It felt great driving over the Harbour Bridge in the pre-dawn with the Opera House lit up and all the skyscrapers looming above us. It was good to be back in Sydney, a city I like and know. I called home from the familiar Platform 22 and then caught the train to Erskineville. I had a cup of tea and caught up with Mary, who was off work after a motorbike accident, but was letting me crash at her and Kerry-Ann's place for a few nights. We went out for coffee, which turned into a beer at the Rose, which turned into many beers... and suddenly the day had gone and with it all my good intentions of sorting out stuff I needed to do. It was a fab relaxing day, but I was flagging by around 20.00 after having had so little sleep the previous night, so we ended up getting some fish and chips and mudshakes and heading back.

I spent the next two days dashing around like a headless chook trying to sort out closing my postal address, sending stuff home, procedures for closing down my bank account, filling in my tax forms, selling my books, buying guidebooks, going to the doctors, and catching up with everyone. I met up with Rob for some drinks and Chinese food and reflected on how things have changed in the past year - he is shortly heading off to the US, Central America, Canada and then Europe. We had some good times in Sydney: throwing the bottles off the roof, leaping around like those crazy kids on the light-up dance machines in the arcade, cruising the Hunter Valley in Bushga and drinking bubble tea that looked like floating eyeballs in that freaky Korean cafe... among others. I had lunch with everyone from work, which was great, and then met up with Jen and had a good catch up session that night in the Clare Hotel. Kerry-Ann, Mary and I went out to the Imperial, which I'd never been to despite having lived in Erko for months. I saw Priscilla Queen of the Desert for the first time recently, which was filmed there, so I felt I had to go. We shot some pool and I secretly fed Mary a VB, which she claims is dirty poison but unfortunately can't tell apart from Toohey's.

I struggled out of bed the next morning and got a taxi to the airport with Kerry-Ann, who works nearby. I checked in all right but managed to drop my passport on the three minute walk to Customs. I searched with a mounting sense of panic, then asked some security people, who were useless, and some police, who directed me to the Immigration desk. The lady was nice, but not much help, so I ended up dashing back upstairs and asking all the sales people in the shops and at the Air New Zealand desks. Eventually, the supervisor at the latter said that someone had found my passport and handed it over to her. I was so relieved I almost hugged her. The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful, except for being pulled aside at customs to have my hiking boots "enspicted" - am still finding the New Zealand accent funny.

I was sad to leave Australia and wished I could have had some more time down the East Coast and also in Sydney, as it had felt a bit rushed. Unfortunately, my visa expired after a year on the 15th, so I had to hot foot it out of the country. But - as Arnie said - I'll be back...