With the weather continuing to be unseasonably wet, we travelled South to my Uncle's place. We'd normally tell you where it is but given it was so special and he jokingly asked us to keep the location secret, we decided to honour his word. When we got there we understood why. Nestled in the bush, off a quiet road and 5 minutes from a number of deserted surf beaches, my Uncle Rob and Aunty Sharon had built themselves such a beautiful home, we were quietly taken aback. Even with the on-off rain, at times torrential, we couldn't fault its beauty and tranquillity.

Our main plan was to spend the days surfing with Rob, but the waves didn't co-operate so when we went down on the first day with the boys on "real" surfboards, Bailey and Harry's confidence took a little bit of a beating. I gave it a go myself but not even Daddy could catch one in the choppy surf so the boys felt a little better by the time we decided to pack up. Fi didn't bother heading out as Caspian wasn't there to give her some "hands on" tuition so we headed back to Rob and Sharon's place and spent the next 3-4 days chilling out.

Games of Chinese checkers, cooking for everyone and a tour to an extremely overpriced abandoned gaol took up the rest of the time. On the way back from the overpriced abandoned gaol, Fi noticed a sign on the side of the road about oyster farming so she called up "Snoozer" and asked if we could call in and could he teach us about the process. "What, now! In the bloody rain?" he said. "No, we're happy for you to just talk us through it" responded Fi politely. "Righto then, but I ain't taking you out on the boat as it's pissing down." shouted Snoozer , which we had on speaker phone in the car. The boys thought he was hilarious. We took the next turn off the main road and headed up a dirt track along the riverbank and after about 10 minutes arrived at what looked like the run down set from the Australian horror movie, Wolf Creek II. With a little trepidation we exited the car and wandered around the deserted oyster farm until we came to some sort of office/shop, which we entered. Snoozer was there and introduced himself with a smile then spent the next hour telling us everything about oysters, oyster farming and how he doesn't like "stuck up Sydney people" so he loves to play tricks on them. Apparently he mainly does that when he goes to Sydney to sell his oysters at some big fancy seafood festival at "The Rocks" in Sydney harbour every year. His favourite story was about some uppity young chap who thought he was a bit better than Snoozer and asked to taste the best oysters he had as this chap reckoned he was an oyster expert. Snoozer obliged and then as soon as the chap woofed down his oyster Snoozer suddenly put on a shocked face and told the young chap that he had just drunk a whole shell of Oyster piss. The young bloke apparently went white then ran off. Snoozer laughed himself to sleep for the next few nights. Classic. During the tour which took as all around his farm, into the sorting shed and wash tanks he was shucking oysters non stop and making us taste one after the other…..They were to die for!!!! No H&S rules at this Oyster farm either as Snoozer, at one point, handed the boys an oyster knife which looked sharper that a 19th century French rapier and told them to "Give it a bloody go lads, just stick it in the end and wiggle it about till the lid pops off"…. Fi and I were cringing and just waiting for the expected deep lacerations and the resulting fast and furious trip to A&E but they did good and realised that it was quite dangerous and asked daddy to finish them off. "Snoozer" thought it was hilarious and we couldn't help but laugh along with him. We took a couple of dozen in a tray for dinner that night and thanked "Snoozer" before leaving to head back to Rob and Sharon's secret hideaway. We never did find out why he was called Snoozer, but he did say it was a long story and there was a lot of rugby paraphernalia on the walls so I thought it best not to push it as the boys were around.

Some of the other highlights there were Rob cleaning up and making a 60-70 year old toy steam train work again which was amazing as well as the resident four foot Diamond Python which made himself known on the second night. Slithering down the hanging pot plant the snake had the boys super excited. Harry was sent to bed early, however, for getting his face so close to the snake that it could have whispered in his ear and this was the cue for Rob to get the broom and attempt a relocation exercise to the other side of the creek. Boo, the kids said. Yay, said the adults. With the snake happy on the other side of the creek and the boys bloated from fresh Sydney rock oysters and loads of slices of Sharon's awesome cakes we bid farewell the following morning and thanked Rob and Sharon for their excellent hospitality and the chance to sleep in a comfy bed for 4 nights in such a beautiful part of the world.

Your secret is safe with us Rob!!!!

The plan was to make our way from the secret location somewhere North of Sydney and South of Coffs Harbour and head to Sydney to catch up with my other cousins and see some old friends.

Sydney greeted us to the most torrential rain I have ever experienced. With the windscreen wipers on full blast and the narrow streets of Sydney we were not in our comfort zone at all. Managing to get through the horrendous traffic, (which we experienced during our full tour of the city, over the 5 days) we made it to Aunty Marie and Uncle Klaus' house in Roseville. The plan was to have all of Marie and Klaus' boys over with their spouses and whipper snappers for a big family Sunday lunch. To surprise the boys, my Mum had decided to fly over from Perth for the weekend and we met her on the Saturday before the lunch and spent the day touring Sydney and Manley with her. It was a great treat and the look on the boy's faces when they saw her sitting at the café where we had arranged to rendezvous was really special. We had to get back around 5pm though, as Bailey and I had tickets to see AC/DC at the Sydney Olympic Park that night and so as soon as we got home we headed to my mates house to catch up before we went to the concert. This was not the right idea as our Satnav sent us the long way around and through about 3 toll booths which we didn't know how to operate properly meaning we doubled back about three times in the relentless traffic. When we finally got to my mate Tareq's house we only had time for one quick beer and a session on Mine Craft then he directed us to a train station where we rushed onto the train with him trailing instructions as we sprinted off. Not really knowing where we were or where we were going we decided to follow the four people at the other end of the carriage who were talking about the concert and were dressed predominantly in black. It turned out to be the blind leading the blind as we all got off at the wrong station and turned to each other and said at the same time "but we were following you?". We all laughed, worked out where we were and managed to get to the concert and into our seats as the band finished their first song. It was a great show but unfortunately our seats were about four rows from the furthest point away from the stage and even the 10 meter high video screen looked small, let alone the band. The sound was very very loud but because of the distance we were from the stage, it all just meshed together and was about 1 second behind the sync on the video screen so me and Bailey just clapped and jumped up and down like everyone else, not really sure what they were actually playing or we were actually listening too……We did note on the Video screen that Angus and the rest of the band looked very old and we all gasped when Angus fell to the floor and started convulsing like he may have been having a heart attack but it turned out to be part of the show. He did take a while to get up and start playing again, but hey, the guy is over 60……The trip back wasn't much better as we forget to look at the station name we had got on in the first place and had to ask about three people before we got the right connection.

The rest of the stay was excellent. We enjoyed a lovely lunch with our good mate Marcus Trevor, his wife Amanda and their boy Guy. Fi met up with Fiona Skinner, an old friend from Perth who showed the boys how to play this brilliant game with wooden blocks and Fi and I had a delicious trendy dinner with Tareq and Ali, one of our best mates from Perth, who we spent some great times in London with. Tours of the Australian museum and the war memorial as well as wandering around the city and surrounds felt we had done Sydney some justice. When it was time to leave, we were a little worried as he hadn't slept in our tent for two weeks and had started to really enjoy the soft beds and awesome hospitality from my Uncles and Aunties. But the show must go on and we packed our gear and took to the manic traffic of Sydney to head out towards the Hawkesbury River and the Blue Mountains.