Our last full day in Sydney and we spent the first half of it on the Internet, finalising our plans for the next leg of the trip in Southland, New Zealand  We moved our flight to the North Island a day earlier, booked our remaining hotels and almost booked our car rental. Dean was hoping to see the Convict Sydney exhibition at the Hyde Park Garrisons before a free walking tour at 2:30, but ran out of time. The walking tour took us from the Town Hall, through ...

As you can probably tell from the picture, Dean finally found a barber yesterday. Still the most expensive haircut of his life at £13, but worth every penny in this heat. We made our way to Katoomba today - gateway to the Blue Mountains, who get their name from the blue haze caused by evaporating eucalyptus oils. Sadly, we didn't see any koalas - must be too cold for them this far south, although during the heatwave it hit 46 degrees Celsius here! We've had an ...

Prepare to be amazed Home and Away fans - today we went to Summer Bay! Well at least the bits of it that are filmed in North Palm Beach, a small resort about 20 miles north of Sydney's CBD. We travelled on a limited stop bus, but it still took 90 minutes to travel the 15 miles from Mosman, since the roads were jammed with Sydney-folk making the most of the heatwave. We got off the bus on the other side of a small hill from the beach and toiled up it in the burn...

We were late getting up today, again! The plan was to walk down to Mosman Wharf and get the 9:20 ferry to Circular Quay and have a walk round the Botanical Gardens before the Essentials tour of the Opera House at 11. Unfortunately, we missed the boat by 5 minutes and had to wait 55mins for the next one. Still, this gave Matilda (Deb's youngest daughter) time to enjoy the playground at the wharf and Dean to enjoy a small patch of shade. The boat took ages to mak...

After a refreshing night's sleep (only made possible by opening the balcony door, the window and having a fan on all night -thanks Deb!) we headed into the CBD by bus. Dean's hair is getting too long for comfort in this heatwave, so he's searching high and low for a reasonably priced barbers. Best price so far? £40 - no deal! We walked from George St to Darling Harbour passing the skyscrapers of the financial district. Very reminiscent of London with office wo...