06.11.10 Kangaroo Valley

We went to visit Petes place in the Kangaroo Valley. It was brilliant - awesome little shack set within an aphitheatre of Eucalyptus trees and wildlife. We only saw two swamp wallabies (no kangaroos in kangaroo valley!) but we did also see wombats, echidnas, 1.5m long goanna and a pet alpaca! Beautiful valley, similar to the rolling hills of some parts of England.  

30.10.10 Kayaking

We bought a kayak this weekend!...very exciting. There is one at the house already so we can use that one along with our own and it will give us a great way to explore Sydneys waterways. Unfortunately for Charlie I had dressed to match the yellow kayak giving me first use of it.... it didn't help me win the race though. Watch this space for numerous updates on Kayaking trips. This maiden voyage took us around Manly harbour into little Manly cove to a convenient mooring at the bottom of Louise and Huws garden for a beer and then back to Fairlight.

04.10.10 Fairlight Family Dinner

Dinner with our family in Fairlight. Gina and Lucas(Columbia), Sophia (new next door au pair Spain), Charlie, Bilski (Australian/ polish) , Susan and Gee,the pineapple?!, Tim (Australia) and Me.

Just thought you might like to meet our housemates.

03.10.10 Wentworth Falls, Blue Mountains NSW

A long weekend to mark the beginning of summer in sydney- wicked lets get outside! Unfortunately the three day forecast wasn't great, so we spent the mornings hanging about umming and ahing about what you do when it rains - we have forgotten. Eventually we got it together and on saturday we went climbing indoors and then on Sunday afternoon we braved the weather in the Blue Mountains.


The choice of a cliff hugging path provided us protection from the rain but threw us into numerous full flowing waterfalls. After accepting that first my feet and then the rest of me was going to be drenched it was great fun. Wentworth falls the final and most spectacular made sure we didn't escape with anything dry. On the walk back in a low, damp cave we encountered funnel web spider webs - luckily there weren't any spiders visible!! I wouldn't say we have adjusted to australian wildlife yet...we spent half an hour getting a huntsman out of our room the other day and they don't even kill you!!

15.09.10 Spring Skiing - Thredbo

We headed south to Thredbo to catch some snow with Gina and Lucas. Not sure what to expect we were pleasently surprised by the white slopes and blue skies. After generous loans etc from friends we were fully kitted up for the snow, me on my speed skies and charlie on his board.

We eased ourselves into it on the green slopes but quickly headed to high noon, the world cup run and the super trail. I acted as photographer while Charlie and Lucas hurled themselves sky high on every lump and bump (sometimes coming crashing to the ground!) The skiing was well interspersed with mountain hot chocolates and beers.

Loved it!

By the time we drove back on Sunday every muscle in our bodies ached.

11.09.10 Modelling

A bit of modelling work we did over a couple of weekends. Tiring... fun... good results!

15.08.10 Bondi to Coogee walk

We walked from Bondi beach over to Coogee beach to meet up with Laura, a friend of Claire. Bondi is a great beach which just has a certain vibe. I love all of the sea swimming pools over here, very cool. This walk passes over a few beaches and is lovely but is also a little like a highway - sooo popular especially with all the power walkers with their coffee.

08.08.10 Whale Watching

You may wonder why we have a picture of other peoples backs - this is infact a picture of a humpback whale tail! Almost as good as our picture of a shark! Not sure we would make it as wildlife photographers....

Photography aside we had an awesome morning spotting whales on their northern migration to give birth before heading past Sydney again in September on their Southern migration along the EAC (like in Nemo)!

We saw the whales surfacing to breathe and doing tail flicks, unfortunately they didn't do any big jumps for us so we will have to go another time because I really think it would be awesome to see.

Crochet Crazy

Just thought there should be quick mention for the fact that I got a little bit crochet obsessed! Think I am over the worst of it now that I have a job but still lovin it! - Granny Gioia

07.08.10 Hanging out in Manly

Beaches, BBQ's and Sunshine....

18.07.10 Winter is tough!

The weekend was as hot as a british summer so we made the most of it and got out in the water (which wasn't so hot!). We went surfing on saturday and on sunday Charlie went surfing with Gareth (who we met in Samoa) and I went Kayaking with Louise. We kayaked around the harbour visiting all the little bays, when the main beach in Manly is heaving there are plenty of quiet beaces around the corner. At reef beach we got out and braved the water snorkelling. There weren't any brightly coloured fish but there was a huge cuttlefish rippling away.

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

14.04.10 Samoa Habitat for Humanity

We arrived on the Monday after travelling back in time and settled into our beds on the floor in the community hall along side the other team - there are about 50 people here at a time. Tuesday we started work in Poutasi and it rained heavily all day but was obviously still warm. Our first job was working on a Fale roof nailing on cyclone ties to the rafters and purlins so we hammered all day. I think one of my arms will look like popeyes when im done with four weeks, I will need to swap to left handed this week to even it out! We worked in a team alongside 4 others. On wednesday we worked on a concrete floor pour with about 15 - 20 others on another fale in poutasi. This was mucky hard work and with only a sprinkling of rain it was hot work as well. You have to get into the samoan pace of life to be able to work in the heat (which doesnt seem to vary that much between day and night) The wednesday evening is when the locals who look after us put on local food and a dance show for us. Unfortunately I dont think the egg sandwich lunch had agreed with many people that day so charlie was one of the first to get sick and the rest of us ( 20 odd) quickly followed suit :( Thankfully the bug didnt last long and apart from feeling a little weak the next few days we improved quickly.


Saturday was supposed to be a half day, we worked on the ablution blocks in Lepa which are a timber frame covered with weatherboarding and a metal roof. At three we finished and went for a swim in the sea and a bottle of villima (the local beer) So although we have been working hard - breakfast at 6.30 leaving the resource centre by 7.30 and home by about 4 - we have also been enjoying a dip in the ocean or the local waterfalls every evening. Sunday was church day and our group had to sing a song!! I hid at the back and tried not to make a sound.... Then charlie went to the sua trench, a swimming hole where you swim underwater to another hole etc and I went to Fushia waterfalls, and drove east of lepa to see some more of the coast, it is this area which has been quite damaged by the tsunami, some resorts are starting to rebuild but its amazing chatting to people, the levels of the beaches have changed because the wave swept away alot of the sand. A lot of the fale we are rebuilding are now higher up the hill because people dont want to be so close to the sea. One morning there was a small earthquake which shook the floor we were siting on, interesting for us but very scary for some locals I am sure.
 On monday I think we were assigned to more ablution blocks working alongside paul from christchurch. We have continued to do a lot of these this week and so probably next week we will be leading a team doing this with new people. I managed to hammer my finger on tuesday, it hurt quite a lot but now disappointingly the bruise isn't that big!
 We are having a great time and hopefully really helping people as well. The local people who we are building for are lovely and really want to cater for you, cooking lunch for us quite often, even though we get stuff brought to us. The have an excess of taro! An overrated potato thing slightly improved by coconut cream. It is funny spending so much time with a big group of people, I think we will be looking forward to spending some time on our own at the end of two more weeks!

10.04.10 Routeburn Tramp

The Routeburn track is one of New Zealands great walks, and we were lucky enough to do it without any rain. What we didn’t realise was quite how popular it is, and so when we couldn’t book the huts we wanted, to undertake this three day walk we just figured we’d do it in two, in true kiwi fashion ‘she’ll be aright’. With the first days walking estimated by DOC as between 8.5 and 11.5 hours and the bus dropping us off at 11am we really were going to have to do the first day at speed with sunset at 6pm and darkness soon after.


We passed the first hut ahead of schedule and so stopped for a quick lunchbreak (40 minutes as it turned out) at the 174m Earland falls near the beginning of the walk. The bottom section had this beautiful rainbow. After we passed the Mackenzie hut we started to worry as everyone going the other way asked where we were going... and looked slightly concerned as we said the Falls hut as we skipped gaily past. We picked up the pace but remembered to enjoy the stunning setting as we tramped along the side of the Hollyford valley, and reached the saddle (1255m) at 5.30pm, 30 minutes ahead of schedule. A perfect spot for a cup of tea I thought but Gioia’s sense denied this break request.


We carried on down the other side past the beautiful Harris lake and snow patches, down the rocky path towards our hut for the night. After a while it started to get dark and cold so I suggested we stop to get our torches out... around the next corner and much to our delight around the next corner we could just make our hut for the night.. it was dark 5 minutes after we arrived.. And we were the last of 48 to check in!!!! Perfect timing. Following dinner and a suitably named bottle of wine from Mission Estate I passed out at about 9pm and Gioia struggled to sleep in the shared dorm – too many people breathing! Not a great sign for our coming month in Samoa....


The next day we cruised down the hill at a very leisurely pace to reach the final destination and meet our bus at 2pm, rain was predicted for 4pm so we were rather happy with ourselves and our good timing!

08.04.10 Canyoning.. NZ style

There's something’s in New Zealand you just know wouldn't be allowed in the UK for safety reasons (unreasonably in my opinion).. jumping off waterfalls in the Routeburn canyon and river surfing are just two of those activities. Canyoning essentially involves following a stream downhill.. or following a canyon and getting from the top to the bottom by whatever means you can; sliding, jumping, abseiling and zip lining included. We loved it, especially as we were really warm wearing two wetsuits each!

22.03.10 Surf weekend NZ

7 people, 4 vehicles.

A nice couple of relaxing days at the beach was the plan.. but following poor weather forecasts things seemed to get worse in Gore (middle of nowhere) when one of our vehicles died... like died. So we finally arrived at the beach that evening having hired a car and ditched one at the local mechanics... to have a few drinks. The surf was cranking and everyone caught a wave, the weather even turned out good. We then randomly bought a car off the surf instructor for 500 dollars - this then made it all the way back to Queenstown with 5 people in it travelling at 100km the whole way.

16.03.10 Macetown MISSION

Adventure tuesday...Macetown....We took a trail on our bike map described as rolling hills and then solid hill climb. We got to the beginning of it, the sign said no bikes so we thought we would go up the 4wd track next to it presuming it would go same way. After about 3/4 of an hour as we hit a dead end, we realised we were up the wrong hill so we went back down and up the path which said no bikes.

A false start but no worries, onwards and upwards.....Turns out the sign was possibly advisory rather than spoil sport because we soon hit steep hills and trails not suitable for bikes. In the middle there was a section which felt like the described rolling and then steep path. We reached a saddle and looking over the other side we were not impressed, the path disappered into a tussock valley which we proceeded to drag the bikes through. Eventually we reached a 4wd track and cruised along to macetown which we promtly left again when we discovered the sand flies beat us to it!

We went back to arrowtown along the 4wd track which was great fun, downhill all the way with about 20 river cossings. it more than made up for the challenging beginning. An interesting trip with bike pushing, dragging and eventually some cycling involved!!

14.03.10 Around Queenstown

Dad in the woods near lake Slyvan, Glenorchy. We were beginning to think they were sending us around in a tiny circle but it was a lovely walk through the woods! We also played frisbee golf in the park - I obviously inherited my frisbee skills from mum and not dad...., went mountain biking in skippers canyon and mum got a pedicure on mothers day. It was great having them around and I was sad to see them go home. But next time we will meet up somewhere different and there will be more new sights to show!

02.03.10 Fox Glacier

A day hike on Fox Glacier, Charlie and I had wanted to do it since we arrived in NZ, even better was to share the experience with Mum and dad. We started hiking at about 10am and didn't finish until about 4pm so it was a full day walking. On the way you get views up the valley towards the top of the glacier and it looks amazing. You start walking on it with crampons and it looks quite cool if not a little muddy because you are near the end where all of the moraine is dumped, the further you walk the bluer the ice gets and the more spectacular the crevasses get. Right at the end we came on this ice cave which was amazing, big enough you could stand all four of us in it. A brilliant experience and I think mum would say well worth the knee ache the following days!

It was here that we left mum and dad to do their own thing for a week or so while we headed back to Queenstown to work.

01.03.10 Dunedin and Moeraki Boulders

We arrived in Dunedin and took a drive along the peninsula to maybe see some penguins and albatross. The windy road gave great views of Dunedin, the water and the little bachs along the waters edge but unfortunately not of albatross which are obviously tied up around the corner so you have to pay to go and see them. We had dinner at the beautiful Etruscos, the stained glass windows and atmosphere made for a great evening. The next day we checked out central Dunedin, the art gallery and then decided like most cities in NZ, there isn't much to them! Instead we headed to tunnel beach a spectacular bit of headland. There are arches, stacks and unimaginably thin slithers of rock as well as old man made tunnel which goes from the head of the cliff down to a lovely bay. After this there was more fun than we had envisaged at the steepest street in the world and then we moved up the coast to the Moeraki boulders. Our timings didn't quite work out and so with high tide at its peak the boulders were surrounded by water... this only made it more fun to try and clamber onto them without getting drenched, as you can see in the picture mum and I were successful due to Charlies help!

28.02.10 Waterfalls and beaches..

We got up early and eager to visit the cathdral caves, some stunning caves....apparently. Apparently because we didnt get to see them, the beaches were shut due to a tsunami warning all around the pacific after the earthquake in Chile. Nevermind, waterfalls it is. First up, the Maclean Falls which were really impressive as seen above. Skipping a few closed beaches on the way we stopped at the next waterfalls - New Zealands most photographed - they must be impressive.... Not really, well a little but not as impressive as Maclean! Unimpressed we moved on towards Dunedin...

27.02.10 Curio Bay

We headed south towards the Catlins. This trip meant a bit of driving with lots of stop offs at beaches. Our first stop was Slope point, the most southerly part of main land New Zealand. Here we found a lighthouse made in Scotland, Mum and dad soon realised although they had travelled for days they had arrived in a place with lots of similarities to Scotland. Next we stopped at Curio bay with a petrified forest - fossilised trees. I had expected to see these standing in the water but actually it is a horizontal petrified forest.... more excitingly there were some penguins hopping about on the beach. Unfortunately this was where mum and dad discovered the other similarity to Scotland....the midges cousin, the sandfly, which loved Dad!! They had us hopping about all over the place so we moved round the headland to porpoise bay where we watched the waves crashing against the rocks, and the sealions crashing about the campsite.

That evening we stayed near the cathedral caves where we would visit in the morning....

26.02.10 Mum and Dad arrive

Mum and dad arrived in Queenstown. I was really excited to see them. Charlie and I took some time off work to spend some time and travel with them. The first stop was Charlies work! With such a great view up there we couldnt miss it. The luging races were great fun, close and as I remember it Dad just got it on the line in the final race..?!

15.02.09 Wye Creek Climbing

Climbing at Wye creek was just amazing, there are loads of routes to choose from but all of them have the stunning back drop of the lake. The 45min walk to the walls makes it a little harder but all the more rewarding. On this trip we had Kate with us and Charlie successfully lead a route outdoors for the first time which is fantastic for him.

We will definately revisit Wye creek for more climbing...