By 10.am we'd checked out and boarded our first train for the trip to Port Stephens (about 4 hours up the NSW coast) where we were going to spend the last few days of the voyage. The train took us alongside the Hawkesbury River for some long stretches of beautiful landscape. It also took us through Gosford, where we got to see our 3rd A-League ground of the trip (Gosford is home of Central Coast Mariners; Sydney FC play at Aussie stadium which is next to the ...

Spent the morning kayaking around Sydney Harbour (an xmas present from A-Ms parents). Water was a bit choppy in places and some dodging of ferries / boats was involved. There was some collective suffering at the decision to hand steering control to Dave (see Laos kayaking for more details, although thankfully the end result was not the same).In the afternoon we headed out to Manly beach to meet up with Andrew and his friend Neil. This was a little different to th...

Ian's 40th birthday - presents were stuffed inside Shane the Possum glove puppet; Ian performs a full rectal probe and is delighted with what pops out.All make their way to the SCG for the birthday cricket. Sportingly, England have decided that psychologically, Australia need to win 5-0 to try and exorcise some of their cricketing demons. So by lunchtime we have moved on for birthday lunch / drinks outside of the ground (it was too hot in there anyway). Dinne...

All bar A-M head for the cricket. A-M heads into the RBS Sydney offices to meet and greet, she also identifies a suitable pair of ski boots and a bag to carry them (though thankfully we can collect when we come back to Sydney next week), and sorts out our accomodation for the final week of the tour (up to Port Stephens for a few nights and then back to Sydney).All meet back up again at The Dolphin Hotel (http://www.dolphinhotel.com.au/) where Andrew (Australia) p...

Dave wakes up feeling energetic and decides to test out the trainers procured in Singapore on a tour of some local points of interest (http://www.northsydney.nsw.gov.au/www/html/2711-smoothey-park-and-gore-cove.asp)Then we head into town to a) discover there are ski-boots in Sydney! Hurrah! b) meet up with Josie from our tour from Perth to Adelaide for a few drinks and a chat c) meet up with A-Ms old chum Nader; dinner is taken in the excellent Kobe Jones japanes...