After spending a very pleasant evening with our friends and some friends of friends in a typical Australian pub just north of Sydney, we awoke to the call of the Kookaburras and then the resident alarm clock ("Mummy, mummy - can I get up now"!) We drove down to Manly ahead of the surf lesson kindly booked for us by our hosts and had a look around the town. We met up with Andrew for our lesson and got kitted out with wetsuits and slapped on plenty of sunscreen (for it was another glorious day). We were both a bit apprehensive about the surfing lesson and the fact that we had seen plenty of bluebottles in Bondi, but it was great fun. We both managed to stand up on waves the size of houses (well about 8 inches anyway), although I am quite sure that this was due to the beginner 'no sharp edges and virtually unsinkable' style boards that we were on.
After our awe inspiring performance on the waves:
we met up with Lee and the kids:
for a lunch in the town. The company was excellent, the food was reasonable and the service was amusing! After another wander around the surf shops we headed back home and spent a very pleasant evening drinking wine and chatting on the patio.