Made it!

There are pelicans everywhere!

So I arrived yesterday and attempted to write a little blog post in the afternoon - but after 37 hours with only a couple of hours of very uncomfortable aeroplane sleep I was not terribly compos mentis. What I managed was this:

Arrived in Sydney!

Exhausted! - No sleep on the plane - did watch 4 movies though! (score)

Picked up at the airport by Brian and Beverley with a SIGN (felt like a VVIP).
Have kept the sign.

Saw some pelicans on the drive up to Nelson Bay!

Trying to stay awake to beat jet lag..

Resulting in extremely crossed eyes, and slurred speech. Come on brain.. get a grip!

Had a shower (amazing after 2 days travelling).

Need to buy wellies and towel.

Can’t keep my eyes open.

I give up. SLEEP TIME.

Nearby beach

But now that I am a little more with it - after sleeping for 11 hours - I might be able to construct a slightly better arrival post..

The water in one area has a very
familiar colour.. the nearby tea trees
stain the water reddy-brown with
tannins

I arrived in Port Stephens yesterday afternoon and the whole place is beautiful! Beverley informed me that it was quite cold due to it being winter - it was 18 degrees and brilliant sunshine so I was quite amused that that counted as cold (although the forecast for next week back in England is for the temperature to be in the mid-30s!).

Kookaburra

I've spent the day today being introduced to the area and the wildlife, and have taken many touristy photos! We went a little round the coast and found some rockpools to explore (I'll probably have to do that again soon). Later in the day we drove round to the other side of the bay where I will be staying for the next couple of months, and I met my hosts: Doug & Jenny.

Tomorrow morning I start at the Fisheries Institute - I'm very excited to see where I'll be working for the next couple of months! But for now I seem to have hit another brick wall of tiredness so I should probably retire to bed. I think as well as the time difference the difference in length of the day is probably not helping me - at home at the moment it gets dark around 21.30, and here it gets dark at about 18.00. So at 6 my body decided it was midnight and demanded that I sleep immediately.

This seems to happen a lot

Some obligatory 'I'm in Australia' pictures..

Not posing

Oh you're taking a picture? I hadn't noticed..