First day in Australia
Arrived at mid morning. After getting our bags, the long queues through customs, a rental car and a map, we were off to our timeshare apartment. We got just a quick glimpse of Sydney as we drove through it. Sydney seems huge and overwhelming after being in New Zealand’s smaller cities for the past two weeks. Our timeshare apartment is at the Horizons Golf Resort in the Port Stephen's peninsula area North of Sydney. Its a recreational area much like Monterey Bay. The area got its name from Captain Cook in his 1770 voyage up the Australian coast. Sir Philip Stephens was the secretary of the Admiralty at that time.
The drive took us 4 hours with a stop to have a meat pie for lunch. The country side is very green with lots of small trees. In the Port Stephen area, the trees become large Eucalyptus trees that cover the road. Rather bushy instead of the tall narrow blue-gum Eucalyptus we have in California. Our timeshare apartment is close by two small towns, Nelson Bay and Salamander Bay. We were both surprised to find several US stores in the towns: Baskin Robbins, Woolworths (selling groceries) and Target. The weather here is 25-30 °C vs the 7-15 °C in Christchurch so the ice cream was great! The evening is a chance to unpack for a week, wash clothes and rest.
Sunday, March 26, 2006