Hi Everyone!

Denise and I took off to the bays about 250km north of Sydney, finding a beautiful place to stay on Little Beach, on Nelson's Bay.

We found a fantastic beach, called One Mile Beach, near Anna Bay. When the New Zealanders find a 38-mile-long beach they exaggerate and call it Ninety Mile Beach. With the Aussie penchant for understatement, One Mile Beach is in fact a mere 36km long and the sand dunes so deep that when you are in the middle of them your mind begins to play the stirring strains of the 'Lawrence of Arabia' theme. You would not be surprised to see Omar Sharif on a camel appearing out of the salt haze!

After becoming 'beached out' we headed into the Hunter Valley to visit a few of the famous Australian wineries. We sampled the brews on offer at Mcguigan and Brokenhills and brought some back for Catherine and Steve.

We will now spend the weekend in Manly. Steve is 'on the road' doing a land survey; he gets back on Friday evening. We then plan to set off for a trip to the Blue Mountains before we fly out to Christchurch, New Zealand, early next week.

This evening the liner Queen Mary II is moored in Sydney harbour. It sails at 1am and will be visible from the bay. If we finish dinner in time we may go across on the ferry and see her weigh anchor, or perhaps drive up to The Heads to see her out of the harbour.

Don't forget to catch up on our travels via the photo albums - and we look forward to your communications on our message board!

David