In the time space from waking up at 4.30am in Lae and getting to Port Moresby, my travel plans had drastically changed, since being an emotional wreck, tired and miserable and having had a text from Pete saying, "hey, why don't you come down to Sydney for Easter?! i decided that is what i needed to do! It was at the point of texting Ruth to ask with some help with this that I realised I'd left the phone in the hotel room - as I already described in the last entry - So once the phone was retrieved, with a lot of help from my lovely big sister - as in she did everything - I arrived at Lae airport with a new itinerary.

So I left off the last blog on the plane out of Port Moresby. Now sitting on my own, looking miserable and generally foreign compared to everyone else on the plane, The big, smiling PNG air steward took pity on me and came to chat, re-filling my wine glass every time he passed! So I arrived at Australian customs a lottle bit tipsy and more than willing to declare all my wooden, shell, seed and muddy goods. Luckily, the Customs lady was very helpful and as I co-operated and produced everything for her she let me take nearly everything with me - apart from the seed necklaces we were given as presents by everyone. Having been in Australia already I happened to have a handful of stamps (from the post cards I never got round to sending - sorry!) and it just about covered the weight of the necklaces to post home, phew! The only annoying thing was she spotted a seed as the clasp on the necklace Mittie had given me, so she had to break that off and I ended up tying it on with a piece of dry grass from another one of my shell bracelet things, which actually lasted pretty well until I found a button to sew on weeks later!

I was absoulutely exhausted after two really bad nights sleep and could not be bothered to get a bus into Cairns and find a hostel, so I set up camp on a very comfortable sofa upstairs in the airport, wedging my rucksack underneath and getting out my sleeping bag. I slept amazingly, despite the fluorescent lighting and woke up at 5 when people started to mill around feeling properly rested and very excited to be heading back to Sydney. I had to hang around a fair while to check in, but as soon as I had I made a beeline for the first cafe I could find and swear the woman working there must have thought I was mad. I just stood gaping at the glass cabinet filled with muffins and pastries not really able to produce any words in the excitement of what I was seeing. When I finally got out that I was after some toast, she pointed out I was at the wrong place and needed the cafe at the other side of the departure lounge! Once there I settled down with two rounds of raisin toast and a latte and an orange juice and read my new copy of OK! Absolute bliss!

Peter met me at Sydney airport, for which I am very grateful, and took me back home where I was happy to be reunited with "my" bedroom. I spent the next week actively relaxing and doing very little, partly moping around, partly catching up with the world again. In the evenings we went and met up with Pete's friends, did - and won - a pub quiz and went for a kebab at their favourite Turkish restaurant. I had requested to do this to fulfil my promise to Tom to eat a donner kebab, given he had to wait another two months before actually getting his own!

When Good Friday arrived we realised we should have more actively looked for a hire car, as obviously they were all booked out for the long weekend, but we managed to get one for two days, so on Easter Sunday headed out to the National Park with a lovely picnic, courtesy of Jones the grocer which Kathryn had picked up. This included all sorts of strong cheeses I normally wouldn't go near, but feeling brave I actually tried all of them - even the blue one! We had our picnic down on the rocks by Wattamolla beach then headed off again in the car to Garie for a walk up to the headland. It was really beautiful, even with the weather closing in and we could see the rain on the horizon in the Sea. After this we started the drive home, in the fading light, me driving very carefully so as not to hit any wombats! It then turned out we'd taken a wrong turn and then had to take the longer route home, but that was preferable to turning round back on to the windy road and increase our risk of hitting wombats! When we got home we (or mainly Kathryn!) cooked an amazing roast chicken with all the trimmings - everything was perfect, even the giant brussel sprouts! We followed this off with tiny slivers (as we were so full) of my white chocolate cheesecake I'd made that morning, leaving over three quarters of it for Pete and Kathryn to deal with over the next week! I think a fair sized portion ended up at Google!

The following day we took a drive up to Palm beach (Home and Away beach), which I'd been to before, but was always a nice place to go for a day trip, especially when you have a car! We started the day by having a late breakfast at the Green Mango cafe downstairs, always good, before heading up the coast. The weather was miserable, and by the time we were there and starting the lighthouse walk it was raining. This got heavier and heavier until we were completely drenched and cold, so we ended up eating our fish and chips in the car, overlooking the sea. So English! On the way home, the rain got so heavy I had to pull over on the side of the road as my windscreen wipers couldn't cope with the volume of water, but when it finally eased off - slightly - we managed to get home safely for a chilled last night in Sydney.

My last morning was meant to be pretty relaxed with loads of time before my flight, but as normal with me I left everything to the last minute and ended up in a race against the clock to get the car back on time and filled with petrol. There is never a petrol station where you want there to be one! Once this was done I boarded the plane to leave Australia for the last time (I think!) of this trip to start the very slow trip that will finally lead me back home.