found the shops interesting, but they certainly had a lot of original and artistic goods and some nice cafes. What really appealed to me was Janny and Bevis's idyllic home and garden. Set some way from the town they had formerly bred roses there for commercial sale. This had later proved uneconomical but they still had a beautiful garden with all kinds of plants and trees as well as roses and attracting many birds and insects and a very nice annex that they rent out to holidaymakers and which we were able to stay in. To complete the picture they also had a peacock which paraded itself around the garden very prettily but had an unfortunate habit of attacking cars. This was because it could see its own reflection in the car doors and thought it was a competitor - sadly though there was not even a mate to compete for, but you can never be too careful when you are a peacock - the car attacks could be so severe that serious repairs and repainting would be required and the peacock would draw its own blood. Cars therefore had to be parked under cover. The house itself was very nicely designed in the usual Australian, single floor layout, and with nice covered outdoor spaces to relax in - which we did.

Back in Sydney we had a brief chance to catch up with Rick Wilkinson, my cousin. He lives not very far from Nesta and Richard a bit further towards the city. It was good to catch up with him and hear about the family.

We also met up with Kim, a friend of Nesta's from our student days in Brighton and who I hadn't seen since then. He came out to Sydney with Nesta and still lives not far away. We went to the nearby Curl Curl beach and had our one and only sea swim, also taking advantage of the enclosed swimming pool which fills from the sea and provides a calmer place to swim. This is quite a common feature of the Australian beaches, usually with a children's pool as well. No need to take on the scary waves. There was quite a lot of surf. Enough for the novice surfers but nothing too dramatic.

Nesta had to return to her English teaching job while we were still staying. Unfortunately the Japanese curriculum requires an earlier start than the Australian schools. So while she was working hard, Richard took us to a favourite walk at Palm Beach to the North of Sydney. For those keen on Australian soaps, you may know that this is where the beach scenes for 'Home and Away' were filmed. A peninsula with some very expensive houses and nice beaches and a 19th century lighthouse up on the hill at the end with very good views. Unfortunately the lighthouse area had suffered a bush fire and although it was interesting to see the damage that causes and how the plants recover, it meant there was very little shade for the walk. Fortunately the fire service had been able to defend the lighthouse buildings, but it must have been scary for them since it looked like the fire had burned all the way round them.

This brought to an end our Sydney visit and we set off for Castlemaine, Victoria, where we were forecast to expect temperatures around 40 Degrees C and a much drier environment! We were very fortunate to be offered a further night of hospitality at Nesta and Richard's house when we returned for our flight to New Zealand on 28th January, so we did not have to say goodbye immediately and could briefly see them again before we moved on.

Dinner on the deck

View from the deck

Rainbow Lorikeet - patiently waiting for breakfast

After 2 months in China, we are back at a Chinese Buddhist temple on day 2 in Australia

Waiting for our vegan lunch at the Chinese temple

With Janny and Bevis in their beautiful garden

Janny's deck - I could have stayed here for a very long time

Janny's peacock - in a calm mood

With Kim after swimming at Curl Curl beach.

Palm Beach from the lighthouse with remains of bush fire in foreground and 'Home and Away' beach set in the distance.