Sunday, 29 January 2017

Wonderful Friends and Australia Day...

We jumped on the train and headed down to Culburra Beach to visit our dear friends Jenn and Lester, whom we hadn't seen for nearly 10 years.  It was a really lovely time with them. 


Jenn's son Scott and his lovely wife Tobie have just opened OP Bakehouse (www.opbakehouse.com)
at the new location at Culburra Beach - theirs and their daughter hand prints 
in the concrete for prosperity!  (awesome!)  We highly recommend going to their restaurant!


It was so wonderful catching up with Jenn and Lester 
and spending time with Scott, Tobie and their little girl Eden

Sydney sure has so much to offer, and we are lucky enough to be here while the Sydney Festival is on, so off we headed to Symphony Under the Stars - lovely


We were so excited that Julie and Martin decided to fly down to join us 
for a long weekend on Our Rose.  It had been 5 years since we had seen them in Thailand when we were there while Our Rose was being built.

We had a wonderful weekend together, eating, drinking, laughing.   We went to El Circo 
a "interesting" Cabaret dinner show


We ate out, we ate in (Julie and Martin cooked us a lovely Thai meal)


And then came Australia Day - WOW

Boats were dressed up, the navy, the airforce, police, maritime rescue and as many Ozzies as could were on the water for the day...







and of course ending with an amazing fireworks display








Thursday, 12 January 2017

Sydney...



 Arriving in Sydney was truly amazing...


Our Rose had a spring clean ready for Christmas 
- hard to believe this oven gets the workout it really does!



Up went the Christmas decorations, and out came the Champagne for Christmas Day...



Sydney have various "free" moorings around the harbour.  This is Our Rose on mooring off Manly


The Boxing Day Sydney Hobart race was spectacular...
Fay and Phil (Jigsaw) offered for us to join them to watch it - incredible beyond words...


Looking behind us - it was unbelievable...


On anchor New Years eve 
- this Cruise Ship left dock to get to its vantage point for the evening


It was a truly incredible evening, with Parade of boats all lit up...


and of course the most incredible fireworks display...
Was lovely to enjoy it with new friends - Cherie and Eckhardt