03.07.10 Long Reef

After a morning surfing for Charlie and running for me, we went to Dee Why to walk along the beach. We started walking along the lagoon looking for snakes, moved onto the beach to watch the kite and windsurfers and then carried up onto the headland and down the other side to Collaroy. The views were amazing and there was something for us both to watch, Charlie and the beautiful waves and me, the sunset on the water.  

02.07.10 Cockatoo Island Art

The great thing about being in the city is there is always something going on. The Sydney Biennale means there are plenty of art shows on around town. Cockatoo Island is in the harbour and takes 15mins by ferry. It has previously been a prison and a boat building dock with training for the forces. This means it has lots of interesting derelict buildings which provide a fantastic setting for art installations. 

27.06.10 Govets Leap, Blue Mountains

By great coincidence Louise and Huw are in Sydney doing the same as us. It was brilliant to meet up with them. Having checked there was no surf we headed inland for the Blue Mountains. In difference to other mountains you arrive at the top, walk down the cliff face and climb back up. It just seems to keep going down, step after step. We decided to head to junction rock, obviously not that noticable we continued past it and stopped at an awesome spot for lunch before turning round for the hike back up the cliff. A fantastic day was topped off by a glass of red wine whilst watching the sun set.

27.05.10 Vivid Sydney

A fantastic light festival which projected moving images onto the side of the opera house, st marys charch and a few other buildings. It made for a great evening wandering through the city. I think the most exciting bit for Charlie was the free wind up torch!

15.0510 Hello Sydney!

The day we arrived in Sydney we got straight down to the beach, Charlie went surfing and I lay listing to the Manly Pipe band, wicked. And then came 3 weeks of relentless rain!

15.05.10 Goodbye Queenstown

We had an awesome time in New Zealand but since we managed to sell the van (with 24hrs to go) its time to move on. We made lots of friends we will be sad to leave but will look forward to meeting them another time, another place.

25.04.10 Samoa weeks 3 & 4

We started our third week feeling more useful and enthusiastic. We continued to build awesome bathroom blocks as demstrated in the photograph! We also did more concrete pours, on our final day we did a record breaking two concrete pours in one day and were still in the ocean with a cold bottle by 3!

We spent more time exploring the local area. On the 3rd saturday we worked a half day and the went walking out over a shallow reef area out towards an island (after borrowing shoes from a friendly local who laughed at our sock jandel combo!). We were particularly glad of the shoes when Gareth and Charlie spotted a sea snake and ran leaving me looking for it.

On the final friday we attempted to attend the H4H party at the NZ High Commissioners Office. Unfortunately our transport didn't arrive so we took the site managers truck and headed off an hour late, things didnt improve and the truck blew a radiator pipe. Scratching our heads we wondered where to from here (the middle of nowhere!). The pastor came back and collected a couple of us while Charlie, Rachael and Mac hitched a ride on lorry kicking out a huge amount of black smoke. We eventually made it and enjoyed the dancing and free drinks - missed out on the talking due to our lateness!

We then headed off with Gareth, Kevin and Celina to Samoas other Island, Savaii for a mini beach holiday. After missing the first ferry due to mothers day crowds we fought our way onto the second boat. We found some lovely beach fales and relaxed for 24hours, headed back to Upolu and had breakfast at Aggie Grays, lazed by the pool with cocktails and headed back to NZ