Third time Sydney...

And once again I found myself back in the Australian not- capital. It has to be said, by this point I had grown incredibly fond of Sydney, and while my favourite state would have to be QLD without a shadow of a doubt I think I would rate Sydders as my favourite city. And my favourite activity, the botanical gardens, visiting and perambulating thereof. As the weather had been so shocking last time we were Sydneyside Mum and I hadn't made it to the gardens yet, so it was clearly a must-do for our second visit. But before that we had much else to do! That first day back saw a return visit to Darling Harbour to sample to culture (read beer), but not a return to the Opera House where we had been charged £4 for a cup of tea on our previous visit! That evening brought two firsts- Mum's first experience of a cyber cafe (mmm... futuristic and rip- offish), and the inability of two Wale women to find pizza. Yep, Sydney city centre is a pizza free zone! Hilariously however, as we searched, the skies once again opened and made the pavement into a skating rink as on of us hadn't changed out f our Hamilton Island shoes. Safely back at the hotal we bowed defeat and ordered room service. Yeah, we got our pizza in the end.
The next morning I finally got a sunny enough day to show off the much beloved Botanical Gardens and so we were off on a mammoth explore of Mrs Maquiries everything (bit of a Sydney in-joke there), including a trip on the DOTTO TRAIN!! Now some of you may know this isn't my first trip away with my mother, and several years ago we went on an awesome trip to Sorrento and the surrounds. Now in Sorrento there is a little train which shows off the cliffside to tourists, and obviously after several Limonchello shots we decided this was a good idea. As you may by now have guessed, Sydney has a similar attraction in the gardens. And so filled with bacon sandwiches this time, we were off flying fox spotting on the tourist train. I'm actually thinking of making it into a book... dotto trains the world over...
The other touristy thing in the Gardens I had yet to do was visit the Governor's House, a relic of when the Australians were ruled properly (ie.by the British). I was actually quite looking forward to seeing inside the house as I had only so far been chased through the gardens by an overweight security guard. The tour of the house didn't disappoint in terms of entertainment value, unfortunately however the source of the entertainment was more in mocking the tour experience than actual educational benifit. From the woman who insisted we leave our handbags in case we weild them like samurai swords during the course of the tour, to the guide (Ray, con ear hair, sin sense of humour) who has perfected the perfect murdering technique of boring his victims to death (at least 4 people died during the tour), to the EXACT SAME woman who we collected our bags from on the way out who genuinely tried to find me a Louis Vuitton when I was asked to describe the bag I had been foreced to leave. Frankly the day in the gardens was a success though, and we were pleased the weather had come out nice enough to do it.
And the final Sydney day was spent heading to the Blue moutains, where we were lucky enough to be able to spend some time with Ray's equally boring, more rotund brother in the form of our Bus driver. But only after we had driven around the city literally three times (the tip off comes when an HOUR after you were picked up you drive past your hotel again). The day trip included some time in an animal sanctuary so mum was finally able to see a kangaroo, and, more importantly a BILBY! It even offered an opportunity to get our animal passports stamped. Yeah, just as well I didn't have my real passport with me or I'd have definitely have stamped that too. And then once at the Mountains we had an excellent day at the national park- seeing the eventual hour and a half we had there as a challenge to see everything (yep... we ran around the 50 minute walk in under 30) and it was so worth it. Plus we also got to se some more places Queen Liz stood aaages ago, which we hadn't seen any of for almost 24 hours. Also that was the day we were introduced to the miracle that is a double shot of expresso blended with Vanilla Ice Cream. Try it now, thank me later.
The final day we were up at very early o'clock to shimmy on to the airport... Back into Asia, Hong Kong here we come!