July - a great month

July was a great and very busy month. First, Polly's parents concluded their Australia visit with us, and they and Polly went and did a tour of New Zealand. They had a wonderful tour of both the North and South Island, hitting places like Auckland, Rotorua, Milford Sound, Queenstown, and Christchurch. They had a great time, and here are a few pictures. Polly said the pictures will never do the beautiful landscape justice.

A "sheep show", where they sheared a sheep!


A tour by boat of the Milford Sound


They call this the Mirror Lakes


Beautiful scenery


Polly Mother Joan in the SNOW!


Finally, Polly took a great picture of Sydney when flying back home.




Polly came back and started her new job as "Sailing & Education Manager" at Getaway Sailing. She has really jumped right in and has put a lot of time in getting up to speed and so far seems to really enjoy it. It's about 2 miles from our apartment, so there is no commute which is nice. The company has excellent sailing courses as well as adventure sailing trips that hopefully she'll be able to enjoy as a benefit.

Funny story - we mentioned when we move here we bought basically everything from a couple's apartment who were moving back to the US. Well, some of the stuff we didn't need we sold, and funny thing was, it was to some fellow Americans. :)

Polly's brother Joe and bride to be Sara Boyne have set their wedding date for May 3rd, 2008 in Atlanta! We'll soon go ahead and try to get our airline tickets back to the US, and we hope to spend at least 2 weeks visiting friends and family.

I had a great adventure, as I got to sail in the Audi Gold Coast Race, a 400 mile race from Sydney North up the coast to Southport (just below Brisbane). We had a great race, great weather, and a bit of a wild ride our first night where we hit 19 knots of boat speed in a Sydney 38 yacht. It was great fun, and while not as cool as the Brown Eyed Girl crew, a great bunch of people to sail with.

That's me in the back right stuffing my face (go figure):

Tony and the "Love Byte" crew:

8.5 knots in a gentle downwind breeze pursuing other yacht in distance.


Beautiful Sunset off of Byron Bay on Eastern Australia Coast:





That's all for this month. Please drop us a note or leave a comment. We miss you all!