25 May 2014

Having decided to give ourselves a decent break in New Zealand, allowing Mary time to have her cataract op, and me to have my teeth done, and then staying over for the winter to do some more boat work ,……. we needed to get our visa’s extended. One of the ways of managing this with a British passport, and to get an extension, is to fly out for a holiday, and on return, show Immigration the yachts Two year TIE ( Temporary Import exemption) , and hopefully, get another 6 months!

Our good friends, Et and Lin, had emigrated 4 years ago and settled in Sydney, and we had 3 of our 4 birthdays falling within 6 weeks of the expiry of our current visa. Both are fit and well, and living a very disciplined and healthy lifestyle.

It was time for us to catch up, so we flew over to join them in Sydney. We spent the first week in their lovely new home in a retirement complex in Glenhaven, and then a couple of weeks travelling together, northwards up the east coast as far as Noosa, (about 200km north of Brisbane), and returning via an inland route.

Mary and I then hired a Hyundai Getz, and took off on another 2 week circuit through the Blue Mountains, down to Canberra, working our way back up the coast to Sydney, for a final couple of days with Et & Lin, before winging back to Sheer Tenacity !

The five blogs covering this period in Oz, are mainly pictures with captions plus the odd comment!

We walked over the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Overlooking the Opera House and Circular Quay

Walking through the historic area of the city "The Rocks"

Past Circular Quay to the Opera House

The iconic Opera House, designed by Jorn Utzon,
was inspired by billowing white sails....
"but is described by certain locals as more accurately
resembling the sexual congress of turtles!"
Lonely Planet quote