Syndey with Nyrie

I've travelled a lot all over the world, but there was one continent left on my list: Australia! With so many friends suddenly there, and cheap tickets on offer from Cathay Pacific, I booked my flight, and was ready to at last see the land Down Under.

My trip nearly ended before it began however, when I got to the airport and made it through check-in, security, and was at the final gate check before boarding when the attendant said, "I'm sorry, but we have you on a DO NOT BOARD list. When did you apply for your visa?"

Visa? What visa? Australia is part of the visa waver programme, so I should be able to just show up at the airport and get a tourist visa, right?

Apparently not. So there was some panicked scurrying around, where the woman took £25 from me and cash and dissappeared, and then with just minutes before the flight was due to board, scanned my passport, and I was cleared to board. Hurrah!

But let that be a lesson to everyone: ALWAYS check the visa requirements for any country you are visiting BEFORE you buy the ticket!

The flight was fine, as I watched "Quantum of Solace" and "New York, I Love You", and actually managed to get some sleep. I had a bit of a hiccup in Hong Kong when I had to go through security again, and the tweezers that had been fine to come from London (and had been on many flights before) were suddenly deemed "too sharp."

Because I was tired and annoyed, I insisted on being allowed to check my bag (I didn't want to give those greedy thieves my tweezers), but was told that I would have to formally enter Hong Kong through immigration. I wonder if they were a bit surprised that I actually did, although I wish I could have had a time stamp on my entrance and exit stamps, as I was in Hong Kong for only 15 minutes!

I finally made it to Sydney, where the immigration officer actually greeted me by saying "G'Day!" That just made me giggle with excitement, that I was finally in Australia!

I managed to get a green stamp that allowed me to skip customs (no idea why, this random guy just approached me and stamped my customs form), and my old friend from Oxford, Nyrie, met me at the airport with no problems. After quickly showering and changing at her flat, we spent our first day wandering around Sydney, seeing the big sights like the Opera House, Hyde Park (they have one here too!) the Queen Victoria Building, and just getting to know the city.

On Saturday we drove down to Nyrie's parents' house, who are lovely people. We went on a hike in the Royal National Park, along some spectacular cliffs with incredibly cool rock formations, and hiked down to this beach cove where we were the only people there. Went for a swim, although kept a careful eye out for sharks the entire time! (It's crazy, along the public beaches they have helicopters that patrol, and if they spot sharks from above, an alarm sounds and it's everybody out of the water. When I first saw the helicopters at a public beach this morning, asked about it, now think that Aussie's are nuts for swimming with sharks!)

Then on Sunday we went to a park where we got to feed kangaroos, pet koalas, and see lots more of Australia's native animals. Had some brightly coloured birds taking apart my hair. There are these white parrots with gold crests that look like they belong in an exotic pet store, and they just hang out on the electrical wires like pigeons. (People seem to hate them like pigeons too, because they are smart enough to talk, so you hear randon "Hello!"s on the street, and they know how to open zipper backpacks to get to the food. Nyrie's mother was telling me about how they only eat the seeds from their lemons on their lemon tree, pretty much just destroying the fruit, which is annoying.

There were also magpies that would come to the back door and sing a kind of funny song, and then Nyrie's mother would give them little bits of meat that she had saved in the freezer for them. I find people's relationship with nature a bit bizarre here, as people don't step on spiders, but instead give them names. And they save meat in the freezer for the birds.

As our final activity before we drove back to Sydney, we went to Nyrie's mum's lawn bowling club, which was SURREAL. Tons of old ladies playing slot machines, and we actually won a tray full of meat in a "meat raffle". $10 buys you a bunch of chances, and we were so excited when we won. And then we got to pick out a giant tray of meat. I guess it's true what they say about Australians and their love of BBQ.

We then drove home along along this beautiful stretch of ocean road on a bridge built out from the side of the mountain, because after too many rockslides killed people, they decided it wasn't the best idea to have the road at the base of a mountain with tons of rock slides. Australians and their absolute imperviousness to danger is totally bizarre to me.

On Monday, Nyrie and I went out to Manly, a peninsula at the end of Sydney Harbour. (You have to realise, Sydney Harbour is not a perfectly round harbour, but more like a river-mouth. Sydney is actually about half-way up the river). It was fun as we got to take a ferry out there, and then we stopped for coffee, where I got a "flat white", apparently a classic Sydney experience. Having gone to the best coffee shop Nyrie knows of, I figured if I were ever going to life coffee, this would be it. Alas, after grimacing through a third of a cup, Nyrie took pity on me, bought me a Diet Coke, and drank the rest of the Flat White herself.

We then did some hiking around Manly, and then went snorkelling. It was a bit disorienting at first, as we were really out there, but then cool as we saw a parrot fish, bunches of fish in all colours, shapes, and sizes, and a grouper which was HUGE! Knowing that we were swimming in water with sharks freaked me out a bit, by Nyrie pointed out that they'd be likely to eat the surfers further out first. Still, every time we encountered a larger fish, I freaked at first!

When we went for lunch, our outdoor seating area backed up on a dress shop, and after looking at all of the dresses whilst we ate, we finally decided to go in and see what they had. Then, just to be silly, Nyrie found a lovely dress for me, and so I tried it on. And horribly, it looked fantastic on me. Like I need to spend $100 AUD on a dress, but I could actually see wearing it to club events, and it was just so nice to have something that wasn't boring black. Plus, the salesgirl was obviously bored, and so was showering attention on me, picking out the right shoes and earrings to go with the dress. (Although when she came at me with earrings obviously made for pierced ears, I just about yelped, "I don't have pierced ears!" before she could try to stick them in me. Which led to the interesting revelation that Nyrie doesn't have pierced ears either. How funny, that my friends would be just like me).

Then in the evening we went to the Shangri La hotel and had an over-priced drink, but it was totally worth it, as we were seated at a table with a gorgeous view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House all lit up at night. Then we went to dinner, and then to Orbit, this round building where the bar spins, and so you get to see all of the city that way. I think it's ,more cost-effective to buy over-priced drinks than pay admission to some observation deck!

On Tuesday it rained all day, thankfully the only day that it did the entire time I was in Australia. In the end I just walked through Chinatown, down through Darling Harbour, and then met up with Nyrie's brother-in-law who works at the Opera House. He gave me a private tour of the place which was really neat, although funny how much it forcused on the lighting challenges of the Opera House, given that he's the lighting manager there. So perhaps a bit different than the "official" tour, but really neat all the same!

On Wednesday the weather still wasn't great, but I managed to do bits of the Bondi to Cogee coastal walk, before going back on Thursday to see Bondi properly on a gorgeous sunny day. Bondi really was as lovely as everyone claims it to be, although I found that constantly fighting the surf out there was exhausting!

Still, the trip was great for another reason, as I passed a swimsuit shop that was selling 1950's-style suits, like I've always wanted to have. So I went in, and found an absolutely fantastic halter-neck one-piece that was almost exactly what I'd been mentally wanting for ages. So although it seemed bizarre to buy a swimsuit when I already had one, I bought it, knowing I would regret it if I didn't. Just another great souvenier from my time in Australia!