Sydney, Australia

We arrived in Sydney after getting a plane from Auckland (everything went smoothly this time!). We got ourselves from the airport to the city, then went to Dave and Christina's flat in Pyrmont where we were going to spend our first night (Dave is Mike's friend Alex's Dad and Christina is his wife). We sat on their balcony which overlooks the city from across the water and drank some beer with Dave in what was left of the afternoon. When Christina got back we had an enjoyable meal and a fairly early night.

The following morning we were up quite early so that we could go with Dave to his house on the Hawksbury River. It is in a beautiful and quite secluded location. Although it is part of the mainland the house is only accessible by boat which definitely adds to it's charm. Dave and Christina have been doing a lot of work on the house and garden so it was good for Mike to see how it had changed in the four years since his last visit.

Whilst we were there we took a walk through the bush and went to the 'secret swimming pool'. It is a freshwater pool that is filled up by a trickling waterfall and doesn't show up on any maps (even OS ones). After that we had lunch on the decking at the side of the house which overlooks the river and then chilled out for a bit before Dave took us back to the city. When we were on the boat back we saw literally hundreds of big orange jellyfish which were quite cool, if a little scary, to be so close to.

We briefly went back to Dave and Christina's before they drove us to Jonny and Nat's flat in Newtown. We stayed with Jonny, Nat, and their cat, Lyra, for four nights. During our time there we saw the sights in the city and visited some of the beaches that Sydney is famous for, and met up with various friends. We went to the botanic gardens and a pub with Jane who we met in Nicaragua (although she is from Sydney). On another day we walked from Coogee beach to Bondi beach with Laura who we met in Peru. This walk is a fairly popular activity and takes in a number of other beaches and bays along the route. We also went back to Coogee on a different day with Neil Wyman, one of Mike's friends from Edinburgh.

In the evenings when Jonny and Nat were back from work we would hang out with them. We spent a fair bit of time chilling out in their technologically advanced flat, had a few meals (and drinks) in their local pubs and one night we went to Surry Hills and had a meal at a Thai Restaurant called 'Spice I Am' which was a favourite of Mike's from when he lived in Sydney. Another of Mike and Jonny's friends from Edinburgh, Dave Rees, came along to that.

Over the Australia Day weekend Jonny and Nat were going camping with some friends of theirs so we moved into a hostel in the city centre. On that Saturday we met up with Jane again and drank some beer and wine in the botanic gardens before going to a pub for steak. We then got some goon (boxed wine) at the ridiculously cheap price of $9.99 for 4.4 litres and drank at our hostel for the rest of the night.

On our final day in Sydney Ellie went over to Manly with Laura but Mike was too hungover to join them. Drinking too much goon results in particularly brutal hangovers. That evening we walked up to Taylor Square and had a curry at a restaurant on Oxford Street, in the heart of Sydney's gay district. We then walked the short distance to a house that Mike used to live in. It is still pink!