December 31, 2014
Sydney Harbor, Australia

So, it's the night before New Year's Eve 2014, and we think we are so clever anchoring out early near the Tauranga zoo in Sydney Harbor, laying claim on the best viewing of Sydney in all its New Year's Eve glory. The wakes from all the harbor traffic are becoming less and less and we crawl into our bunks for a good nights sleep before the festivities begin. Ahhhh... But this is a boat were talking and what did a wise man once say - "If it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen out there!" Okay, okay, those were Captain Ron's words and we could probably argue the "wise" comment but none the less, in this instant they were true. Just as we closed our eyes, the wind suddenly picked up and all heck broke loose. Other boats around us began to drag anchor and as Larry quickly went up on deck to have a look, we were also dragging quickly back on another sailboat and could hear someone on that deck shouting. Our 14 year old started up the engine, threw the boat in forward and, well, the rest is history. We all survived; just a slight scratch from the bow sprit of the other vessel, and with our faithful Rochna anchor back down we counted our blessings.

The next morning, with our tail between our legs, we dinghied over to the yacht that we had given such a fright to with a nice bottle of wine in hand and a big apology. And, true to their vessels name, S/V Grace, they invited us on board for tea and could not have been nicer in regards to the "incident".

Which brings me to why I am writing about this now. In our five years of cruising, we have really made the effort to tour the countries that we have traveled to, not just sit in a marina or anchorage. Yes, it takes some careful planning, and yes it adds extra costs to the cruising kitty but hey - we did not come all this way to not see anything! When Anne-Marie and Les Nielsen from the yacht Grace invited us to their lovely home in Canberra we thought, let's do this, and began to plan our 30 day road trip of Australia.

Some countries are easy, and pretty much with a Lonely Planet guide and a few suggestions from locals you can figure out the logistics of covering the territory you want to cover. But with Australia, it's huge, and you can't just drive to get to all the places you want to go, in a timely fashion, nor can we afford to fly everywhere. We found a local Flight Center travel agency and quickly devised a route using their expertise.

So, after picking up our motor home in Sydney we made our way south to the coastal town of Wollongong for our first nights rest in a caravan park. A nice early evening walk on the beach and a very good dinner across the street at a grill started our road vacation off perfectly. The next day was an easy 3 hour drive to Canberra where we spent the next two days exploring, while sleeping in the home of our "grace- ious" hosts home.

Canberra is the Capitol of Australia, and is beautifully laid out with wide roads and parks everywhere. It is not known for being an easy city to get around if you don't have your own wheels so do keep that in mind.

We thoroughly enjoyed the Australian War Memorial museum and the National Museum of Australia. It was heartwarming to see a country that loves and honors their veterans like they do, refusing to let their story die.

Seeing as our new friend, Les, works for Parliament we were treated to a personalised tour. How lucky are we, we thought, and once again were pinching ourselves!