Once we had made the decision to move Down Under I started to devour as many books based in Australia as possible to try and get a bit of a feel for the place.
One of my favourites was Salvation Creek by Susan Duncan which is a true story about the author's search for a place to call home after a series of devastating tragedies rock her world. She stumbles accidentally on a place called Pittwater and her writing gives such a strong sense of the place, I have wanted to see it ever since. 

 The opportunity arose this week as we needed to take the car down to Sydney to pick up a new battery for the caravan and realised Pittwater was quite close to where we were going.
Pittwater is in Sydney, to the north and backs on to Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park. Some small towns which face onto Pittwater, such as Clareville have nice bayside beaches and can be accessed by road so are very expensive because they are an easy trot into Sydney's central business district. Further along are Whale Beach and Palm Beach (where Mick Jagger has a home) which have surf beaches on one side and bay beaches on the other thereby satisfying both a hankering for dangerous pursuits and a safe place for children. 

Susan, our heroine, finds a home on Pittwater itself which is a large expanse of densely wooded bay with houses dotted among dozens of little inlets which can only be accessed by boat. 
Church Point is approached from Mona Vale Road and is home to a shop which serves as a general store, cafe, bar, restaurant, post office and drop off point for deliveries. The residents leave their cars at Church Point and hop into their tinnies (small aluminium boats with outboard motors) or take a water taxi to their waterside properties.

 These homes are not great for a daily commute into the city because the boat element adds a significant amount of time to the journey, but they are sensational if you do not need to do that or are lucky enough to be able to afford a weekend home.

 Most houses have their own deck and jetty and reach right down to the water's edge where it is incredibly peaceful at night with only the sounds of the bush behind and the water in front. During the day it is a busy stretch of water and ferries take tourists around who, probably like me are fans of the book and want to have a nose at where the author moved to.
It was a gorgeous spot, I can see why it became her salvation.

 The most recent trip was more a case of Rabbitts in the air than on the road, or Rabbitt to be more precise because I flew down to Melbourne on my own. The main purpose of the jaunt was to go wedding dress shopping with Zoe but, to my delight, she treated me to a ticket to the Grand Prix as an early birthday present! 

The prices of flights to Melbourne from Newcastle vary enormously depending on the time of day and on this occasion the 6am flight was $65 while the 10am one was $220 so, an early start for me then! I needed to be there sharpish to get to the Grand Prix anyway so left home just after 4am for the fifteen minute trip to the airport. 
The flight was mainly full of yawning but excited men and boys wearing Ferrari, Red Bull or Mercedes caps. All the passengers looked a bit shell shocked by the exceptionally early start and there was plenty of snoring on board as we touched down in Melbourne before 8am.
Albert Park is a lovely setting for the race and we found a tree to sit under beside the circuit, which was handy because it was a very hot day. Apart from the fun of the race, we were very pleased to see The Roulettes, an air display team who were unable to perform when we were at the Avalon Air Show because of the wind. An excellent day all round.

 The next day started early too as we had to drive to Wonthaggi where Zoe was completing her final block of teaching practice. So we set off at 5.45am and arrived at Shaun's parents' house just before 7.30. Zoe went to work while I borrowed her car and set off to explore.
My first stop was Phillip Island which is a beautiful part of the world. It was smaller than I expected and I very quickly found myself in Cowes which is the main resort.

 The coast around here is absolutely gorgeous and made more dramatic by the fact that it is very windy so the sea is invariably pretty lively, crashing against the rocks and long, golden beaches. There are penguins here but the organised viewing at the Penguin Parade is very expensive and I didn't manage to spot any for free.
I took a detour on the way back and had a look at Phillip Island Racing Circuit, or rather I would have done if it were not all fenced and hidden in such a way that you cannot see much unless you go through the visitor centre and pay the, rather steep, admission fee.

 By now you will have realised that I am a bit of a tightwad so will have guessed that I didn't do that! From what I could see it looked as though the circuit would be pretty blowy even on the nicest of days, a bit like Silverstone, very different from the Albert Park experience of the day before. 
I set off the next morning to explore the coast around the Wonthaggi area. It really is sensational, especially Cape Paterson which is very popular with surfers. I watched one group around the Eagle's Nest and they seem to spend very little time actually surfing, they just bob around in the water for ages and ages waiting for the ideal wave.

 I saw loads of waves which looked perfectly adequate to me but, in the whole time I stood there (about 20 minutes), only one surfer saw a wave he fancied and surfed it. 

 After a quick look at Inverloch which is an attractive, smart town with a very pleasant waterfront, I met Zoe from work and she drove me back to the airport. I arrived home exhausted but pleased to have seen yet another delightful part of this beautiful country.