SYDNEY

We flew into Sydney airport, Emma gripping on to the armrests and Duncan taking in the great views over the harbour. Our old friends, Kerry and Neil, and new addition to the family Ivy, came to meet us at the airport, and took us to their home in Annandale, which was to be ours for the next week. We spent the afternoon and evening hanging out with them and Neil's sister Vanessa and her husband Ian over a barbecue and lots of beer and wine. Neil gave the Australian delicacy 'prawns on the barbie' a great North East twist with a delicious marinade, as well as some lovely barramundi fish. Emma was more than a little afraid later that night to encounter the first big bug of our Down Under adventures, but Neil gallantly came to her rescue and dealt it a fatal blow.

The next day was Neil's birthday and, it turned out, curry day. We had a Thai curry for lunch at a Sydney institution, Paddy's Food Court, which sounds Irish but felt like South East Asia. Then the two of us left the others and headed off to explore the city, picking up some exciting poste restante from Dave and Dav, and Kim and Nick, wandering into a small gallery of aboriginal art which had some lovely stuff that reminded us a bit of Kenya, and getting our first glimpse of the Sydney Opera House and Circular Quay. The Opera House is beautiful, definitely one of the world's great architectural icons, even though the sun was in hiding at that point. We sat a while opposite it on the quayside watching the ferries to-ing and fro-ing and listening to an aborigine, with traditional white markings on his cheeks and torso, playing the didgeridoo and raking in tourist dollars. In the evening we went for another curry to celebrate Neil's birthday. They have spent the past few years trying to find an Indian restaurant that meets their high standards and this one was certainly as good as anything you'd find back in England.

Over the next few days we spent the time seeing the sights of the city, catching up with Kerry and Neil (with baby Ivy taking a particular interest in Duncan's beard, apparently loving to grip on to it as tight as possible as often as possible) and also trying to sort out our flat after receiving the very unwelcome news that our tenants had decided to move out - this wasn't exactly how we had intended to spend our time in one of the world's most exciting cities, but anyway.

One of the highlights of our stay was enjoying our Christmas present from Laura, Emma's sister. She treated us to a delicious meal out at The Observatory Hotel, one of the nicest restaurants in Sydney, with an adventurous Japanese chef. Before dinner, we had an aperitif right at the top of the Shangri-La hotel and took in the amazing views as the sun was setting. After dinner we went to a bar, Bungalow 8, where we finally managed to catch up with our friend, Jenny, who is also doing a round-the-world trip similar to ours, after continuously missing each other in South America. We spent the rest of the evening there drinking vodkas and cokes and getting to know her new Aussie boyfriend Brendan, who she met in Ecuador.

Next day, we went for a walk along the coast from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach, stopping off for lunch at Bronte Beach where we met up with Kerry, Neil and Ivy - a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon in January! Next day we met up with another old friend, Becca, who now lives in Sydney and has got a great new job working at the Sydney Opera House. We met her for lunch then she gave us a guided tour behind the scenes of the Opera House before driving us across town to see her new house and adorable pug Xena, and then on to Bondi beach to meet her equally lovely Aussie boyfriend Mark at a bar overlooking the beach.

We got up early on Monday morning and met up with Jenny to take the train out to the Blue Mountains (which we thought should really be called Green Hills), where we spent the day walking up and down the hills realising how unfit we are and catching up with Jen's news. On our last day we took a ferry across Sydney harbour to Manly which gave us great views of the city and the Harbour Bridge. We hung out for a while on the lovely beach, watching the lifeguards in action, before rushing back into the city to buy some food for the dinner we were cooking for Kerry and Neil to thank them for putting us up and for looking after us so well.

Our original plan was to hire a camper van and drive all the way from Sydney to Cairns but, as usual, we hadn't really done our homework and hadn't quite realised how big Australia is or how long it would take to drive up the East Coast. We only had four weeks to do the whole trip so, on the advice of, well, basically everyone we talked to, we decided to buy an extra flight to Brisbane and concentrate our time on seeing the sights of Queensland. The stretch of coast between Sydney and Brisbane would have to wait until another time…