One hour on the bus from Manly is an beautiful spot called Pittwater (named after William Pitt the Younger). Michael Doherty, who was part of the Lord Howe crew manages a YHA there in the middle of the Kurin-gai National Park with his partner Sarah and suggested that I went up there for a couple of days. The hostel is water-only access and the "normal" way of getting there is by the little ferry from Church Point which drops at various points around Pittwater.

Suvi and I arrived at Church Point on Monday morning, after a quick dash around Coles to pick up some food for our 3 day trip. Michael happened to be on the same bus as us so gave us a ride to the hostel on his tinny (small dinghy). From Morning Bay wharf we wheelbarrowed our bags up to the hostel. In the short walk up (10-15 mins) I managed to get a leech on my ankle (Michael removed it before it had drawn blood!) I wasn't so lucky later on... Despite the weather being somewhat inclement (i.e. raining HARD!) we went off for a bushwalk. We couldn't see an awful lot from the "viewpoints" other than cloud and mist, but it was still really nice to be out in the bush and the rain made the gum trees smell amazing. We regularly checked our legs for leeches, and thought that we were OK, until I took my boots off and one had managed to wiggle inside and suck my ankle!

We met Raphelle from France in the hostel who was keen to see in the dawn before she headed off to the Blue Mountains the following day. The alarms went off at around 5am... although it was overcast we still got up and hiked up to the lookout point, and then it started to rain, so we headed back to bed with more wet clothes to try and dry off! By the time that we woke up again the weather had improved somewhat. Suvi and I decided to head out onto Pittwater and kayak over to Church Point for lunch. It was so much fun and we had a well deserved beer and dessert at the cafe before we paddled back, via a beach (complete with rope swing!) As we still had a bit of energy left we did the walk that we'd done the day before up to the highest point in the National Park so that we could see the views this time! A German girl who was working at the hostel came with us and we bumped into a Canadian guy who was staying at the hostel half way up the path as he pointed out a huge goanna in the tree. From the top we could see all the way to Sydney. To round off our day we cooked a barramundi on the BBQ. We were incredibly proud of our efforts and it tasted great!

Suvi had to go to work on Wednesday so we headed down to get the 9am ferry after breakfast, but we took a wrong path on the way and missed the ferry... Luckily there was plan B (a water taxi). Once Suvi was safely on her way to work I took the ferry over to Scotland Island for a wander around. Incredible waterside properties in a really stunning location and lots of birds including a king parrot and kookaburras. In the afternoon I went on a bushwalk, I was planning on going up to another viewpoint, but couldn't find the turning anywhere! Really fun though exploring the jungle! Wednesday night was twilight racing on Pittwater on Michael's boat Sequel. An incredible sight with 50 or so locals racing all manner of yachts around Pittwater, finished off with some wonderful food that Sarah had prepared and a superb sunset.

I had to work on Thursday so I made sure that I caught the ferry this time and then hurried off to work on the jetty bar. Thursday was also the start of the Manly Surf Festival. Managed to catch a bit of the surf competition and other events around my shifts at the bar, and also some of the night entertainment. Friday night we had a great night out at the Boatshed with live music and Saturday night I met up with Sam Tomson from uni who's in Australia for a couple of months at the much classier Sugar Lounge (yummy passionfruit cocktails!)