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...

We went to check in for our 8am flight to Sydney at 6am to be told that flights were running a bit late - did we want to get the 6am flight instead? So, with seconds to spare, we went through our most stringent examination at a security checkpoint ever, ran to the furthest gate at the airport and arrived just as they were about to take our luggage off the flight. Thankfully things were a bit calmer the other end. We're staying with Julie's friend, Deborah, in M...

The most eventful day of our trip started inauspiciously enough with a quiet day trip to the nearby mountainous village of Kuranda. The driver collected us from our hostel and told us that due to the approaching cyclone Yasi, we'd have to take the Skyrail (cable car) there and return by scenic railway - the opposite of what was originally planned. Fair enough, no sense of impending doom. We passed a few hours journeying along the 7.5km Skyrail, alighting at two...