It was a long drive to Sydney from Port Macquarie taking us about 6 hours in total with stops.

We arrived on a cloudy afternoon, initially relieved that it was slightly cooler than the temperatures we had been experiencing further up North.

After checking into our hotel, the Bayview boulevard we headed over to Darling harbour for a bite to eat. It's a bit touristy I think but the concept worked quite well. Large harbour area with bars and restaurants entirely around it, views of the Sydney skyline all around, a good place to people watch. However, it wasn't long until the rain started and fell and fell and fell for much of our time in Sydney!

Despite the rain, we enjoyed our stay in the main. The hotel's well equipped gym was hilarious with 80% of the equipment out of order but there was a sauna and steam room which were good.

We visited the opera house which was quite impressive from the outside but looked a bit 1970's from the inside. I actually think that Cardiff's Millennium stadium is nicer inside but the location of Sydney's is far superior.

We also wandered around the Rocks which is the historical part of Sydney housing Sydney's oldest buildings and it's oldest pub allegedly-The Fortunes of War. We ambled through the street markets selling local arts and crafts and decided after a while that we would return there that evening for food and a couple of drinks.

After a quick change at the hotel we returned and walked into a pub playing live music. Within about 10 minutes Stephen was talking to one of the locals, Jim. We instantly got the impression that the majority of the clientele had been on the beer for much of the day given the rowdy dancing and singing going on. As I quietly took it all in, Stephen started singing along to something or other with another Australian couple and within a few minutes we were joining them at their table. They were with another couple so there were 6 of us in all.

They had driven down the night before from a town 3 hours drive from Sydney. Shane, one of the guys worked in the mines and was a bit of a character. They had been drinking since midday and we joined them at about 7 so you can probably get the picture.

Before long, Shane grabbed me and pulled me to the makeshift dance floor at the front of the pub. 1 glass of wine in you can imagine how enthusiastic I was about this. Did Stephen come to my aid? Absolutely not! He filmed it all instead (thanks Stephen). In short I couldn't get away for some time. Shane kept saying "I love dancing!" and insisted that I sing along to whatever was being played. Was I glad whenever was all over!

The following morning with slightly sore heads we woke to drizzle and our harbour bridge climb. They do go a little over the top on the safety front which actually put me more on edge! First of all you all have to take a breathalyser test. After the night before we thought we might fail but we were ok! Then you have to stand in a circle with the rest of your group and introduce yourself, say where you're from and why you want to do the climb-that made me cringe. Felt very American, a bit like alcoholics anonymous, not that I'd know!

Then we were provided with a Gray jumpsuit, black waterproof trousers, a safety belt, assorted clips for sunglasses, hats etc and away we went. It felt a bit like being on a chain gang as we had to walk in single file wearing something akin to a prison issue jumpsuit, attached to a cable rail.

The start of the climb feels very claustrophobic as there are a series of narrow walkways and low ceilings to negotiate. Once this ends, the walkway widens and you are on a stairway on the outer edge of the bridge, in places they're is nothing but wire mesh separating you from the sea or road below. Also, there is only a thin metal rail protecting you from falling which sits at about waist height. It is this you are attached to. I was a bit scared! Every now and then our guide stopped us to take photographs etc. Every time we stopped I wanted to keep going as standing still and looking down was making me dizzy!

It took us 2.5 hours in total to complete the climb and when we reached the top I thought I was going to be sick! It's about 1300 steps in total, didn't feel that strenuous but standing at the very top and feeling the vibrations in your feet of cars and trains crossing the bridge was a bit unnerving. What an experience though, well worth it and the views were amazing!

That evening we met up with Stephen's friends Chris and Helen who moved to Sydney about 6 years ago. The meeting place was the Opera bar by the opera house and we arrived early to a live jazz band which was pretty nice. The bar overlooked the bridge so we could see where we had climbed earlier that day. As we were waiting Tim Minchin (Australian musician/comedian) strolled past so that was my first celebrity spot of the trip. We later found out that it was he Chris and Helen were going to see later that evening. Anyway, it was good to have some different company and we had a couple of hours with them before they left for their gig.

The next day the sun came out, yay (!) and I got very sunburnt, ouch! We took the Ferry over to Manly, one of the suburbs. We sat outside and enjoyed the views and free wi fi access in our 30 minute journey across the bay. We had been advised to get off the ferry and walk over to the ocean side of the peninsular which we did. Once there you arrive at Manly beach which is nice. Again lots of people surfing. We decided to take one of the trails that winds it's way up into the surrounding hills for a bit of exercise. It takes you through a nature reserve and shady woodland before opening up into a clearing at the top before continuing on towards a place called North Point. It all started enthusiastically enough though I had foolishly warn jeans instead of shorts. The initial climb was quite tricky, uneven rocky slabs. I almost stepped on a large lizard (luckily that one didn't bite me!) and we climbed through the trees and onwards. I don't know what prompted me to look above my head but when I did there was a moment of mild panic when I saw the size of some of the spiders suspended from the trees above in huge webs. Some were so low that you almost had to duck to safely pass their webs. Not good!! No word of a lie, some were the size if the palm of my hand and they were black, brown and red in colour with furry backs!

I consider myself to be very brave in soldiering on, though I was much more cautious for the rest of the hike. Much to Stephen's amusement I had to sprint under all subsequent webs.

When we reached the clearing at the top, we encountered a group of 5 or 6 Japanese men sitting by a pond singing, that was all a bit surreal...

Eventually we descended back into town just in time for a late lunch. Amazingly it then started to rain again but cleared into bright sunshine after we finished our food. As the sun had been pretty elusive of late, we strolled down to the harbour and found a nice Belgian beer cafe on the sea front where we sat out for a couple of hours enjoying a few beers and the sun. That's where I got burnt to a crisp! We loved Manly-great place, lovely beaches and scenery, would definitely go back. Sydney generally also good location and worth a visit though shame about the weather overall.