From Wollongong to Sydney is just a short ride north up the coast. Liz lives in the suburb of Grays Point, which is at the extreme south end of Sydney, so we only just grazed the edge of the city on our way in. Much of our trip up the coast looked like this, because of course the weather is going to be nice on a day we have to travel, after three straight days of rain in the beach town!
Liz picked us up at the Sutherland train station, which is near her place, a bit later than expected due to the absolutely bonkers pre-Christmas Saturday traffic. After we got ourselves settled in, we headed out for a walk in Royal National Park, which is directly across the street from Liz’s house. This is Karen and Liz on the falls at Temptation Creek, which Liz had expected to be flowing strongly after the recent rains. As you can see it was actually quite dry – the rain must have fallen in another catchment.
Back at Liz’s place we sat for a bit on the back deck, which immediately attracted the attention of the neighbourhood birds. These are Rainbow Lorikeets. They’re quite used to people and happy to eat from your hands, with a bit of coaxing.
And this is a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. You’ll notice he isn’t being fed – Liz discourages the Cockatoos from visiting as they have a tendency to destroy the wood on the deck. Cockatoos are also flocking birds, who send out scouts for food, so if you feed one of them you’ll shortly have twenty come to visit. The water pistol at left is for chasing them off. They’re smart birds; all you have to do is pick up the pistol and they’re gone (which saves on water refills, so win-win).
One bird we didn’t get a good picture of from the deck is the Kookaburra – but we definitely heard them! There are dozens living in Liz’s neighbourhood and they love to announce the sunrise with what sounds like a wild, maniacal cackle. The unwanted early-morning alarm clock is a little annoying, but does allow for lovely dawn photos.(Photo from later in the week.)
This picture was also taken later in the week, but gives a good view of Liz’s back garden from the deck. Liz had the grey house at the bottom built a few years ago, and it’s where Tyler lives. Sydney has a serious housing crisis and currently boasts the second least affordable housing in the world, after Hong Kong (Vancouver is third). And yes, that’s our laundry on the line.
Christmas Eve day was overcast and rainy, so we spent the day at Liz’s starting to organize and prepare for the pending Christmas invasion. Louise had planned much of the menu (you may recall we tested some recipes while visiting her in Melbourne). Rebecca had ordered the food for delivery to Liz’s place, and the kitchen cupboards and storage room (temporarily made over into a “butler’s pantry” or walk-in food closet) were overflowing with stuff.
In the late afternoon the local volunteer fire department had a mini-parade of two trucks, carrying a very important visitor who threw candies to the kids.
The tradition on Liz’s street is that Santa’s visit is a the occasion of a massive water fight. While that would obviously be more fun on a hot sunny day, the kids weren’t going to let the cool, rainy weather stop them, so the water balloons, buckets, and hoses were out in full force. The fire crews were well-prepared, of course. We question the wisdom of picking a water fight with people driving a tank truck equipped with high-pressure hoses, but everyone seemed to have a good time and ended up only slightly wetter than they started.
Liz belongs to a women’s swim group that calls themselves the Mermaids. They normally meet to swim two mornings a week, and also have a special Christmas swim. So, on Christmas morning we were all up at 6:30 to get dressed and drive to South Cronulla Beach for a 7:30 dip in the ocean. We were warmly welcomed by the rest of the group and both made honorary Mermaids for the day (Greg being the only mermaid-dude). The surf was unusually heavy, so rather than go out for the swim around the buoy that they usually do, the Mermaids satisfied themselves by getting bashed around in the waves a while. Here we are with our post-swim coffee, which Liz brought along in a thermos in the (correct) expectation that the beach coffee shop would be closed. As you can see in the background, there were lots of other groups also out for an early Christmas-morning swim.
Karen’s Aunt Margaret (Brisbane) and cousin Rebecca, aka Bec (Melbourne) were due to arrive late on Christmas Day, with Louise and her partner Martin (Melbourne) landing on Boxing Day morning. So, the Real Christmas™️ wasn’t starting until Boxing Day lunch. That left us with a quiet Christmas Day, which Liz and Karen filled by starting on a jigsaw puzzle.
By noon on Boxing Day most of Karen’s Australian family were at Liz’s place, but we were missing her cousin Rob and family (who we’ll see in Brisbane) and Bec’s partner Al, who had stayed back in Melbourne to look after their new dog.
It was a great day of cooking, drinking (in moderation), eating (definitely not) and hanging out. Here are Margaret and Liz’s youngest, Tyler, cooking lunch and demonstrating that “throw another prawn on the barbie” is absolutely a thing. The skewers are rosemary, cut from the six metre long rosemary hedge in Liz’s back yard, and added a nice flavour to the food. (Photo: Bec.)
This was dinner, served on Liz’s back deck. Going around the table starting from Greg, we have Kyle (Liz’s eldest), Sophie (Kyle’s wife), Tyler , Hayley (Tyler’s girlfriend), Grant (Liz’s partner), Martin (Louise’s partner), Louise, Karen, Margaret, Bec, and Liz.
Did you notice the wine bottle in the previous picture? That’s a three litre double magnum of Shiraz that Grant brought over. For scale, the other bottle on the table is a one and a half litre magnum. No small bottles here!
In the afternoon we had a fun game of Codenames. Going widdershins from Karen: Liz, Bec, Tyler, Kyle, Margaret, Sophie.
Here’s another shot of the Codenames. Notice Ganesh on Karen’s arm? That’s a temporary tattoo, which was a Christmas gift from Louise on the theory that it wouldn’t weigh anything so we wouldn’t have to carry it. And notice Sophie’s tattoos? All real.
Greg also got a temporary tattoo, which he put on above his ankle (one of the few mostly-hairless parts of his body!)
Even Margaret got in on the tattoo game. There were also teeth tattoos, about which the less said the better.
Grant owns a barge, which we would probably call a “flat bottomed boat” in Canada. On the morning of the 27th he was first down to the launch at the Swallow Rock Jetty and we joined him right after breakfast for a morning on the water. Marg wasn’t feeling excited about going for a ride and Bec stayed behind to keep her company.
And a selfie, just to prove that Greg was actually there.
From the launch we went east down the Hacking River, then south, and then west up South West Arm Creek. Along the way the boat seems to have acquired three figureheads, each with a very different reaction to the wind.
Grant took the boat up to the pool at the top of the Arm, where the rest of us got off for a walk up to Winnifred Falls. That’s Grant’s barge behind Louise.
This Water Dragon was waiting for us on the rocks.
The falls are quite beautiful. Unlike the falls at Temptation Creek, they were flowing freely, with lots of water in the pool.
We all went for a swim, although Louise’s time in the water was brief and full of shrieks about the cold. Fortunately, that meant she was available to take pictures of the rest of us. Here’s Liz jumping in. (Photo: Louise)
And Greg. (Photo: Louise)
We’re planning to represent Canada and Australia jointly in synchronized swimming at the next Olympics. Think we have a shot? (Photo: Louise)
After our swim we went back to the barge for a picnic lunch.
On the way back we also took a brief detour to look at Iris Falls, but didn’t stop for a swim.
The landscape and vegetation along the Arm is spectacular. The twisty red trees are Angophora, also known as Sydney Red Gum.
Here’s another Angophora, just because they’re so striking.
Big thanks to Grant for a wonderful trip!
The rest of the day and the next was filled with more cooking, eating, and hanging out. Karen also taught a belly dance lesson, but with a strict no pictures rule.
Bec left that evening after dinner, and Margaret the next day.
Louise had wanted to film Greg juggling and on the 29th she finally badgered him into it. At this point Louise seems to be rethinking her life choices! She posted an edited clip to her Instagram.
As one last family bonding experience before Louise’s departure, she, Karen and Liz had a go at removing the stinkbugs that had invaded one of Liz’s shrubs.
On the evening of the 29th there was an informal juggling meetup in Newtown, an (ironically-named) older suburb of Sydney. We headed in early so we could wander the streets, have a beer at Young Henrys brewery, and get dinner before the session.
Newtown is an eclectic, artsy, self-consciously hip neighbourhood. The people-watching on the streets and in the park was a lot of fun. We didn’t get any photos of the juggling itself, but Karen got to teach someone a bit of poi and Greg did some fun passing with Kenny Cheung, who is a delightful guy and a super juggler that we know from the 2016 and 2017 European Juggling Conventions.
And that’s it for this entry – but our time in Sydney continues in part 2.
