Australia

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Our morning was spent doing a final van clean and finishing off our packing. Matt insisted on washing all of the windows too - I don’t think it has ever been so clean!

We dropped off the van without hitch, and got to the airport early. It hadn’t sunk in that we were leaving NZ. It’s always strange when you’ve moving on to another destination rather than going home, as you never feel too sad to leave because there are more travels to look forward to.

The flight over to Sydney was only three hours. It was a very bumpy take off and landing but smooth in the air.

We felt strange being in a big city again after getting used to the wilderness of NZ. When we finally escaped the airport security we found a shuttle bus to take us to our hotel. It was already quite full of other young travellers, and each time we stopped at one of the hostels we sighed with relief that we’d splashed out on a nice hotel. All of the hostels looked in dingy areas, and they had crowds of people ten years younger than us (at least!) hanging around, drinking and smoking in the surrounding bars. Our stop was the last one, and we were so pleased when we pulled up outside a plush looking 25 storey skyscraper with a modern and stylish reception area. Our reservation was in hand and within minutes we were in the lift travelling up to the 16th floor to get the first sight of the harbour bridge and opera house from our room.

The room was lush. Possibly the nicest hotel we’ve ever stayed in (apart from the very posh places in Edinburgh where we went on our honeymoon). The carpets were soft beige, there were a couple of comfy chairs, a desk, a big flat screen tv and a massive bed. The bathroom was filled with marble tiles and had a bath which was a novelty as we had only seen one on our travels so far!

The best part about it was the two big picture windows that took up the length of one wall. Outside it was still daylight and we had a panoramic view of the harbour, the bridge and the top of the Opera House sails. I pulled up a chair and just sat in front of the view trying to take it in. Then Matt reminded me we should take some photos of the room before we unpacked and trashed the place with our mess.

It was late evening and we were tired and not in the mood for exploring for a change. We settled for a lazy night in, ordering room service (the food was so much cheaper than hotels back at home!) As the sun went down the view changed and the city lit up in front of us. I think Matt must have spent an hour trying to take some night photos - finally he had a use for the camera tripod that we’d been lugging around all this time!

It felt like bliss having a bath, and then even better to climb into Egyptian cotton sheets into a warm bed that wasn’t drafty, and didn’t have leaks letting the rain water in. Yet no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get to sleep. Could it be that I’ve got used to roughing it a bit too much?

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