Today we'd booked tickets to go to the Harry Potter exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum. I'd first read about it in the Qantas in-flight magazine when we flew from New Zealand and we booked the tickets about a month ago. It's only in Sydney for a few months and has been very popular, which is why we had to book!

Our tickets were for 12pm, so on the way we decided to do the very touristy hop-on hop-off tour bus, which we could get back on after seeing the exhibition. We got on the bus at Circular Quay and toured around the north and east of the city, seeing Kings Cross, the naval port and the area around Hyde Park before getting off at the Powerhouse Museum. We were very glad that we'd booked our tickets so far in advance as the screens showed that the exhibition was sold out all day for each half-hour timeslot! We had to wait in a long queue just to get inside, but it was well worth it!

In the first room, there was a 'wizard' at the front standing next to a chair with the famous 'Sorting Hat' on it! She picked a few kids to sit on the chair and be sorted into their houses and they played the voice of the hat so that you could hear it deliberating over which house they should belong to. In the next room, there were lots of TV screens on the walls that played a montage of clips from the films, before the huge doors opened…and there was the Hogwart's Express, which we had to walk past to get into the main exhibition! It was all very exciting!

Inside the exhibition, they had hundreds (or probably thousands) of props and costumes from the films, each with information displays to read. There were portraits on the walls, some of which moved like in the films and books, by having a computer screen behind them. There was a massive one of Dawn French as the 'Fat Lady' trying to smash a wine glass by singing a high note! The annoying thing was that we weren't allowed to take photos, so we'll just have to try and remember everything we saw.

Some of the best things were the recreation of Hagrid's hut (with his giant chair that you could sit in and a model of him showing how big he is), the dresses and dress robes from the Yule Ball in Goblet of Fire (including Hermione's beautiful dress and Ron's not so beautiful frilly dress robes) and all of the wands belonging to the different characters. It was a brilliant exhibition and I'm glad I saw the advert in the Qantas magazine otherwise we would have missed it!

By the time we left the museum we were starving but luckily there was a pie shop on the corner, so I got a hot dog and Dave got a pie that had mashed potato, mushy peas and gravy piled on top of it! We got back on the tour bus and completed the route back to Circular Quay, passing Darling Harbour on the way. We had a quick drink at Starbucks then headed back to the hostel.

That night was Mexican night in the hostel so we paid $5 each and got a massive burrito with all sorts of fillings, plus a drink. We got chatting to two women travelling together who are following a similar route to us on their trip. We spent the night chatting to them and catching up online.