New Year with Family

A few days after Christmas we put the van into storage in Armidale and drove down to Sydney to visit family. Once again John's sister and her husband kindly opened their home to us, we used this as a base to visit his children and grandchildren. We really enjoyed a Christmas visit with the kids for the first time in a few years, how do they get so big so fast? We also played golf with John's son and brother, the family competition was taken very seriously.

Over the New Year weekend we headed down to Jervis Bay for a few days, to visit Wendy's sister and her partner who are currently staying there. We hadn't seen them for about 18 months, so it was great to get together. We went to the fireworks at Huskisson on NYE, along with thousands of other holiday makers, luckily for us old fogeys these were at 9:00 so we were all tucked up in bed well before the magic hour.

Jervis Bay has many miles of beaches and bush, we went for several long walks while we were there. In Booderee National Park we visited the ruins of the Cape St George lighthouse. This was built to warn ships about the aptly named Wreck Bay, but the surveyor was more concerned in finding a site easy to build on rather than the most suitable position. Thirty-eight years later a replacement lighthouse was built on the other side of Jervis Bay, but even then the original lighthouse caused confusion to passing ships, particularly on moonlit nights when the sandstone glowed, so eventually explosives were used to reduce it to rubble.

We had a wonderful time on our 'holiday' away from the van, and once again thank everyone who provided hospitality.