Well the air quality improved today – not clear but distinctly better than yesterday. At least breathing appeared to be a possibility! Took the bus to Circular Quay and then the ferry to Manly. This is a resort at the end of the harbour with beaches on the seaside. I walked around the harbour and up to the point. Chatted to a toddler about lions … Continue reading Manly

This is going to be an account of a short visit as the air quality is appalling. (11 times worse than ‘hazardous’, apparently). It’s got a bit better this afternoon as the wind has got up but this morning was awful. This is a cruise ship parked at Circular Quay in front of the bridge. I had a bit of a look round The Rocks, … Continue reading Sydney

Yesterday (Sunday), Rachael and I had a quiet day pottering. We went to see a display of quite lovely landscape photos by a local well-known photographer (https://kenduncan.com) and then to the pictures again to see Knives Out – Agatha Christie in modern dress and in the US. Good plot though. Today I have been packing and then off for a stretch again. Good stuff – … Continue reading To Sydney

Well the climate continues to be dodgy whilst the stories ( from The Guardian) get worse and worse. The really bad fire is still 32km away and, according to Google Maps, is a 47 minute drive from here. Not reassuring but I am taking my tone from my hosts and trying not to worry. It has improved a bit the last day or two – … Continue reading Terrigal – continued

The fires are still going on all over the place. Apparently today was more like smoking 40 cigarettes if you were outside all day. This means that I am not inclined to go and lie on the beach all day. Went for my stretching session. Feel much better now – she said that my body movement was excellent, I was just a bit stiff. Going … Continue reading Still in Australia

Well today I hung about with the cat for a bit and then went down to talk to some people at the Stretching Lab. This is a concept I have not heard of in the UK. You do stretching and yoga type stuff but they move you rather than you moving yourself. Some people apparently swear by it and some of Dave’s footballers have been. … Continue reading Australia continued

This is a brief message. I got to Sydney last night where Rachael met me at the airport. Bless. We are now in Tarrigal (look it up) where Rachael and Dave live. Nice little tourist-y town by the seaside. Haven’t done much today – read the paper with the cat this morning and then went to the bank to change my NZ dollars for Oz … Continue reading And here we are in Oz

Well, as I have a couple of hours to kill at the airport, I thought I would write about my perceptions of the country. I have been here for a month and been to most areas, however briefly. I’m sure Herbie will forgive me if I get some of my facts wrong. For a start, the country is familiar but not. It is about the … Continue reading New Zealand

It’s a bit odd, after three weeks in a small bus with 14 other people and a schedule to keep to, it is again just me. Two of the group are still in Christchurch and I am going to the airport tomorrow with one of them as we are on the same flight to Sydney, but neither of them are actually in this hotel. And … Continue reading All on my own again

Well the tour has finally finished and a lot of the participants have left or are leaving imminently. I am remaining in the hotel until Sunday when I am off to Sydney. This morning, after breakfast and farewells, three of us went into the centre of Christchurch on the bus. There is still a lot of damage from the earthquake and a lot of building … Continue reading Christchurch