Back to Sydney (aka. bring out the clowns)

I had only three days alone in Sydney, post-NZ, before being joined by my mum for the final leg of my big trip. Those three days were mostly spent relaxing (ie. celebrating St Patricks Day), and trying to find the hotel we would be relocating to upon parental arrival (not an especially difficult task unless you have a green food-colouring related hangover). While normally quite the intrepid backpacker I was delighted by a) mum's imminent arrival and b) the relocation to a hotel. This was only in part the result of having become stony broke some 2 weeks previously and having been eating only baked beans and Weet Bix (no typo, in Oz it is Weet Bix. Seriously. Weet Bix) since then. Mainly it was because I had missed Lindy and was excited for our holiday!
After a traumatic airport transfer/ welcome to Sydney experience for the parental unit we were off on our first holiday day with several giant cups of coffee. Having opted for something of a relaxed day to get ourselves into the swing of things we spent day one mainly exploring the city centre. This included a visit to the Rocks (oldest part of Sydney) and its free museum, where mum found a free interactive game for children which she played on for several hours, depriving any poor kiddies in the locale. The evening proved irrefutably that food was a) expensive and b) hard to find in the city centre. A theme that was to become reccuring during our stay!
The next day we were off on a harbour tour, during which we got to experience the delights of Australian weather first hand with gorgeous sunshine, oh no wait, thats right POURING RAIN. It turned out to muchus fun none the less as mum spent the duration of the voyage harassing all the Germans onboard. Frankly I was ashamed of her, our Deutch friends were nothing but well- behaved and courteous as far as I was concerned. Not once stepping on our feet or disrupting everyones view. The tour in itself was very nice, we learned that everything is called after the Macquiries, and where Russell Crowe lives. That afternoon we returned to the Rocks for another taste of Oztastic customer service, who knew Australian was a foreign language? Well, it certainly seemed that way when looking for service with a smile. In order to wreak our revenge we relocated to the nearest market where muchus fun was had trying on masks and taking photographs of each other wearing them before the stall owner noticed...
The next day we decided to sample Australia's best, weather and wine wise, with a trip to the Hunter Valley. In a completely uncharacteristic move we were both very well behaved and actually had a very nice sophisticated wine tasting day, only coming away with one lovely bottle of Merlot to remember it by! Mmmm... wine tasting.
And a mere 72 hours after we first were reunited in Sydeny Lindy and I were off to Hamilton Island to hobnob it up with HRH Wills doncha know...