Hello Colin I was staying in the Central Coast area, I saw smoke once for an hour but a lot of the time it rained and rained and... I could go on!
We had a storm that blotted out the view with rain.
The only other smoke I saw was from the barby.
I joined the library in Woy Woy and their favourite citizen is Spike Milligan and they have a nice room in the library devoted to him and going out of town there is a spectacular footbridge named after him.
If you visit this part I recommend fish and chips (Fishermans Wharf W.W) with either Gurnard or the more favoured Flat head. I have separated the word as otherwise you may attempt a pronunciation that is difficult!
The return journey was over long and to cap it all my case was just about the last one off the plane, there were less than a dozen of us left around the carousel out of the 400+ that had collected theirs. The A380/800s are in dire need of a refit inside, the seat in front of me definitely would not get past an MoT. I shall not travel on a Qantas A380 again unless I know it has had a refit inside. It is planned but is happening only very slowly. I find it diffficult to reconcile the extra cost of the more expensive seats with just being there for on and off 24 hours. My usual fare is around £800 return, Premium double that and Business about £4K+
Regards
Roy