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 you...

Hi folks! After spending a few days with Catherine and Steve, Denise and I collected our Nissan X-Trail hire car and headed off across country to Canberra. We used the main highway to get us clear of South Sydney, then took to the minor roads. We love to do this on our travels, as this gets us into the heart of a country and allows us to find lots of out-of-the-way places and fascinating people. After Canberra we drove over the Snowy Mountains, through an area ...

Hi folks, Kate and Steve took us 'walkabout' at Sydney Harbour today. The weather was cool and a little wet at times but this suited us perfectly! It would have been a major shock to the system to have gone from -8 degrees centigrade in Rossendale to +40 in Sydney, as it was last week! Today was cloudy but still warm at about 21 degrees. We found Simply Red are appearing at the Opera House next week but all the tickets are sold! Have a look at the latest Phot...

Hi folks, We're now in Manly, New South Wales, Australia and staying with daughter Catherine and her partner Steve. There have been weeks of scorching temperatures in NSW but we brought typical Lancashire rain with us! Catherine and Steve have established themselves well in Sydney, Catherine with the medical research company Roche and Steve as a geologist with a special interest in environmental conservation. Our first full day was Valentine's day. For Catheri...

Well, the packing is done and we're ready to go. We have taken careful note of the weather forecast and think we'll risk NOT booking into a hotel at Manchester Airport. The taxi arrives at 5.15am. Next stop Singapore!