I woke up fairly early considering the late night with Dion and the morning to early afternoon was spent chilling out and enjoying Dion’s baking and cooking. Not a bad way to while away the time!

Around 3pm, two of Dione’s friends turned up and – along with her sister – we went for a walk in the woods and mountains which back onto her house. It’s hard to believe people can live this close to such spectacular scenery as we hiked across streams and up tracks into the mountains.

Our guides weren’t 100% sure of the directions once we reached the summit, though, so we spent quite a while clambering over rocks and falling down before settling on somewhere slightly shady to drink wine and guzzle little tarts. All very civilized! And more fun than following some silly trail.

After munchies, we started our walk back trying to beat the sunset – and failing. By the time we fought our way through the brush and onto the trail it was starting to get a little hazy and about a kilometre from the house we were navigating by moonlight. Two if our group marched “point” (that is, they were faster than everyone else) and when we caught up with them they were armed with big sticks. It seemed some kind of animal had wandered onto the path, then stopped and growled at them. Understandably they were a little perturbed by this.

We survived the trek, getting back to the house around 8pm – it had been a long afternoon. But what a way to chill out afterwards – outdoors in a spa pool with bubbles and 35-degree water to soothe away the aches and wash the scratches. Accompanied by vodka and cranberry juice with raspberries floating in it. Then some wine. And more wine. And then some wine. I believe more wine may have been involved.

At around midnight I had to excuse myself as I was nodding off in the tub. I went upstairs, collapsed in bed and sat up till 6:30am messing about on the internet and following the Premiership goals. I’m English. Deal with it.

I got up early this morning to get some things done before the 10am checkout. Basically, this involved checking my email and failing to buy breakfast. Oops.

Before I checked out, I handed out the usual cards and asked Anita if she would donate the value of her meal to BDCF once she had some cash. Everyone happy!

Then a rush to get a train from Kings Cross down to Central and a panicked dash to get the connection to North Wollongong. A very pleasant and scenic journey for around 90 minutes before arriving at the station to meet Dion, who I met in Sri Lanka. Lovely to see her again!

Dion’s a smart cookie PhD student with a ton of work to do, so after a bite to eat in the university canteen we managed to get my laptop online so I could update blogs while she studied.

I then discovered a nice student union bar ($5 for two drinks – about the least I’ve paid in Oz anywhere) before we picked up one of Dion’s colleagues for dinner in a very nice Mexican in town called Amigos. The meal I ordered – Bandito’s Basket – was big enough for two very greedy people but I did my best and managed to get through maybe 2/3 of it.

Then off to another bar on the coast (though it was too dark to see the see) where we nattered until midnightish and headed home.

All in all, just nice and chilled. After a week or so of almost constant motion from hotel to hostel to new city to airport, the next couple of days are going to be nice and chilled. Dion’s got a couple of walks and visits planned, but I get a room to myself (no dorm!) and a guide to take me places. All good!

 Well technically, slightly more than a day but only just. I landed around 7am and left at 9am the next morning. In the meantime I’ve pretty much seen all of Sydney that I’m bothered about, including the double-decker trains which were quite a surprise.

 It’s a nice enough place, but there’s just not much going for it as far as a visitor is concerned. I admit I’d like to go back just to see the wildlife park and perhaps a museum, but I’ve been round the obvious having done a boat trip around the harbour and taken far too many pictures of the bridge (the Tyne Bridge is still better) and the Opera House. Accompanied by a guy from California I met at the hostel, I also went up the Tower (Aukland’s is better) to get some aerial photos. This is much cheaper than the bridge climb – $19 as opposed to $195 which, frankly is extortionate.

Dinner was nice, especially for only $6 in a pub near the hostel. However, post-dinner was best as the hostel I stayed at (YHA Central) had a plung pool and sauna, plus a TV room where people were watching an episode of Family Guy I’d not seen.

 To be fair, I think a lot of the problem was similar to that faced by people visiting London – Sydney’s just so damn expensive. Heck, at least in London most of the museums are free.

After a 6am rise, I got to the airport in good time for my flight and for the second time in a couple of years was “randomly” selected for explosives testing. I don’t wear a turban, so I can only assume it’s the Newcastle shirt as I was wearing the same one last time (Manchester 2 years ago). To top it all when I arrived in Auckland, I had my luggage rummaged through for drugs as I’ve been to Thailand. The fact that I’d been there in March and had, in the meantime, spent 6 weeks in NZ and in Vietnam seemed to escape the customs folk. Not to worry, at least they were really pleasant and polite. In fact, I had a good chat with the guy who was checking my things out and he didn’t even care about the three bags of dodgy DVDs I had in my rucksack.

 My main concern was Rob waiting for me in the arrivals hall as it meant he was stood around for an hour. But, typical Rob, he was fine about it.

I’m now at Pam & Rob’s for 2 nights with some little excursions until I head south again on Sunday night. I shall spend a lot of that time playing with their new kitty!

Also: Photo update at Fotopic.