Black Tie, The Opera, and Christmas in July

Unfortunately all good things have to eventually come to an end and so after two weeks we sadly said our goodbyes and were kindly given a lift over to Gympie by Rohan's mother where we hopped back onto a Greyhound bus down to Brisbane.

Because we had been having so much fun on the farm and had ended up spending longer there than we had originally planned we couldn't really hang about and had to make quick time down to Sydney in order to meet up with Daisy's friend Will who is currently working in Tasmania but was flying up to Sydney for a weekend. We only had one night in Brisbane until our mammoth overnight bus journey all they way down to Sydney, and after arriving in the afternoon we walked up the road to the hostel we were staying in and dumped our bags before having a bit of a wander into the city for a bit of an explore. When we had mentioned to Rohan that we were going on to Sydney we had learned that his brother Glen has a coffee stand in Brisbane so we decided to go and introduce ourselves and have a drink before starting our explorations. After our brief refuelling stop and a chat with Glen we headed off for a wander around the city to see what it had to offer. We soon decided it wasn't our favourite place to be, although we did have a nice evening watching the State Of Origin Grand Final on telly which was being played in Brisbane and we also managed to bump into our friend Eva who we had met in Cairns while perusing an art gallery (which was pretty good). It wasn't long, however, before our brief visit to Brisbane had come to an end and we hopped back onto our favourite bus service for the 15 hour run down to Sydney.

We arrived in the centre of Sydney reasonably early the next morning, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (or not) and walked the short distance up to the hostel we had booked into called Wake Up. We checked in and headed up to dump our stuff in our room where we were greeted by the pleasant sight of many empty bottles and a half-eaten kebab strewn across the floor. It somewhat resembled a drunken bombsite. It turned out that there had been a fairly serious party in the room the previous night (even though this isn't technically allowed) and the culprits had already left in a hurry that morning. Hoping that we would be able to return to a somewhat cleaner room later we dumped our bags and headed off for a bit of an explore of the city. We went over to Darling harbour and wandered the streets, stopping off in Paddy's Markets to peruse the very large number of tacky souvenir shops before heading over to the Powerhouse Museum. This was yet another fine example of an Australian museum, celebrating science and innovation in Australia, which again had a large number of fun interactive exhibits. Then we wandered up the waterfront of Darling harbour and back down George Street (which is one of the main streets in the city) and back round to our hostel. That evening we met up with Daisy's friend Will who had flown over from Tasmania for the weekend, and Sarah, who Will was staying with. We wandered down the road from our hostel to a pub for a couple of drinks which was great. On returning to the hostel I discovered a message from my friend Cazz who used to sing with back in the UK and she ended up taking us down to The Rocks (which is a part of the city down near the Harbour Bridge) to a place called Pancakes on the Rocks for dinner which was AWESOME. It was great to be able to catch up with Cazz as well and we reminisced a little about days gone by since it had been a while since we had last seen each other.

The following morning, after a bit of a lie-in Sarah and Will picked us up in Sarah's car and we drove over the Harbour Bridge and up to some of the northern beaches, first to Avalon and then to Palm Beach (which is used as Summer Bay in Home & Away apparently) where we went for a fantastic seafood lunch at a restaurant whose exterior is used for Al's Shack (also in Home & Away apparently) with some of Sarah's friends who live in Sydney. On our way back we stopped off in Manly to watch the sunset with a cup of tea before heading back to Sarah's house via the supermarket to pick up some supplies for the next day and some food for that evening. After a wonderful homely dinner of Kangaroo steaks and salad we properly immersed ourselves in Australian culture by watching some of a TV series called We Could Be Heroes and a film called The Castle which left us feeling much more in touch with Australian culture and their sense of humour. We were kindly given a lift back to the hostel where we had a reasonably early night.

In Australia, Christmas is not quite the same as in the UK. It takes place in the height of summer, generally on the beach and involving a barbeque. As such, some Aussies have a bit of a tradition of celebrating something called Christmas in July where they can try and indulge in the 'true' Christmas spirit of cold weather, mulled wine, ham, turkey and so on. We were incredibly fortunate in that we had managed to arrive in Sydney on the weekend that Sarah was hosting a 'Christmas in July' dinner which we had been very kindly invited to. It was an awesome day, if slightly surreal, and although it felt like Christmas in winter to the Aussies, to us it felt like a bizzare Christmas in summer since it was actually very fine weather with not a cloud in the sky and some nice British summer weather. It was a wonderful experience to meet some cool people and have a proper home-cooked dinner with all the trimmings. There were even lots of decorations and appropriate music! After we had finally eaten our fill and pulled our crackers we headed back to the hostel for what felt like a very well-deserved rest.

After I had flown from Siem Reap to Singapore, Soph and Smithy had made their way up to Bangkok from where Smithy headed into north Thailand and Soph flew to Melbourne, and after seeing most of the East Coast she ended up in Sydney. So on Monday we decided to catch up with her and jump on a train out into the Blue Mountains (named for the blue haze caused by the oils exuded by the eucalyptus trees). After an incredibly short 2 hour train journey we reached the mountains and after a good hearty brunch we hopped on a bus to go and see the sights. It was spectacular (if rather cold) and we managed to see some great views and beautiful scenery. Arriving back in Sydney, we said our farewells to Soph and headed back in the hostel where I checked my email.

Now, at the start of our epic Australian journey we decided it would be fantastic to go and see an opera at the Sydney Opera House, so after looking online we had booked tickets to go and see La Boheme when we were in Sydney. This turned out to be the day after our Blue Mountains trip. So there I was, having returned to the hostel, flicking through my emails when I see one from Opera Australia about La Boheme. So I opened it up and was somewhat surprised (massive understatement) to read that we had actually booked to go to see the opera on Opening Night. Not only that but there was a Dress Code. Black Tie with a Cabaret twist. Ah. After a (very) brief look in my backpack I came to the conclusion that I had no clothes that would in any way be suitable for such a dress code. This was a problem, as although the dress code almost certainly wasn't strict, we didn't really want to turn up to the opera looking like complete plebs, so we began a (frantic) hunt for a solution. Fortunately Sarah was a huge lifesaver and somehow managed to procure us some much more appropriate clothing which really enabled us to sleep a lot easier that night.

Although Sarah had done a phenomenal job of finding us some attire, there were still a few items that we needed, so much of Tuesday was spent hunting around in department stores for things like a pair of cheap black shoes. Fortunately we did eventually manage to acquire all the appropriate things and wandered out to the Opera House to collect our tickets before strolling back through the Botanic Gardens and heading to the State Library where there was a Press Photo Exhibition on. It was amazing to see some of the photos that people had managed to capture, both of normal life and big news stories. Having finished there, Daisy decided to wander over to the Art Gallery of NSW while I wandered back to the hostel to try and start organising myself before the big night. When Daisy returned we both geared up in our fancy attire (and received rather a large number of strange looks from other people staying in the hostel) and left for a relaxed stroll back to the Opera House (complete with yet more peculiar looks). Having arrived at the harbour we decided to splash out for a bit of a swankier dinner than usual and went to the Opera Bar which is set into the waterfront with a great view of the Bridge. There we indulged in some delicious food and a couple of drinks before heading up into the Opera House itself. On arriving we were incredibly glad that we had made the effort (and thanked our lucky stars for Sarah) as the majority of people in the foyer were done up to the nines. Being opening night there was even a red carpet and a photographer! Soon it was time for us to take our seats and we settled in to watch what has been rated the second-most popular opera in the world. It didn't disappoint. The cast were incredible and it was a fantastic show and very moving at points. Neither of us were particularly au fait with the plot-line of the show but that didn't detract from the enjoyment one iota. The sets were amazing and it had been set by the director in 1930s Berlin I believe. It was a true extravaganza and possibly the best thing we had done in our two months in Australia. To truly get into the swing of things we even sipped champagne in the interval while looking out at the lit-up night sky. Once the final bows had been completed we left and headed back over to the Opera Bar to discuss what we thought of it over a drink (the unanimous decision was that it was SO INCREDIBLY GOOD) before catching the train back to central station and up to bed.

We had discovered while travelling that Wednesday, the following day, as well as being Daisy's last day in Oz, was also the date of the release of the final Harry Potter film (actually before the UK release which was a bit odd) so as one final exciting thing to do (as well as preventing me from having no-one to see it with by the time I got back home) we headed over to the cinema and had a very chilled-out afternoon watching the *SPOILER ALERT* demise of Voldemort. After that we headed back to the hostel for Daisy to sort through her stuff before our final emotional farewell as she boarded an airport shuttle to catch her flight back home. After 2 months spending nearly 24 hours a day together it was going to be really quite strange to be doing things apart again...

With Daisy gone, I still had until Sunday morning in Sydney before I flew on to Auckland, NZ to continue my travels. I took it pretty easy really, doing things like planning the next phase of my trip, doing laundry and repacking my backpack for the millionth time. I had a good night out with some people in the hostel and wandered around Sydney a bit more, catching the ferry around from Darling Harbour round to Circular Quay and exploring a bit more of the Botanic Gardens to get some good photos. I also spent Saturday evening over having dinner with some people my parents knew pretty well when we were living back in Singapore at their house out in the suburbs. It was again a lovely change to enjoy a proper home-cooked meal with them in the comfort of a home, a luxury which you can end up missing sorely when you're always on the move. After I was kindly given a lift back to the hostel I completed most of my packing and had a nice early night before getting up bright and early to catch an airport shuttle for my flight to Auckland. I had a great time in Australia and did some amazing things and would love to go back and do some of them again one day, but it was time to be off to the land of Kiwis, Mountains and Adventure Sports...