There are many travel books full of short stories of humorous things that happen on trips. Especially in hindsight. But remember, funny life stores happen in day-to-day life too, not just when you're out traveling the world. Being able to experience these things no matter if you're away from home or not is healthy.

The other day I stopped off on my way home from work to pump my car tyres up, as they felt slightly low. The gas station is usually fairly quiet, but this time there was a guy inflating his tyres & a car waiting. I pulled up close & got out to wait.

The guy finished his tyres, gave the pump to the two women waiting, got in his car and started to pull away. So the two women started to do their tyres.

Only it turns out that:

A) they didn't know how to inflate tyres, and

B) their tyres were flat.

And I mean flat!!! One tyre was down to 4 PSI!

(In contrast, when it was turn to do my tyres I was only 2 PSI under the recommended level, yet I could feel the difference in my car after I'd pumped them up. I cannot understand how these women were driving this car!)

The guy who had the tyre pump first turned off his car and started to help the women with their tyres. They couldn't work out how to hold the pump onto the tyre nozzle. Even after repeated instructions. The two women were laughing so much they were ignoring the guy's instructions. 

I wasn't helping. I was standing there laughing. (In the nicest way possible.)

After they managed to get on tyre inflated, they attempted the other three. The same problem - the tyres were low & they wouldn't just hold the pump on. 

All the laughing was in good humour, but it makes me wonder if that sort of general life skill, ability to handle odd situations or notice changes in your surroundings (like a flat car tyre!) is something that people really miss out on when they don't travel.

Plenty of blogs tell you to quit your job, sell everything you own and take off around the world for an indefinite period of time. And while that may work for some people, others genuinely like their jobs, enjoy being near their family or a myriad of other, genuine reasons why that type of travel isn't going to work for them.

In early 2011 my husband Ben ended up in hospital, very ill. We had no idea why. It turns out he had a late onset of Type 1 diabetes. Needless to say it's been a tough 12 months so far for us. As lucky as we are to live in a country that has free healthcare for all citizens, it's not exactly an efficient system and negotiating the bureaucracy involved in accessing treatment to manage diabetes is hard & often stressful work. Combine health bureacracy with the fact that, at the time of Ben's hospitalisation, I was working in research for a government department and it felt like my life was controlled by bureacratic rules!

And so the beginning of 2012 has already passed by, with some things changed & others still the same.

Health issues & complications have finally ceased to rule our life, as we've had a near-complete reversal of Ben's diganosis. He's technically considered a Type 2 diabetic, but managed his health so well for the past year that he doesn't require any medication, he just has to eat well and exercise (as we all should do). So while it's fantastic to not be living with a permanent illness anymore, the stress of the medical hassles of the past year takes some getting over.

It's also a bad time in the job market here, like many places around the world. Due to budgets tightening in the types of organizations that my knowledge & experience is in, I've been working in any old job just to make ends meet. Hopefully that won't be the case much longer, as I'm working hard on launching & building my own business, so fingers crossed that will soon ease the financial pressure in our lives.

Running my own business is something that I've always wanted to do - I've never wanted to work for someone else. This isn't to say I haven't learned a lot from working for others, but it's not my long term plan. I'm also setting my business up in such a way that we can be fairly location-independent, so that we can travel.

Needless to say, with all of this going on in our lives for the past year, travel isn't something we've been able to do. But it also means we've started to look for other ways to travel. And you can travel locally a lot!

Our goal is never to be remote working, backpacking, digital nomads. But we do want to have a fairly location-independent business so that we can travel as & when we want to. I haven't been overseas in more than 5 years right now - it's scary how time flies! I don't even have a valid passport, probably for the first time in my life.

But at the same time it's opened my eyes to the fact that travel is what you make of it, the same as life. I'm not resentful that I've been in the same place for many years, but equally speaking, it hasn't lessened my desire to travel.

I love reading travel blogs, learning about what other people have seen and done at a destination, and thinking about if I want to go there myself.

What's next for us? Well in terms of travel, we have no set plans, no flights booked. We have lists (long lists!) of places that we would like to go, but right now we're also pretty happy with domestic travel being a goal - after all, lots of people fly to Australia to explore it for a year, so I think we should be doing the same thing!

Tupperware can make good travel companions. In particular, I've found uses for their range of collapsable bowls. Great for leftovers (keeping them fresh until the morning), stopping biscuits or crackers from going stale, and even for washing small clothing, underwear and bandages in.

(See, I actually do use Tupperware this way - to clean bandages!)

Small coins - always try to have small denomination notes and some coins of your destination country. Some travel exchange bureaus or banks may not give coins these days. You can always try connecting with travellers who have just come back from the same place, and buy their "leftover" currency from them.

Like every travel tip, this one may not work, especially these days of airlines charging for every little thing. (How long will it be until they start weighing passengers and charging them based on their own weight!?) However, I've found that if you're traveling with an overweight bag, checking in as early as possible can help to avoid the excess baggage fee (if you're only a little bit over). The check in crew aren't so rushed if you're early and can 'ignore' your baggage weight. It also helps if you've nice to them and have all your documents in hand, ready for them, to make their job easier. 

They also usually prefer that your suitcase is closed… and doesn't contain a dog :)

Good Friday is the start of the Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht race. And as I live by the beach, it's also a festival run by the local council, call the Festival of the Sails. 

And to start you off, some sails:

Shots from around the festival & ocean:

And what Festival is complete without a Sky Diving EASTER BUNNY!!!

I hesitated to buy this book at first, as it didn't seem to have a clear theme or focus, apart from the obvious driving around America. 

I was right and wrong.

My first impression was that the book is very slow to start. Nearly 100 pages in & they haven't even gotten a car, they're just in America & that's about it. There was a little bit of a story (and even a backstory) developing but nothing much to hold my interest. In all honesty, the only reason I've read this far is that it's very quick and easy to read. 

But after that, the book does start to pick up. 

It's actually rather hard to describe this book. It doesn't so much tell you about the destinations as it does the journey. As most people know, the things that happen along the way are often the trying and funny things we remember afterwards. I don't want to spoil the book, just to frame your expectations, as most travel books I've read include a lot more about the destinations than this one does.

In the end though, I feet that this book focuses too little on the destinations and too much on personal story (outside that of a travel narrative). Of course, if you're looking for something slightly "off the wall" then it would be ideal. I think my disappointment with this book was more about my expectations of what it was going to cover. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn't been prejudiced in thinking it was a 'traditional' travel narrative. 

There are some very useful tidbits of information within the book though - such as the strictness of speed limits (don't go even one mile an hour over!) and don't be a person who suffers from migraines (a CAT scan just to get some decent painkillers?!). 

All in all, Drive Thru America is a good book, a relaxed read and will teach you things about travel that you probably wouldn't have thought about before! (I guess that's why one of the cover 'promo' quotes is from Tony Wheeler: "I would never hire these guys to write a guidebook".) 

As I sketch out my plans for the next year or so, I've been wondering about tours. 

While I did a Contiki tour when I was 19, I'm not sure I would want to do something like that again. It worked for me then, but I'm not sure if it would now.

I'm not anti-tour though. I know some people think it's not independent enough, and that's fine. I just don't think it has to be one or the other.

When I think of doing tours I think of destinations that I know nothing about. It's a good introduction to a location that I want to visit but don't know what to see or don't have much time to see it.

Tours can be a great way to summarise a location. They can give you an insight into a business, location or some knowledge that you otherwise wouldn't have. 

I think I will be planning independent travel around day tours or location/attraction tours. That way my trips and days are balanced with the hyper-efficiency and knowledge of a tour, without sacrificing much at all in the way of independence. 

Even though I still have an old iPhone 3GS, which doesn't exactly have the best camera, I love playing with the Instagram app. 

I went along to a beachside market for a walk and thought it would be a good idea to have a little photo post, a great excuse to play with the Instagram app :) Unfortunately, my walk got cut a little short due to an old ankle injury (that hasn't affected me in months) deciding to flare up and make my ankle swell. 

Enjoy - Redcliffe "Jetty Markets", Sunday 19th February, 2012:

Pacsafe are a brand I came across a few years back now, and I have slowly been buying more of their range. 

I currently own 3  Pacsafe products and use them on a near daily basis, so I thought I would post a review of them. (Pacsafe have not paid me nor provided any products to me, these are just products I love!) 

The Pacsafe Metrosafe 200 was my first purchase - a simple day bag with a lot of room but maximum comfort. This is a great bag for walking, as the weight distribues evenly. You can carry a guidebook and two waterbottles, along with usual items such as a wallet, phone and keys and really not notice the weight. 

This is actually a new bag - I purchased my first Metrosafe 200 in May 2010 and recently I had a minor issue with the strap. The slash-proof mesh had poked through in one very tiny place, but was capable of giving a scratch. I contacted Pacsafe, received my local supplier's details, posted them my bag and a few days later, a brand new one arrived in the post. I should add that this is the only problem I've had with any Pacsafe product, so I feel confident in saying it was a one-off. In any case, their custmer service was great and they rectified the fault fast. 

The Pacsafe brands are known for their security features, such as tamper-proof zips and slash-proof straps (and most of the bag in general):

There is a lot of space in this bag, photographed here with an iPad2 (in a case) as well as an over the head style of noise-cancelling headphones:

You can also read about the Metrosafe 200 on Pacsafe's website. They also have good videos explaining the safety features of the bag.

http://www.pacsafe.com/www/index.php?_room=3&_action=detail&id=135

My most used (and abused) Pacsafe bag is the Camsafe 200. This is a great bag for a DSLR and twin lens kit. The bag is comfortable even with a heavy camera in it - I own a Canon 7D, which has a metal body, but the Pacsafe even distributes the weight on my camera nicely. I wouldn't want to go on a full day hike with anything other than a backpack though. 

Some really nice features of this bag include the array of pockets for camera gear. And one of the ones I missed at first was in the main section, there is a small zip at the back for storing memory cards. 

Once again, there are videos and more details available on the Pacsafe website: http://pacsafe.com/www/index.php?_room=3&_action=detail&id=116

However, if you're only going to ever buy one Pacsafe product, make it the cheapest of the ones I'm reviewing today: the Carrysafe 100. 

This is a simple strap, but is the most amazingly comfortable thing ever. I used to use the generic (and really ugly, sorry Canon, but it's true!) strap that came with my 7D, and it would rub into my neck and make it sore, it had the giant words CANON plastered all over it (code for, hey, come rob me, this thing around my neck has great resale value!). 

Even in the height of summer it sits comfortably on your neck and doesn't make you sweat. The only problem I occasionally have is with the padded, non-slip section of the neck strap - if you hair is out it can get caught a little and it does tug and sting for a second. But since most photographers need to wear long hair up anyway, so that it doesn't get in the shot, this could just be my own problem!

Pictured here attached to the best camera in the world:

I tend to avoid looking at the Pacasfe website, as I know I will find more bags that I like. I went back a few days ago and I've found they've updated their range with second-generation products, which all appear to include their RFID safety features now, which is a great bonus feature as the world gets more digitial. 

They do also have a range of bags more aimed at women, if you find the standard ranges a bit too boxy and 'male'. I like the look of one of their older range bags, the Toursafe Handbag:

http://pacsafe.com/www/index.php?_room=3&_action=detail&id=105

Althought I also like the look of the Citysafe 400 'hobo' bag from the new RFID-proof range of bags. I'm looking forward to seeing some internal shots and a video review of it sometime in the future:

http://pacsafe.com/www/index.php?_room=3&_action=detail&id=185

Visitors are an excellent excuse to travel in your own area. Not that any excuse should be necessary, but sometimes it is. Ben & I live on the northside of Brisbane, and this road trip was taken with my friend from high school Jaina, her husband Chliu and Jaina's ex-housemate Shan. 

Ben & I left home at about 6.15am and drove down to the Gold Coast, where we met with Jaina, Chilu and Shan. We swapped cars at this point - I drive quite a small car, far too small for 5 adults and a days worth of food to all fit. At least comfortably. I'm sure everyone would have fitted in my car, but we weren't about to try. A 4WD (Four Wheel Drive, or SUV as some may know it) was a much more practical car for a long day trip.

By 7.50am we were heading off, all people, food and swimmers packed. By 8.05am we had already missed the exit to Springbrook National Park, and 8.07am brought us to our first u-turn for the day. 

Once on the correct road, the road rapidly grew smaller and rougher. The road to Springbrook curves its way up a mountainside, so there is just one narrow lane in each direction, with lots of sharp corners and potholes to mind. The speed limit was quite fast and frankly, unsafe. We crawled up the mountainside at our own pace, much to the displeasure of some cars behind us. There are a few small gravel areas where we pulled over to let others past, but that's all we could do. The other hazard of the road is that the drivers coming down the hill appeared to be going slightly over the speed limit (or safe driving speed), and sometimes liked to take up more than just their lane.

Some sections of the road went down to one lane, usually as we passed over a cute wooden, rattling old bridge. The drivers coming down the hill have to give way to those going up for the one lane sections. Then it gets a little less cute when you see scaffolding under one of them, presumably holding the bridge up:

As we pulled into the parking lot for the Natural Bridge, there was only one other car there, so we had most of the park to ourselves! There is a sign at the entry to the car park warning that thieves operate in the area and that you should take any valuables with you. So of course we labelled the other car the 'thieves car'. There are no rubbish bins in the park, so you have to take any rubbish with you. There is a toilet block with composting toilets at least. And apparently people live in the area! What a place to live: 

It's a fairly short walk to the Natural Bridge, though sneakers or shoes with a good grip are a good idea. After all it's a forest, so the path is damp and covered in wet leaves and other such things. Before you get to the Natural Bridge, the path takes you across a few small streams, which are so classically pretty it would make the walk worth it, even if the Natural Bridge wasn't there: 

The walk has little signposts throughout it, telling you about the area:

And then you get to the Natural Bridge. By this point you have been able to hear the waterfall for some time, but the path keeps you from seeing it until you're fairly close. And it's beautiful:

You can then follow the path closer, and actually descend into the cave behind the waterfall. This is also a bat and glow worm habitat area. This area is very loud, due to your proximity to the waterfall, and perpetually damp from the waterfall spray:

The path then continues upwards and you find yourself above the waterfall. If you lean on the railings a little, you can see all the way down the waterfall:

Continuing on the loop path, you go over some more streams and find yourself back where you started. There's a little picnic hut by the start of the trail, for those who want to eat there. 

The walk is fairly easy, but does contain quite a few steps. The Queensland State Government, who controls the park, states that the walk is about 1km, takes an hour, and is easier if taken in a clockwise direction (http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/parks/springbrook/about.html#naturalbridge). Very few websites seem to mention the distance or duration of the walk, which caused some troubles for Ben (a type 1 diabetic) as he suddenly had blood sugar low symptoms and had to stop to test and eat throughout the walk. We are both well educated on how to manage diabetes, but having easy access to the information (like the distance of a trail) is kind of central to managing it, so this information really needs to be more prominent on websites about the area. 

And it's also worth noting that it is now against the law to swim or paddle in the creek by the stream - if you do an image search for the Natural Bridge, many photos show people in the water, so this must be a fairly recent (or very ignored) law. 

After we had finished in Springbrook National Park, we headed into NSW and the Tweed Valley:

We made a small pit stop Murwillumbah to find the GPS and came across a fantastic pool, the Tweed Regional Aquatic Centre. What first attracted us to the site was simply a parking space to rifle around for things, then I noted a giant waterslide built into the hillside. There are three indoor pools, an outdoor pool, toddlers pool and the 'Giant Hill Slide'. Unfortunately, the official website 

http://trac.tweed.nsw.gov.au/ is a little slim on photos, which is a shame, as this is a really great small town attraction that could be promoted more. The cafe (which has service windows for both pool visitors and not) has a highly appropriate name:

The GPS found, set and plugged in, we set off to our next desintation: the infamous town of Nimbin, NSW. Of course, we turned the wrong way out of the parking lot, and the GPS started squawking at us to "complete a u-turn where possible". It then took us on a route through the backstreets of Murwillumbah, past the river levee with its legal graffiti, before sending us out onto the freeway. 

By 1pm NSW time (Queensland doesn't observe daylight savings, so there is a one hour difference between the two states in summer), we had parked in Nimbin. After a quick walk up the main street, Ben & I settled into a park to eat our picnic lunch, while Jaina, Chilu & Shan went to find a cafe. A critical part of managing diabetes well is eating low GI (glycemic index) food, and that is something you can never rely on finding when eating out, so we had brought our own food for the day. Picnic spot: 

We ate, then met up with the others at Choices Cafe. Shan asked the staff where the best toilets for the town are, and they recommended the pub. There was a belly dancer outside the cafe too, which seemed to create quite a bit of through-traffic for males going to the little gift shop next door. Oddly enough, none of them seemed to be buying anything, just walking back and forth...

Nimbin is an odd place. Most people flock there to view the hippy culture, or because they believe that cannabis is legal there. A quick search on the internet tells you that it is not - at best it is just ignored more often than in other places. Like any location that focuses on a drug and has a high official unemployment percentage, there can be a few crazies wandering the streets, but all in all Nimbin is a safe, fairly commercial town. After all, they need tourists to buy the $25 tie-dyed shirts hanging up outside shops. 

Most of Nimbin does promote a happy and tolerant atmosphere. One shop we went in didn't even have any staff in the store - they were too busy chatting out the front to worry about supervising customers. It's quite refreshing from a usual retail environment! One shop, Perceptio, actually has a book on quitting smoking for sale - this is certainly a diverse town. The main street is made up of little shops selling gifts & knick-knacks, 'hippy' clothing, hemp products and other bits and pieces, such as an art gallery. There was also a small church, saying that they were opens from "10am to noonsish". 

Nimbin also has it's own museum, which is small but one of the best museums I've ever been into. http://nimbinmuseum.com/ The museum is quite small, but makes up for this by covering every single wall, floor and ceiling with information, making it much more visually stimulating than most museums. It was divided into three main sections: one for the Bunjalung people (the traditional owners), one detailing the European occupation of the area, and the last for the current incarnation of the town, that of the Hippies. It was nearly 2pm by the time we got to the museum, so we were getting pressed for time and had to get on with our day - we couldn't spend much time reading everything in the musuem, but it's a little stop off I would recommend in the town. 

The road out of Nimbin was pretty awful - absolutely full of pot holes. They were all over the road and most ended up being unavoidable. We were going slowly anyway, as we were stuck behind a "Hippy Camper" car, but they ended up pulling off soon after. Of course, this wasn't before I made the accidental joke "Hey, look, the Hippies are picking up speed!!" By 2.15pm were passing through Goolmangar Village, a tiny town of less than a dozen houses and a single petrol pump, but we had noticed on the day that petrol stations seemed fairly few and far between. Or they were just all on side streets and we'd missed them all. 

We kept on driving, through Lismore at 2.30pm, arriving at Allstonville at 3pm. Also, we happened to notice that Lismore has a child care centre named "Gingerbread Child Care" ... we weren't really sure if that was a great name. 

We had come to Allstonville for one thing - a hedge maze! http://www.amaze-n-place.com.au/ Amaze 'n' Place may have a corny name, but it's a great little attraction and a nice way to break up a day of long drives. They even give you a discount if you book online (which we had forgotten to do). We bought our tickets and headed off into the maze. It was slightly different from the other hedge mazes I had been in before - the hedges were only at the top and the bottom was see-through cross design. That felt a little disappointing to me, but then I realised it actually makes very little difference and just allows you all to split off into little groups but track each other too - that way you can see how everyone else is going. And more importantly, see where they went if they beat you to the middle first. The middle of this maze is a raised hut with a bench at the top where you can take a rest and enjoy the gentle breeze. Amaze 'n' Place also has a cafe with a nice deck, and lots of puzzle toys to try (and buy).

Ballina was our next destination. Continuing Australia's strange obsession with Big Things, we drove past the Big Prawn. We were going to stop and walk around it, but found out that it's in an apparently abandoned complex. There was a "sold" sign out the front, so hopefully it will be refurbished & reopened, rather than bulldozed. Ballina itself felt like a bit of a disappointment to us. We didn't really know what we were going there for, so we set the GPS for Ballina Town Centre. Of course, once we had gotten to the centre of the town the GPS kept telling us to make a u-turn. I think the NavMan is powered by the car performing u-turns. I'm sure Ballina is nice, it certainly seemed busy and lots of people were wandering the streets or swimming in the inlets, but there didn't really seem to be a reason to stop there. We saw a sign for a lookout and drove up to it, but there were no contextual signs or information on the area:

Instead of trying to find something to do in Ballina, made the decision to keep going. Still trying to keep an eye out for anything interesting along the way, we found ourselves stopping just down the road at Lennox Heads at the Pat Moreton lookout. From there, you can just see a tiny speck in the distance that is the Byron Bay lookout. We were all getting fairly tired by this point (we had all had a late night the night before, for different reasons, and all got up pretty early to get the day started) but in the end we all decided that we would climb the stairs to the higher lookout. Which turned out to be fairly disappointing. The stairs look fairly new and well cared for, and that's about it - at the top it just stops dead and turns into a dirt path, not so much as a seat for you to enjoy the view. The path goes on for a few bends, but the mosquitos were so terrible we headed straight back down. All in all, this is one place where the view from the carpark area is pretty good and you can feel good about taking the lazy option of not going up the stairs! 

We pushed onto Byron, where we headed straight for the supermarket to get some food. We were worried it was going to be closed, as it was just before 5pm at this point. Many of the supermarkets in suburban areas are only open 9-5 on Saturdays, so we were quite relieved when we showed up at Woolworths in Byron Bay to see that their opening hours were 7am-10pm, 7 days a week. And that was one busy supermarket!! Not to mention empty - they were clearly doing a roaring trade as some aisles had nearly nothing left on them. It reminded me a little of early 2011 when Brisbane flooded & supply trucks couldn't get through. 

After finding out that the main beach car park charges for parking (the one by the swimming pool), we turned down Bay street to find free car parking and an unoccupied picnic bench. Score! We sat down to a picnic of roast chicken, bread rolls, tomato, potato salad, ice cream, and my new favourite food - spinach and pine nut dip. I have got to learn how to make that! 

We relaxed there for a while, enjoying eating. You always know when it's a good meal because no one is talking - we were all to busy enjoying the food to care about conversation. When we had finally digested everything, we packed it all back into the car and headed onto the beach. It was about 5.30pm by this stage, but the beach was still fairly busy. Ben decided he'd had enough of walking for the day, so he took up a spot on the sand. We dumped our stuff with him, then headed off. Jaina and Chilu went to check out the markets in the town, while Shan and I took a walk along the beach and in the water. Though we had all brought swimmers with us, no one could be bothered to change, swim, and then deal with that ever annoying prospect of finding sand in unpleasant places for the rest of the day. 

As it was starting to get late in the day, and we had a lot of driving left to do just to get home, we were debating if we should go up to the lighthouse or not. But we decided it was a shame to drive all this way and not go up there, especially since Chilu had never been there. It turned out to be a great idea, as we got there at 6.15pm, just as the sun was going down. It's still quite a small car park at the top of the hill, and once again there is only a tiny road that takes you up there. However, as there is a charge for parking, you'll find a lot of people walking the entire way up. As always, the second you step out of your car you really do get a spectacular view. There are quite a few walking trails from the lighthouse, but we stuck to top area on this trip, both because we'd done them before & we were tired and lazy!! The strangest thing this time was that there was a goat on the hillside, happily chewing away. I really don't know if that's common, where they would come from or anything like that, but it really was strange to see. 

From Byron, it was a long drive back up to the Gold Coast, where, with a quick swap of cars, Ben & I headed on back to our house. We got home at 9.30pm (Queensland time!) that night. A very, very long day. 

Overall, Google Maps tells me that the round trip was 525km. That explains why we were so tired by the time we got home! I've certainly been on longer day trips in terms of distance travelled, but the roads were pretty awful in some parts, so it was slow going over those terrains. 

Day 5 - Monday June 7th

After a very late night for me (working on that blasted assignment), we took it easy the next morning. We had to check out of our hostel, so we packed up all our stuff, paid up and left our bags in the lockers for the day. Even so, we didn't rush anywhere, we even stopped off at Macca's (Australian slang for McDonalds) for a treat... most people get fairly disgusted by this: Vegemite, spread nice and thickly on a hash brown:

Your first question: Yes, I really do eat that. 

Your second question: No, I don't think most people in Australia do. I know this by the look of disgust Maccas staff give me when I'm only ordering a hash brown and I ask for Vegemite. I actually think that some of them think I don't put it on my food, rather I'm too cheap to buy the stuff & I'm just taking it home. 

We headed down towards Circular Quay once again, this time to get a ferry over to Luna Park. They were doing some kind of ferry terminal maintenance, so we were dropped off a little further than usual from the park. Which turned out to be nice, we got some interesting shots looking back at the Opera House.

And then we headed into Luna Park!

Crazy mirrors:

After grabbing some lunch while watching the rides, we decided that it was too expensive to go on any of them. Luna Park's pricing can be found on their website (http://www.lunaparksydney.com/ride-passes-and-bookings) and as you can see from that, they really gear their pricing towards an all-day pass. As we weren't planning to stay there very long, and as we come from theme park central (south-east Queensland), it really wasn't worth the money to us. The good part about Luna Park is that you still get that theme park atmosphere for free by walking around it.

We left the park and grabbed another ferry. This one took us around to Darling Harbour, near Sydney Aquarium. We spent a little while wandering Darling Harbour again, then decided that we'd slowly head back to the hostel. I had wanted to go to Paddy's Markets on this trip, but hadn't checked their opening hours. Which means that they were, naturally, closed. 

We made the best of being in the area and decided to go back to the Chinese Gardens. This really is my favourite part of Sydney, and we spent another hour and a half there, sitting, wandering and taking a lot of photos:

After that, we headed back to the hostel, grabbing some food along the way. We decided to get a cab to the airport this time, so we asked at the hostel if they could book one for us. They said that cabs are book-able, but that they rarely actually show up, and that it's easier just to stand outside the hostel with our bags and flag one down. Which is exactly what we did. 

Since we had checked out that morning, we decided to head to the airport early, not knowing what traffic would be like or if was was easy to get a cab or not. We had barely put our bags down on the curb when we flagged down a cab, so the hostel staff were spot-on about that! We got to the airport fairly quickly, then had about two hours to wait until our flight. So we hung out in the airport - a first for Ben! Hopefully the first of many. But not too many!