The bus ride from Surfer’s Paradise to Sydney was 15 hours long, and overnight, so we arrived in Sydney around 8am. We grabbed an Uber to Tom’s apartment, where we were staying for the duration of our stint in Sydney.

We took a nap (as we didn’t sleep on the bus) and then took a walk down to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, which had a great view of the Harbor and the Opera House. The next day, the smoke was so thick we waited until the early afternoon to go out. Once we were out and about, we took a walk around. We found some really pretty shopping centers, as well as a street covered by bird cages emitting the sounds of all the birds native to the Sydney area.

We also walked the Bondi Beach walk, which was really beautiful, if a little tiring. We got the bus back to central Sydney from Coogee Beach, and had Thai food for dinner with Tom and his husband, Yusuf.

We explored Sydney some more over the next few days before heading to New Zealand.