Sydney

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Tom speaking: We caught a cheapo Jetstar (like Easyjet) flight down to Sydney which saved a long bus ride. Had a hotel booked for a couple of nights as it was Bry's birthday, and grabbed a great tapas dinner at a Spanish place (in Chinatown strangely enough).
So we didn't have long in Sydney so we pretty well whizzed round the classic sites over the next couple of days - walked the bridge, lots of pics of the Opera House, afternoon over on Bondi/Bronte beaches.
The Opera House is interesting up close - the surfaces of the roofs are actually ceramic tiles (over 1 million of them) stuck onto the concrete roof segments. Must all weigh quite a bit. It's actually a pretty timeless piece of architecture that just seems to look right (admittedly I don't have a picture of Sydney in my head that doesn't feature it), considering it was built in the 60's. There's not much from that era that you can say that about.
We also managed to hook up with Bry's old workmate Cath from MZ days and her fella Neil, and we went for dinner at the restaurant which Neil co-owns with a friend. The best rib-steak I've had in a long while and some cracking Marlborough sauvignon made for a great evening. Neil - keep it up like that and you're sorted there!
Our flight to Christchurch was in the morning so we took a 'kwality' Formule 1 next to the airport for the night - you can take the mick, but it was actually pretty good compared to the average hostel. Now there weren't any dinner options without actually walking to the terminal building, so we went over the road to the Stamford and they just happened to have a massive 'as much as you can eat' seafood buffet. No need to say anymore as everyone knows what happens to my self control with buffets...(think Homer Simpson and donuts)

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Photos

Nice tiles
They're Swedish apparently

Opera Bar
Where else for a drink when in Sydney?

Bondi
Not dissimilar in character from many UK seaside resorts, except they have sunshine here.