It was the Queen's birthday weekend last week and Zoe flew in to Newcastle airport on Thursday for a five day visit, which is the longest period of time we have spent together in the past 18 months.
On Friday, Ian dropped us at the station to catch the 7.30am train to Sydney. We had decided to go on our own because Ian is not that bothered about having a touristy time in a city that was his home for many years. I have only visited Sydney a few times since our arrival and Zoe has not been there since 2005. Even though Ian and I stayed in the city for a few days when we first arrived, we were running around buying cars and camping gear so I didn't have much time for sightseeing.
We were in Sydney by 10am and started the day with Jaffles (toasted sandwiches) in a cafe in Circular Quay. Then it was off to book ourselves onto a Captain Cook's harbour cruise. Ian had told us to go on the Middle Harbour route so we managed to get booked for the 2.30pm trip.
We strolled off around Circular Quay and, after a few failed selfies in front of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House because of our lack of a selfie stick, a nice lady offered to take our picture for us. We watched the groups of people taking the Harbour Bridge walk, there are about six groups doing the walk at any one time and it is like that all day, but we knew that would never be for us, especially not for me.
Next was a stroll through the beautiful Botanic Gardens and a look at Government House then onto The Rocks which is the historic area next to Circular Quay. The Rocks Market was great and the whole neighbourhood really gives you an idea of what the area would have looked like when Sydney was first starting to develop.
The time had now come around for the highlight of the day, the Captain Cook Cruise. It was 2 hours long and an excellent way of getting the layout of the city a bit more sorted out in our heads, the commentary was informative too, all this came with tea, coffee and cakes, what more could we ask for?
We had noticed when we first arrived that Vivid Sydney was still on. This is a festival of light where the buildings are lit up with light shows and animations so we decided to stay and see a bit of it. The lights came on as soon as it got dark at 6pm and they were sensational, especially on the Opera House which is a perfect canvas for a light show.
The remainder of Zoe's visit passed quickly with days out in Newcastle, where we introduced her to Nobby's Beach and the Olive Tree Market and Nelson Bay where we encountered a shark on a bus (?).
We are really enjoying the wildlife at our new house, it is in the same street as the previous house but the experience is quite different. This is the quieter end of the road and we have a balcony and a garden with plenty of trees so we get lots of visitors.
The Rainbow Lorikeets came to check us out as soon as we arrived and now turn up at 7am and 4.15pm waiting to be fed, if we are more than 15 minutes late they give up and presumably move on to the next person who feeds them. We can get as many as forty on the balcony at any one time, which brings its own problems poo-wise so Ian is going to make a feeder that juts out from the balcony. The Rainbow Lorikeets are now being joined by Scaly Breasted Lorikeets and Eastern Rosellas, which are more shy and take longer to risk trusting us. They put on a good show when we spoke to my Mum and sister Gill yesterday, we set up a Skype call for 6.45am to make sure they would see them.
The Kookaburras are starting to show an interest in us too, they are meat eaters so we have to be prepared with bits of bacon or sausage. We have seen people feeding Kookaburras by hand but they are a bit big with very large beaks so I don't know if I will be going that far.
We had a real treat a couple of days ago when Ian spotted a Tawny Frogmouth (a type of owl) in the front garden next door, they have such confidence in their camouflage, you can walk right up to them and they won't move.
It is officially winter now but, as you can see from the picture of our evening walk, the weather is still very pleasant. We have acclimatised however and think seventeen degrees is freezing, when we spoke to Mum and Gill it was the same temperature here as in England and we were shivering while they were just thinking they were having a bit of a disappointing summer day.
The big news this week is that the washing machine we managed to drop down seven steps and ended up in several pieces, all dented....still works! Our good fortune doesn't end there either, we won a staggering three prizes in the seafood raffle on Friday, these things are free so what with our regular quiz night prizes we have worked out that Club Lemon Tree had given us more money than we have spent there!
Zoe arrives today and is staying until Tuesday, it is a holiday weekend here for the Queen's Birthday - Australians get a day off for this - so we will see what events we can go to.
There was great excitement a couple of nights ago. We were walking Monty on the little beach at the bottom of our road when three dolphins decided to join us! They must have been less than 12 feet from the shore and they were just bobbing along happily with Monty running beside them. People had told us it was not unusual to see dolphins here but we thought they would be far out in the marina and only seen with binoculars, not joining us on our evening walk.
The tenant moved in to our house this week so we have had a little more time to ourselves so we decided to find out whether there were any spots near us where it was possible to see the whales migrating from the beach as the area is gripped with whale watching fever at the moment. The middle of winter,so last week in June and first couple in July are the really busy times although the whales can be seen from April to November. No chance of seeing Migaloo, the white whale though as he was spotted in Byron Bay last week so has already passed us. The lady in the tourist information office suggested Anna Bay so we went to Birubi Point which is nice and high. 
We settled down with binoculars and cameras fully expecting this to be one of those occasions when you convince yourself that the little splash you saw on the horizon was really something out there, but no, there was a constant procession of whales in the distance! They could be spotted by the spouts of water coming out of their blow holes, they were a long way off but this could be seen with the naked eye. They were very difficult to photograph because wherever the camera was pointed, one would jump out of the water somewhere else but I did manage to get a snap of a bit of a tail and a back. 
Now we no longer have to work on the investment house we are turning our attention to this one. It is OK on the inside but the plan is to enclose some of the underneath area and terrace the garden so we have started the first of what will be many retaining walls. As you can see, the garden is currently like the North face of the Eiger so it is going to take a bit of work.
