The last stop on our whirlwind tour down the east coast of Australia was Sydney. It was to prove a bit of a culture shock for us after spending two weeks in the relaxed groove of east coast beach life and now found ourselves in a large, cosmopolitan, working city. In our shorts and flip flops we often felt incongruous in Sydney!

We arrived early in the morning after the last of our 4 overnight Greyhound bus journeys and wasted no time in starting to explore the city. First stop was Darling Harbour and a walk over Pyrmont Bridge, before hopping on a bus to the Sydney Football Stadium (next door to the much more famous Sydney Cricket Ground) to watch the Sydney Roosters take in the West Tigers in some National Rugby League. Gemma wasn't really fussed by the spectacle, however the warm sunny afternoon kept her happy.

Our accommodation in Sydney was truly awful. To cut costs we booked into the "Church" which is a 28 person dormitory in the Nomad Backpackers. It was relatively cheap and centrally located and that is about as positive as we can be about it. When we first went into the dorm it was total chaos, we couldn't tell which beds were free and which were taken, the floor was littered with rubbish and it looked like backpacks and suitcases had just been emptied onto the floor. Still, it was only for three nights we told ourselves.

On out second day we did a walking tour of the city centre as recommended by our guidebook. The route lead us through the botanical gardens (with its bat infestation) and then to the iconic Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. There was nothing of interest, to either of us, on at the opera house so we didn't venture in, but it is one cool building on the outside. Our walk ended at the central transport hub where we caught a bus to Bondi Beach. The weather wasn't great at Bondi, but in true English spirit we enjoyed our picnic in a howling gale before we admitted defeat. In the evening we met up with Jeremy Hollins, an old university mate of Craig's who has settled down in Australia. He treated us to dinner in a German restaurant and he and Craig reminisced about the old days in Hull.

Our last day in Sydney (and Australia) already! We headed for the Museum of Contemporary Art (which was a little disappointing compared to its counterpart in Singapore) before catching a ferry to Manly Beach. The weather was kinder today, however we did pack up our beach towels a couple of times during intermittent rain showers. The beach at Manly is lovely and certainly better than Bondi.

We didn't get much chance to party in Sydney, due to a combination of dwindling funds and expensive prices. On the whole we had found Australia to be very expensive, maybe due to Sterling's weakness? In any event, we enjoyed our time in Sydney, especially the sharp contrast with sleepy, laid back seaside towns in the north where we had spent most of our time in Australia. It was also cool being in a large city and all that entails whilst at the same time being so close to such fantastic beaches, something we can only dream of in the UK.

Our time in Sydney over, we had a short two and a half hour flight over the Tasman Sea to Queenstown New Zealand.