Last Sunday onwards....

We left Frank and Liz in Sydney last Sunday and headed off to Nelson Bay, Port Stephens in our hire car (French!). We stayed at the Oakes Pacific Resort which was the height of luxury and something Marg and I hadn't done before. The accommodation unit was 5 star and fully equipped (flat screen HD TVs etc.)..and surrounded by the resorts lagoon, which even I couldn't resist. Next morning we drove down to the wharf and picked up our retired ferry for a dolphin watching cruise. We stood on the bows all the way (eat your heart heart out Winslett/deCaprio)!

Inside the Sydney Apartment close to Darling Harbour

Crossing the Harbour Bridge

Nelson Bay-view from our apartment

Our retired ferry.... and view of the harbour

I see no ships

...but plenty of dolphins!

HUNTER VALLEY: WINE REGION

Pokolbin Village Resort -our unit

Morning breakfast in the Valley

"Call that a bottle? Nah. This is a bottle!" -sign of things to come!

Outside one of the 6 wineries where we sampled the goods!



Oh dear, another bottle to taste!



We set off the Leura in the blue mountains and took a cross country route, over spectacular countryside. It got a bit hairy at one point when I was faced with what, thank goodness, turned out to be only 400 yards of unmade road! However, a closer inspection of the map would have warned us that was the case. So, we avoided the major signage to Wisemans Ferry as that would have given us 15km of unmade road -shaken the french car to bits and invalidated my insurance too. The detour was worth it, as was the crossing at the toll free, chain ferry.

Wiseman's Ferry

Leura House







"wherefore art thou?"


Blue Mtns

Shall we take the Skyway across?

"famous last photos before the crossing!"

Valley shot from the skyway

..shot from the glass floor of the skyway...oooer!

over the rainforest

let's take the miners's train to the forest floor...should beat walking down?

signs at the end of the drop...thatnks for the info after the event

...and here's an even better sign after the vertical drop...abseiling would have been more comfortable, and safer I reckon!

bush walking on the forest floor

cable car back up and across

the "money" shot of the 3 sisters, safely back at the top and at Echo Point

looking at how insignificant the skyway is...would we have taken it had we seen the shot below before?!

Quick catch up for all our readers...!

Thanks to Liz for keeping the blog going while we've been touring and ringing in updates! No photos on this blog entry....that's to come. Today is our last day in Leura, Blue Mountain country. We hopped on our explorer bus at 1045 (an old London bus) and took a trip to the scenic highway. We took the scenic highway across the mountains, then a pretty hairy quick nosedive down to the bottom of the valley on a track route previously built for the old mines. Trust me, it was nearly vertical with no headroom...that's why the seats when you boarded were at a plus 45 degree angle!! To top it off we came back by cable car.... Later in the day we went to echo point/3 sisters, and looked across to where we had taken the rides earlier in the day. If we'd done that first I dont think we would have taken them!!!
The views were fantastic and I can't wait to download the pics. The day started off a bit cloudy-on the way back from the restaurant last night we had a pretty good storm and the mist came in. Fortunately it cooled the morning down, but by mid day the sun was shining strongly again.
Off to browse the local shops now..pictures to follow when we pick up with Frank and Liz tomorrow in Bowral/Mittagong. Bye for now.

The Blue Mountains

Kevin and Margaret arrived at the old convent (Leura House) yesterday afternoon, and spent the afternoon relaxing on their balcony in the mountains. When Frank spoke to them last night they were extremely happy with the restaurant they had chosen "Cafe Bon Ton" (Cafe Good Time - http://www.bonton.com.au/), they were in between courses and were being personally waited on by the chef. I googled this restaurant - and yes, it does look very nice. Today, Thursday, they are going to take the "Hop on, Hop off" bus from right outside the grounds of Leura House to explore all the sights in the Blue Mountains.

Tomorrow, we will meet them in Bowral at the Briars Country Lodge (http://www.briars.com.au/) however, at the Briars Inn we will be choosing our meat and barbequeing it ourselves - the chefs (Kevin and Frank) I'm sure will wait personally on Marg and I. When we meet, Kevin will once again have access to my laptop so he will reclaim his blog again - we are really looking forward to the stories and photos of their travels over the past 5 days..

Margaret and Kevin's day in the Hunter Valley

Have just spoken to the travellers, they really enjoyed their tour of the Hunter Valley and all its produce - they booked a half day tour, but stayed on the tour for the full day, had a great time, and enjoyed their fellow tourists, and the guide - Garry. They bought some supplies for dinner(from the smelly cheese shop and a few other stops) and were just preparing a picnic in their room when Kevin called. We lent them our picnic set and esky.. Tomorrow they travel to the Blue Mountains, via the picturesque Wisemans Ferry area. Due to a lot of local advice the original accommodation booking in the Blue Mountains - the Carrington (Oz's faulty towers) has been cancelled, and the Faulkners will now be staying in a convent in Leura - check it out - http://www.leurahouse.com.au/ . Will let you know when they arrive safely tomorrow.

A couple of days in the Hunter Valley Wine District

Hi, Liz again..... It's really Monday - 23rd Feb. around 7 pm.

Just spoke to our happy travellers - they loved, I mean really loved the Oaks Pacific Blue Resort. To top off their stay at Port Stephens, apparently 100 plus bottle nosed dolphins came out to play for Marg. They went out into Nelson Bay (much larger than Sydney Harbour) on an ancient ferry - and Marg is so pleased she didn't suffer any sea queezies while photographing her favourite sea creature.

They found their way to the Hunter Valley Wine Region, and have booked a full day tour of sampling tomorrow, not all will be wine, there will be candy, wine, cheese, wine, olives, wine, fudge, wine, chocolate covered "everything" mustards, boutique beer, and the famous Aussie white Port!! Well you get the picture!!!. If you want to check out their home for Monday and Tuesday nights - http://www.pokolbinvillage.com.au/ - think they are in one of the "loft" rooms, and by the way when I called tonight they had just dragged themselves out of the pool - after a 2 hour stint. They are just hating life right now!!!!

Update from the Oaks Pacific Blue Resort

Liz here again!

Margaret and Kevin arrived at their destination, quicker than expected, guess that happens when you assume the distances are in miles, but really they are kilometres.!!! Most of this afternoon was spent lazing around in the lagoon which surrounds the resort - like 3 hours of "lagoon lazing", so rest assured on their first independent adventure downunder - there is no suffering, trust the dolphins will come out to play for Marg tomorrow.

Faulkner's head north - Sunday 22nd !!!

Liz here ! (this blog is running on UK time - it is really Sunday 22nd down here)

The Brigadier (Margaret's eldest brother) organised our departure from the Sydney apartments at 9.30 sharp this morning!!! The trip across the harbour bridge was traffic free (being Sunday) and we found the pick up address for Margaret and Kevin's hire car (a renault) with no hassle. They were last seen turning right onto Route 1 north - today's destination Port Stephens/Nelson Bay - they are staying at Salamandar Bay. Check it out - google " The Oaks Pacific Blue Resort - Salamander Bay"

Kev says - extra insurance please!!!!

Bye - see you next Friday in the Southern Highlands!

-

We turned left towards the bridge and took a detour to Balmoral beach for a walk, before heading off to cousin Susan's till tomorrow morn. then south down the coast to home for a few days.

Balmoral Beach

Market Day at The Rocks (all I have left in my wallet)

Saturday - 21st February - all day!

For our last full day in Sydney we hit the famous Rocks market, arriving there about 11.00 and getting back about 7pm via a pretty quick ferry trip back to Darling Harbour -witness the wind swept hair later.

Tomorrow, Sunday, Marg and I say bye for now to Frank and Liz, pick up the hire car and head off for the week. So there will probably be no further blog entries until next Friday. If you are interested we shall firstly be heading north of Sydney to Port Stephens/Nelson Bay where we are staying for one night and hope to pick up a dolphin watching cruise. After that we head west to the Hunter Valley wine region where we will be staying for 2 nights in Pokolbin, taking in a wine tour of course. Then we head to the Blue mountains where we'll be staying for 2 nights at the Carrington hotel in Katoomba -could be the Aussie Fawlty Towers! Then we head south and meet up with Frank and Liz in the southern highlands where they had their angora goat farm (Bowral).

Liz thought this was a modern art exhibition, now that's taking the p...s!



Spot the "2" clowns at Luna Park

another P&O boat (28 cruise boats will dock in the month of Feb.!! )

..and don't spare the horses

Darling harbour area...resting at last!!.

Darling Harbour fountains

Leaving Chinatown