The guide book had told us that the best way to arrive into Sydney was on a cruise liner into the Harbour. Our arrival on the Greyhound completely trumped that: we drove in over the Harbour Bridge, still slightly groggy from the 13 hour journey, with the Opera House below on our left and a huge ferry sailing under the bridge to then cruise past the Opera House. Wow.

Dumping our kit in our room at the hostel in the city centre, we immediately headed up to the harbour to get a closer view. People make a big deal of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House; we can definitely see why after spending the past two weeks repeatedly going back for yet more photo opportunities. We spent the rest of the first evening around the harbour, before heading to Oxford Street to enjoy one of our first curries since Thailand.

We checked into a new hostel that we preferred the look of for the second day, before going to meet Mark and Sally Heaton in the five star Marriott Hotel for a fantastic all you can eat breakfast. For me this was definitely one of the best meals we have had this trip - unlimited cooked breakfast, cereals, fruit, breads and sweets, we were in our element here! After Mark had very kindly treated us to this, Sally, Rosa and I headed off to see some more of the harbour, while Mark retired to his room for sleep after piloting the BA flight overnight from Bangkok.

We spent the afternoon around the fantastic Opera House bar, giving great views of the harbour, before heading for the tourist orientated Darling Harbour for lunch. The evening then saw us experience a 'Ghost Walk' around The Rocks, before scoffing down a hard earned pizza in the restored ex-convicts' quarter.

We'd kindly been given a 'Harbour Experience Ticket' by Rosa's parents for Christmas, which was a great addition to our time here: over the course of the twelve days or so we spent here, we were able to experience a harbour cruise; a trip up the Sky Tower; a fantastic meal at Jordon's Seafood Restaurant, which was possibly even nicer than the breakfast buffet; a night at the IMAX Theatre to watch a U2 concert in 3D; a day at the Aquarium and Wildlife World, in which seeing the sharks so close up was definitely one of the highlights of the fortnight.

After a week or so of seeing the city centre, we had seen most things apart from the beaches due to the constant rain (our first patch of bad weather since Hong Kong), so we decided to try to forcibly change our luck by heading off to stay on Manly Beach for a couple of days.

This didn't work, as you can see from the photos, although we had a nice relaxing couple of days here, interspersed with a couple of early mornings when watching the Liverpool v Chelsea Champions League game and the Man United game the following morning. Both these games kicked off at quarter to five in the morning and so we generally spent the rest of both days recovering and strolling around the beach front shops and cafes.

Friday 25th April was ANZAC Day, so we took the ferry back across the harbour to spend our final three nights in the city in the backpacker friendly Kings Cross area, where there would be more in the way of the bank holiday celebrations. We caught the end of the marches on Friday morning, before heading off to redeem our various free drinks vouchers collected from the previous hostels and to hunt down a game of 'two up', which is basically just betting on a coin toss with the guy next to you in a pub beer garden (these Aussies will put a bet on anything!).

Another highlight was catching a stand up performance in The Opera House that ANZAC Day evening. The comic was an American living in London, called Reginald D, who delighted in occasionally slagging off us Brits, gays, jews and even his own girlfriend, but was nevertheless very funny. We then finished off the evening with a drink on the roof top of a pub in The Rocks overlooking the Harbour.

Saturday was also fantastic: a day of scorching sunshine on Bondi Beach, before hightailing it back to Darling Harbour to catch a cruise of Sydney Harbour on the Rocket Express while the sun set; the views were fairly phenomenal. After all this, we thought the only way to finish the day was with a meal in Chinatown. A great way to finish off an amazing day. Couldn't recommend Sydney highly enough: best city of the trip so far.