Nice report Andy,
Now a QRP perspective, conditions this year  much better than previous years.
When calling a station with 5watts you expect a lot of requests for repeats but so much fewer this year than usual.

I found the Short Path on Saturday evening produced a few VK and my solitary ZL.
So at one point I was working VE and VK within minutes, then later on I thought I was working 2 metres as the auroral rasp was impossible on some stations. 20 metres open till after midnight with replies from some stations barely moving the S meter but with an immediate response.

Sunday morning long path unusually for me I worked 6 east coast VK one after another.
So lots of VE to work and Caribbean and African in the mix as well as the travellers and HQ(thanks guys)
124 contacts for me from my 2 ele HF , wires and my homebrew rotatable dipole for 40 m making a difference this time.
Great fun
73 Bill GM4M GM4UBJ