Back to Sydney for my final few days in Australia before I sadly had to leave and move on to the next part of the journey, but I couldn't think of many nicer places to spend those remaining days. I also used my time in Sydney to catch up with some good friends I'd made along the way...

My first day was fairly uneventful as I tried to get my journal as up-to-date as possible andwent to practically every internet cafe in Sydney to try and find one that would let me upload my pictures - all for your benefits! But eventually I found one so spent a good few hours in front of the screen doing that until my eyes were burning and my head aching!

The next day although the weather wasn't great I managed to get to Darling Harbour in the dry and enjoy a coffee while watching the boats come and go. But eventually the rain got the better of us so it was a fairly brisk stroll down to the Rocks and into Sydney's oldest pub for the sanctuary of the dry and of course a beer! Sensing the weather was not going to improve we headed inside the Museum of Australia where they had an exhibition about the Harbour Bridge, as it is currently celebrating it's 75th anniversary. Amazing to think that such an engineering feat could have been achieved that many years ago and who would have thought it would become the world icon it is today.

Next morning was as different again and the sun was shining brightly. I took the opportunity to head over to Manly beach again and do the Spit walk that I'd somehow never got around to, despite the number of times I've been to Sydney. It's about a 10k walk, but along beautiful coastline, so dramatic it's hard to believe you're just 20 minutes outside the hustle and bustle of the busy city. It took about two and a hlaf hours to do the whole walk, with a few rest and photo stops along the way. Once in Manly hunger pangs took over so had some lunch on the beach, followed by an extremely large Copenhagen ice cream - totally gluttenous but absolutely delicious! That night there was a kind of street market in Chinatown so it only seemed right to relive my asian memories and have some dinner there.

The next day was just as sunny so after a quick look around Paddy's market for some last minute bits for New Zealand it was off to the fish market for some lunch. Now this may not sound exactly exciting, but the fish market is a great little place. As well as all the activity of buying and selling the fish as it comes off the boats it's also the best place to get the freshest fish in town. You can get pretty much any fish you can think of (I tried something called flathead, which was really good) and sat outside in the sun enjoying a real feast for next to nothing. And it's so well set up you can even buy a bottle of wine to wash it all down.

Had a wander into the maritime musuem at Darling Harbour on the way back and then got ready for 'Earth Hour'. On this particular Saturday night the centre of Syndey was going to be plunged into darkness between 7.30pm and 8.30pm in an effort to raise awareness of saving resources etc. Not quite sure where the best place to go to watch this was, we ended up at Darling Harbour and sat on the dockside with a bottle of wine to experience this great event...Well ok it wasn't quite as amazing as it had been hyped up to be. A lot of lights went off and it was pretty good, but I think I was kind of expecting someone to just flick a switch at 7.30pm and there be no lights on at all, which wasn't exactly the case! But it was good to be there anyway!

My final day arrived and I wanted to head back to some of my favourite places again. After my last aussie pie, it was a walk through Hyde Park and over to the Botantic Gardens to just amble around and enjoy the beautiful aussie sunshine.

I said my goodbyes and sad though it was I've had an amazing time here in Oz, met some great people and somehow don't think it'll be long before I'm back...