Escape to Hidden Beaches

Last weekend I escaped.  I had worked all week in the city in Sydney and I needed to get into the wilderness.  I drove with my friends south down the coast to Husskison and went snorkelling.  Then we drove to a national park through dirt roads to a secluded Honeymoon bay (see previous post from the winter time visit).  We snorkeled and then spent the afternoon walking from Nelson's beach down the shoreline to Blenheim beach, and Greenfield beach.  It was spectacularly white sand, clear turquoise waters and pure blue sky.  We spent from 8am to 5pm in the water- basically from dawn til dusk.  It was one of the best days of my life.

Heat Wave Breaks

I am a cold climate girl living in one of the hottest places on earth.  This week rose to 40 degrees celcius.  I suppose that is just normal for many people, but if you understand that back home in Northern Ontario Canada it has been -37 degrees this month you can see why this is difficult to endure. The record hottest temperature for this area in Australia was 45 degrees, so I suppose it could have been worse. It felt generally like a sauna, or a hot tub while trying to sleep at night. Last night I watched a light show in the sky as heat lightning flashed over the horizon. Today as I write this we finally have a Southerly Buster.  For those folks who are not Australian, a southerly buster is a sea breeze that moves inland to cool everything down usually around mid afternoon on a very hot day. It's been a week of above 35 degree weather, absolutely stifling.  This breeze is what I have been waiting for. The heat meant that I couldn't sleep much and I have had heat stroke for the past two days.  I've drunk about 5 litres of ice water per day to cool off.  I've also had a pressure headache from the humidity and general hotness.

I am dreaming of the ice hotel in Quebec and huskies pulling dog sleds, light blue glaciers, the northern lights, and ice skating on Lake Clear at my parents house.