Day nine

Reading on the balcony is a splendid way to spent a morning. 

Helen walked up to the bakery to buy our favourite bread for lunch and bought the jumbo size! We managed to eat most of it. 

After lunch we made our way to Clovelly so that they could snorkel while Kate and I sat and watched the waves. 

We walked back through the Cemetery but there were no birds around, but there was a different view of Bronte. 

When we were all back we spent some time discussing whether to have take away or to go out to eat. As there was a split vote we settled for takeaway burgers eaten down on the sea front. So James collected the Moo Burgers (sadly they had run out of Kangaroo meat burgers) and we walked to the beach with a bottle of red wine and sat and ate under the stars. 

Tim Tams have become the pudding of choice and these are my favourite - unfortunately others like them too. 

Day eight

A quiet morning reading our books. Steve took Jack to Queens Park to play football and Helen took Immie down to the beach for a swim - where Immie was the heroine in a seaside drama, saving an elderly woman’s life, but I will let Immie tell that story!

After a lunch, featuring soda bread from the local bakery, we headed out for a different beach - Maroubra Beach.

Kate and I walked along the back of the beach in very, very hot sunshine. There were plenty of goannas about, but very few birds. 

The red wattlebird was about, and this time the wattles were more obvious. 

We walked along the cliff top, looking along the coast to Bronte and Bondi, before catching several buses home. 

We had a spectacular Thai take-away for supper and then strolled down for a nighttime view of the sea. 

Day seven.

It pays to talk to people. 

We took the local bus towards the city and then walked through Queens Park to Centennial Park ( we asked a passerby for directions and she said ‘oh you mean Senteneel Park’!).

We walked and walked enjoying the wildlife there. The first port of call was the area with the Flying Fox bats. 

We spotted a couple with big cameras photographing something and enquired. They pointed out a fledgling Noisy Miner in the grass being guarded by a parent.

A short distance away I spotted a man with a big camera and a cap that mentioned a local Wildlife club so I struck up a conversation with him. He asked if we had seen the Tawny Frogmouths and offered to point them out to us. They were so brilliantly camouflaged that you would never has seen them. The one at the front is the male with the female behind.

He then asked if we had seen the Powerful Owls, the largest owl in Australia. Of course we hadn’t and he gave us directions; go to the Park Cafe and look up into the tree right in the middle of the dining area! Fortunately he was there when we arrived which saved hours of peering up into the branches. Again, both male and female were present, but fast asleep. The female is the first photo and the male the second.

Kate and I then walked back around the lakes, photographing birds, while the others jumped on a bus to the ferry to cross the Harbour to meet up with Delphi, an old school friend of Helen’s.

Day six

A quiet day. Relatively. 

We took the bus to Bondi Junction which is the main local shopping centre with all the major stores. Not a photo opportunity but a stocking up with food opportunity at Woolworths. 

Back here for a Turkish lunch. We have discovered Turkish flatbreads which, when filled with cheese and ham, then toasted in the very nice flat toaster makes a splendid toasted sandwich. 

Then the others headed down to the beach but I headed out to Waverley, a small area a mile away that has reatained many Art Deco style buildings and shops. 

Day five

Today we showed them the delights of the Opal card  taking them on buses, trains and ferries. We also took a water taxi!

We took a bus to Bondi Junction where we switched to another bus to take us to Rose Bay where we were meeting James and Grace. 

While we drank coffee we watched an enterprising Noisy Miner taking sugar from a packet. 

And in a nearby park we encountered a flock of Sulphur Crested Cockatoos. They were very happy to pose for selfies. 

The we took a water taxi across the harbour to a restaurant that Grace had booked for us. The taxi driver/sailor took our photo.

The restaurant, called Ripples at Chowder Bay. 

After lunch we walked a coastal path, pointing out the wildlife to the young ones...

   

Then the ferry across to Circular Quay...

A walk through the city to catch a train and then a bus back to Bronte. 

Day four

Today we had another glorious sunrise. 

While Helen took the children down to the beach for a morning swim we made sandwiches for today’s outing to Nielsen Park out on Sydney Harbour. 

A large netted beach ( shark nets!) and a wide area of grass behind, filled with picnics and swimmers. Immie and Jack took a large inflatable pineapple out on the water and were joined by James and Grace. 

Kate and I took a short walk along the cliff path to get our first long view across to the Opera House and Bridge. 

After our picnic I took a walk into the scrublands behind the beach and was rewarded with two fine birds, a pied currawong and a red wattlebird. 

And after an exhausting day what could be better than ice cream., we went to a parlour and bought two litres of ice cream, made up of large scoops of eight different flavours. Here we see James and Immie choosing their flavours. 

Day three

Easter Sunday in the heat!

Immie and Jack found that eggs laid by the Easter Bunny melt in the sun.

They were up at the crack of dawn to watch the sun rise over the rocks near Bondi while we took a stately walk in Waverley Cemetery.

An obliging kookaburra posed nicely before flying away. 

Then we had an Easter Sunday barbecue. Here we see James working on the main course and Immie and Jack working on the Easter Tim Tam cake.

This was the main course...

And this is the Tim Tam cake. It had an Oreo biscuit base, then a layer of white chocolate cream cheese, then a dark chocolate cream cheese layer topped off with whipped cream surrounded by Tim Tams (an Australian penguin type biscuit).

In between the main course and the Easter cake we managed to fit in a trip to the beach for body boarding and wave jumping.