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The next day we had another slow start. My continued Jetlag and the unpredictable weather meant we were unsure about what to do with ourselves. Finally, Seb made our minds up for us as it was his last day and he insisted on going to Bondi beach. A short bus ride later and the three of us clad in shorts, flip-flops and t-shirts stumbled down onto a empty wind-swept beach which, had it not been for the occasional Japanese tourist (who, fully-clad in suits, took multiple photos of themselves standing in the water making peace symbols), could have been mistaken for being a British beach (maybe the weather followed us!). Determined to make the most of it, despite the weather, we settled down on the beach clutching our towels to stop them being blown off by the gale force wind. Five minutes later and the huge quantities of ozzy sand being blown into our eyes by the tornado force wind meant that the whole Bondi-experience had become so unbearable. Always the optimists we decided to attempt a bit of paddling to lighten it up. The water was cold but not too cold so me and Seb charged fully in and body surfed for a bit whilst Nick resorted to alcoholism as a form of forgetting the weather by drinking some wine he'd brought with him out of a sandy plastic 'Hungry Jack' cup so that the nearby lifeguard wouldn't spot him. Eventually, the cold ensured that me and seb tierd of swimming so we jumped on a bus back to the hostel to relax before the evenings pub quiz (we needed to be on top form).
That evening, rejuvenated after a steak dinner we headed on down to 'The Scary Canary' (the hostels bar) to take on our fellow backpackers in a battle of wit over brawn. We lost. Although it was a fun experience. Losing badly, we'd allied with some singing dutch girls whose knowledge of obscure christmas carolls meant we succesfully rose to 5th place out of 12 teams and we would have snatched 1st had not a Nazi-ish judged disqualified us from the 'Paper Plane' round after we tried to pass off a scrumpled up paper ball as a form of recognisable aircraft. Tierd after a particularly perculiar day we got to bed around 3am to prepare ourselfs for my last day in Sydney.
After bidding goodbye to Seb in the morning we headed off the the Syndey Aquarium where we spent the morning watching a huge variety of Sharks, Platypuses and Seals. After boring of the lethal combination of fish and tourists we decided to go to the Darling Harbour Wildlife Park to see some of Austrailia's native animals. This too proved interesting as it enabled us to marvel at the vast variety of weird and wonderful animals that inhabit Oz. The Koala's and Wallabees were interesting, but once you've seen one snake you've seen them all so, after a friendly keepers python had nearly had me for dinner, we jumped on the monorail and took the scenic route home. Back at the hostel Shona had texted us to invite us out to her sisters house for an evening barbeque. Not wishing to reenter the Scary Canary, especially after the previous nights defeat, we took up her offer and headed out into Paddington, the city's posher suburbian district, to meet her. We actually got a bit lost on the way there as the taxi driver seemed a little confused as to where he was heading but eventually we ended up at Shona's. It turned into a great night as her Sister's husband bbq'd us up a feast out on their balcony as the sun set over Sydney. Later on that night we headed out to a nearby pub where we met up with some of the many friends Shona appears to have made whilst working in Sydney. Despite a deranged cockroach which continusly plagued our table, it was a great night out and we headed back to the hostel late in order to prepare for my Nz departure the following day.
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