Sublime Sydney

We are now in sunny Sydney. Have been to Balmoral Beach a couple of times, and rented canoes in Middle Harbour this morning. Spent yesterday in Manly with my old mate Jeremy and his wife Susan, who emigrated to Aus about six months ago. A special treat was watching SA complete a record victory over Aus at Perth, with a couple of cold beers. Should heighten the tension at the Boxing Day Test Match in Melbourne! Phil and Fleur are both well, and have been the perfect hosts.

Manta Heaven / Manta Mayhem

Wow. Two nights in a row we have been diving with Manta Rays. Less of a dive actually – more a performance by the local Mantas, shamelessly showing off their graceful acrobatic skills as we clung to the seabed in awe…
On Monday night there were three Mantas, though mostly a young male, ‘China’, who hogged the limelight swooping low over our heads and performing somersaults over the battery of lights which are set out on the sea floor to attract the plancton. It was truly amazing to see such a creature up close – and he genuinely seemed to be enjoying himself, showing off almost!
Conditions were tough though – we were maybe 300 yards off-shore and there was a big swell: literally washing all the divers 20 yards back and forth continually. Holding on was pointless – best to just drift with it and keep just off the bottom trying avoid taking a whack from the coral or rocks. And not get disoriented! Getting back on the boat was also a challenge with the ladders rising and falling dramatically in the heaving dark sea.
Tuesday was a little calmer: China returned to show off some more and was joined by a larger female ‘Abigail’. The two of them stayed the whole time seeming to compete for our attention. Several times I had to duck my head or roll to one side to avoid a wingtip as they swept past. All in all a truly magical encounter!

Hawaii Dive

Two days, eight dives and I’m knackered! The diving has been great -all inshore sites no deeper than 25 metres and lots of life: frogfish, dragon moray, bandit angelfish, leaf scorpionfish, stonefish, boxfish, white tip reef shark, hawksbill turtle, finescale triggerfish, whitemouth moray, yellowhead moray, parrotfish, barracuda, trevally, trumpetfish and many more. You’ll have to look those up because it will be a few weeks before we can upload the pictures…

And they’re off…!

Breakfast at Ramsey’s: eggs benedict and champagne. What more could you want? Terminal 5 is a real pleasure in comparison to Ts 1 to 4 and in another 20 hours time we will be in Honolulu! 🙂

Gorgeous George

On Friday we said goodbye to George. It was a lovely occasion, dampened only by the weather: wet and fiercely cold. Roger, Jenni and Terry each gave wonderful tributes to their father. Jenni’s in particular reminded me of the many characteristics he passed on to my father Gary: his acute interest in other people and their thoughts and experiences, his energy and breadth of creative and practical skills.

Dad loved music, but was also a genius with tools and could build or restore almost anything. I hadn’t realised that George too was a keen inventor – often trying to improve the effectiveness of tools and appliances, whilst Dad had initially tried to establish a career as an inventor of childrens toys and puzzles. They both had very sharp minds, but it was what stimulated them that was so similar.