Sydney and the Greeks

Arriving early morning into Sydney (July 2nd), exhausted having been unable to sleep the whole night on the plane. 8am check in and our room is not available, aargh! We've been upgraded to an 'executive suite' though, hooray!

Bleary-eyed as we are, a friendly bell boy gives us details of a morning 'coffee cruise' around sydney harbour. Neither of us were really up for it at all, but once we got on the boat the cold sea air combined with a burning hot sun whipped up a second wind as we swang around the harbours nooks and carnnies. The opera house and harbour briddge are of course pretty special but it's the sheer vastness of the harbour itself along with the diversity of the houses, little islands and beaches along the way that made it all so special.

we stumble back to our hotel around 1pm and sleep most of the day away, rising in the evening for a feast at the harbour side Cafe Extra (highly recommended) at Circular Quay. We were so impressed we breakfasted there the next day as well (check out the hash browns!) before taking a bus to Paddington markets off Oxford St (shopping heaven i was informed by my other half). After a few clothes purchases and the obligatory palm reading session (don't ask) we headed off in late afternoon to infamous bondi beach for sunset and an italian beside the beach, bliss!

Sydney's large Greek community are going ballistic with car horn bumping and screaming as they've somehow managed to get into the Semi-Finals of Euro 2004 (writing this after they won the damn thing, god knows what they'll be like there now!).

On our last night at the hotel, we purchased Secret Window (new film with Johnny Depp based on Stephen King story) and fell asleep cursing the crapness of the film. We were so filled with anticipation about touching down in our new home the following day that it made sleeping impossible.

Amazing, given our previous hops so far, no problems were to be had at the airport the following morning, and we successfully boarded an on time flight (July 4th) for the last leg of the journey to Auckland, deep in mid winter.