Hi there, we have recently re-started "maybe hosting". We don't have great availability as we have ended up with a couple of travellers staying long term with us and we also use our couch surfing room for Airbnb guests to make a little extra money. But we have missed having couchsurfers and the positive energy they bring with them when they stay.
So ... we are "maybe hosting" again. We usually get a lot of requests, many more than we can host so here is a bit of info that might help you when sending your request. The more notice you can give us the more chance we can accept your request, if its less than one month there is a fair chance we won't be able to host you but you are welcome to ask. If it's really short notice we may even be able to respond in time.

Before sending a request please look at the photo of our dog in our profile pictures and tell us in your request that you are ok with this breed of dog. She is an American staffie cross (in some countries this is called a pitbull). She is very friendly but we have occasionally had people come who didn't read our profile and were not comfortable with this breed of dog so their stay was not as enjoyable as it could have been.

Couch surfing for my partner and I is the chance to meet new people who might become friends so we like to know something about people before considering their request. The best way to do this is by reading your profile and what you write in your request, if you haven't written much information in your profile or your request then unfortunately we won't accept your request as we don't want to invite someone we know nothing about into our house. This profile gives you information about us and it's a big deal to invite someone into your home so we want to know something about you.

I know it can feel like a hassle to have to write lots of information on a profile and again in multiple requests and we don't ask to be annoying, but think about it this way: If we host you we will share our home with you, will have spent time cleaning the room, making up the bed, setting aside time in our day to meet you, spend time with you and give you ideas what to do while you are here, cleaning up after you go, and all for free in one of the busiest tourist areas in Sydney …. So how much is that worth to you? How much time can you spare to read our profile and to write a good request to tell us about yourself - who you are, where you are from, what you do, where you are travelling anything! Also if you are asking to come with someone without a profile please tell us about them as well.

CURRENT MISSION
We joined CS 5yrs ago when Dave and I spent 4mths travelling overseas. We had several stays with couchsurfers. The people we met through couchsurfing were some of the highlights of our trip. I am back home now but want to make travel a regular part of my life, it's a big, wonderful, fascinating world out there!

ABOUT ME
I am 48 and live in Manly not far from the beach which I love. I am into outdoor fitness activities like swimming, cycling, and running. I have been a youth worker for over 20yrs and still love it. I have travelled a lot in Australia and just recently overseas. I have been bitten by the travel bug though and am always planning my next trip.
If you are requesting us as hosts Dave has his own CS profile here so you can read more about him too. A lot of the couch surfers we have hosted more recently have been through Dave's profile:
www.couchsurfing.com/users/2000661766

PHILOSOPHY
I am passionate about human rights and social justice, I love working with young people, I have the words "grace, wisdom, and compassion tattooed on my wrist" to remind me each day how I want to live my life. I truly believe the statement that the measure of a society is determined by the way it treats it's most vulnerable members.

Pay it forward, help someone not because you expect something back but because there is ALWAYS someone who has helped you so pay that forward and help another person to keep the cycle going.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING
I joined the CS community in August 2014 as I was going overseas. I can't begin to describe how much value the people who hosted us added to our holiday but since we returned we have been regularly hosting people and repay the karma debt! I am also hoping having travellers around will let me feel like I still holding onto a little bit of my holiday! We've met the loveliest people and I look forward to meeting many more.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE
We stayed in some great places while travelling and when we are home we host as we enjoy sharing the beautiful life we have in Manly with others.

We collect fridge magnets and also now tea towels from around the world. If we are hosting you, we'd love it if you could bring a magnet or tea towel from your home town or even just from where you are when you send the request.

Interests

I love my job, I'm a social worker and worked with young people for the past 25yrs and still love it everyday.

Fitness stuff like swimming, mountain biking, and running, there are great places to do these all over the Northern Beaches, I have been rowing surfboats for the past 10yrs.

• dogs
• books
• human rights
• dining
• cooking
• breakfast
• coffee
• japanese food
• fitness
• running
• walking
• drinking
• shopping
• reading
• tv
• traveling
• music
• live music
• outdoor activities
• cycling
• kayaking
• surfing
• snorkeling
• trail running
• swimming
• rowing
• beaches
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

I like lots of different types of music but probably indie stuff takes up a lots of the space on my iPad, although I love a bit of old school soul or RnB. One of my favorite music events is the World Music Festival held in Adelaide, South Australia each year. I love a lot of Australian music and have loads on my iPod so maybe I can introduce to some …..

I love books and movies about people's lives, I love listening to people's stories. I read and watch too many to list!

I like to keep up to date on current affairs. But I also love less serious stuff, sci fi, fantasy.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Travelling around the world is by far my most recent amazing thing. Swimming with sea lions in the Galapagos.

Lots of things amaze me, big things, little things, ordinary things, extraordinary things …..

Teach, Learn, Share

I can share that Australia is a really big country!! I have put 3 maps on my photos page for people to look at comparing Australia to other places in the world. I thought that might help people planning to come here as I think sometimes people don"t realise just how big we are.

I don't have any clever practical skills but I have a lots of experience working with different groups of young people on community development projects.

We get a lot of requests from people asking for information about what to see in Manly and could we show them around. Unfortunately life for Dave and I is super busy so we don't often have the time. Even with our guests it can be difficult, although if we are doing anything we are always happy for people to come along. We walk the dog along the beachfront everyday and she loves to have company! A lot of what we do happens in the mornings though so not so helpful for night owls! I have put some information below about Manly for you to read as that might help:

Manly is a beautiful place to stay, great for outdoor stuff - we have the bush (great for walking and trail running), the harbour (swimming and kayaking), and the beach (swimming, snorkelling, surfing), and also close to the city.

There's good pubs and restaurants in Manly but if you really want to experience the Sydney CBD nightlife this isn't probably the best place. There are ferries into town until late and buses through the night but it's a bit of a trek back home at the end of a night.

If you want to know more about Manly have a look at this link www.hellomanly.com.au

Also here is another great link with info about all kinds of different things to see, do, and eat in Sydney www.https://www.theurbanlist.com/sydney

If you want to know more about Aboriginal culture and ideas about how you can learn more about this rich culture while you are in Australia I can give you ideas. If you are going to do a cultural tour anywhere, make sure it is owned by an original company or community as these will be run by Aboriginal people with connections to the areas and communities you are visiting.
iwaratravel.com.au is a good website to check out, but there are lots more you can search on the internet. Just make sure it says it is Aboriginal owned and run.

Also just something for people to think about when planning their trip - lots of surfers who have stayed here want to go to the Blue Mountains. Katoomba is 125km from here by car. You can do it as a day trip by ferry and train but it's about 2.5-3hrs each way even by car it's 2hrs each way. The mountains are a beautiful part of Sydney so if you can maybe plan to go for a couple of days instead.

The other really cool day trip is catch a train from Central to Kiama (2hrs), the train travels south of Sydney through the Royal National park and along the coastline past Wollongong. Kiama is a really pretty, typical coastal town. You can swim, walk around, eat ....

OUR FAVORITE PLACES AROUND MANLY

This is a list of our favorite places to eat, drink, and hang out in around Manly. It’s a locals list so these aren’t necessarily listed on the tourist guides.

Good website about Manly www.hellomanly.com.au and the Manly Tourist office at Manly Wharf has loads of information about Manly and Sydney so worth visiting.

CAFES/FOOD
•The Boathouse Shelley Beach: Beautiful restored original house, now a restaurant and cafe. Has a lovely small garden with a waterfall. Beautiful to have a coffee on a sunny morning. (it has a sister restaurant at Palm Beach)
• Chicabonita: Mexican café/bar, Whistler St across from the Whistler St Carpark, around the corner from Bacino, the best fish taco’s in Manly! Other yummy TexMex street food.
• Sunset Sabi: 26 Pittwater Rd Manly, very yummy Japanese food and bar, small share dishes.
• Banana Blossom: near door to Chicabonita, really yummy Asian salads.
• Rope and Anchor Café, on the beachfront side of the Steyne Hotel. If you go in morning the lounge area in the Steyne Hotel is open but there aren’t many people so if you want to send emails or read a book you can sit with a coffee and look out over the beach.
• Vietnamese Bakery: Sydney Rd near the Corso, across from the Presbyterian Church, has the cheapest salad rolls in Manly, only $5!
• Jellyfish/Salt: 2 cafes really popular with locals across from North Steyne Beach, great to buy takeaway and sit on the beach.
• Pilu Restaurant: expensive Italian restaurant with a small cheaper cafe atFreshwater Beach. Nice coffee, great views
• Bella Vista Café: North Head, food is ok but the view is fantastic, nice to have coffee and sit on the deck looking all the way down Sydney Harbour.

BARS/PUBS
• The Wharf Bar and Hugo's: at Manly Wharf, lovely view and good food but not cheap
• Four Pines Brewery across from the wharf. If you like beer, this beer is a local Manly brew that you used to only be able to buy here but is has become so popular you can buy it all over the place now.
• The Moonshine Bar at the Steyne Hotel, gets good live music acts.
• The Havana Club: on the beachfront cnr Victoria Pde, good tapas, if you go in the mornings it’s not crowded and you can get a table on the first floor with the best view over the beach.

PLACES
• Beach vs Harbour: a little helpful local knowledge about the best time to go to each. The beach faces north-east and the harbor faces south-west. This means if it is windy on the harbor-side the beach-side is usually nicer and if it’s windy on the beach-side the harbor side is nicer! I like the beach in the mornings-lunchtime as I think the morning sun is best there and we often get a north-easterly wind, especially in summer in the afternoons. Whereas I like the habour in the afternoon as you get the sunset on that side.
• Manly/North Steyne/Queenscliff: These are all one beach just different parts. It’s lovely to walk the whole way along.
• Shelley Beach: Nice flat water, sheltered beach, walk around from Manly Beach, beautiful snorkeling in the bay is you go in near the pool and snorkel around the rocks, best on a sunny morning, the Mambo Shop sells good coffee, get a take away and sit next to the pool. Grab a coffee at the Boathouse and o=sit outside people watching.
• Shelley Headland: walk up from Shelley Beach around the headland, great views all the way north up the northern beaches.
• Little Manly Beach & Collins Flat: very pretty harbor beaches, lovely in the afternoon as they face west so you can watch the sunset. Little Manly is on Stuart St and has a nice café. If you walk along to the end Stuart and go left on a track into the bush you come to Collins Flat. It’s a bush beach with a waterfall, very pretty.
• Freshwater Beach: walk over the headland from Queenscliff, safe swimming surf beach (except when there is southerly swell when the waves are huge!)
• Fairlight Beach: just down the road from the house, pretty harbour beach and pool, safe swimming
• Manly Scenic Walkway: Manly to Spit, lovely walk past several harbour beaches ends at river beach at Clontarf, nice coffee shop there.
• North Head: Amazing views in all directions, great view down the harbour to the city as well as out to sea. Good whale watching during whale season, lots of pretty walking tracks.

OTHER PLACES ON THE NORTHERN BEACHES
• Coast walk Manly – Palm Beach: there are 30km of tracks all the way along the coastline and headlands, it’s really easy to get a bus to one spot, walk for a while and then get a bus back. Beautiful views and you get to see great beaches all the way.
• Palm Beach: has both beach on one side and bay on the other, very pretty day trip. You can catch the L90 bus from Wynyard (or Warringah Mall near us) all the way up there, there are 20 beaches on the Northern Beaches so they are all along the way, you can get off at any of these: Collaroy, Narrabeen, Newport, Bungan, Avalon. If you like the TV show Home and Away Palm Beach is "Summer Bay"!

What I Can Share with Hosts

The thing I enjoyed most about couch surfing is the conversations with new people, I love to learn about what life is like in other places, I love to talk and I love to listen so good conversations is definitely something I can offer.

I also enjoy cooking and am good at cleaning and handy house stuff so very happy to help out with anything that you need done.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Canada, Ecuador, France, Iceland, India, Ireland, Mexico, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia