Although you can see the two most famous landmarks of Sydney really clearly from many different angles around the harbour, it's increasingly difficult to see either of them the further you move south into the CBD (Cental Business District, as City Centres are known over here...)

The Bridge gradually disappears between high-rise (and in some cases, quite low-rise) buildings...



...and the Sydney Tower, which boasts Sydney's Best Views, only manages to squeeze the Opera House in between a couple of skyscrapers...



But Mrs Macquarie had the right idea...

Mrs Macquarie was the wife of Major-General Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821. He has all sorts of things named after him, Lake Macquarie, Port Macquarie... even Mrs Macquarie. But she did well in Sydney with a point, a road and a chair.

The point is well visited because it has the standard postcard view of the disappearing icons...



Once you have this photo (or one like it with better, bluer skies), then your work is done and you can go home.



So it's a good job it's the last day really...

(There is a "me in front of..." shot - in fact, there are several... and a story...)

Everyone who comes here gets a photo which looks something like this...



So the big Sydney Opera House Challenge is to try and get something a bit more angular and experimental.

Here are my attempts...









Marks out of 10 please.

Essential Opera House (Possibly) Facts:

• The architect who designed the iconic outside was removed from the project and didn't design the inside. As a result, it's fairly ordinary inside. I read that on Wikipedia, so it might not be true.
  
• The roof tiles are self-cleaning.
  
• They are still fairly dirty - they don't look white when you get close up.
  
• You can actually touch the roof...

As you can tell...



...I am now seriously worried about doing this.

Another 400km done today, which doesn't seem a lot, but Route 1, the Pacific Highway, bears little resemblence to what we would call a highway in the UK.

Actually, we don't call them highways at home anyway, so that's not a good comparison. Think a badly maintained country A road and you're getting there.

Never mind, we had been promised fabulous views along the entire route. Again, not so. Occasionally you get a glimpse of coast, but for the most part, it's dense forest with the road cutting a path between the trees.

Starting at Coffs Harbour bright and early, a slight detour led us to the town's most famous tourist attraction. Not, as you might think, in a prominent position on the sea front but tucked away a couple of minutes drive along the highway back the way we had come. Had totally missed it the night before because of (a) concentrating on route, (b) not expecting it to be there and (c) it being dark.

However, Tina and Chris had said that I should definitely make sure I saw it...



Good, isn't it?

Apparently the coast is littered with these huge plastic monstrosities and, indeed, we have seen a prawn and an oyster and maybe a couple of others which I've forgotten about. Anyway this is the most famous. Not sure why. I wouldn't make the effort to ever see it again...

Onwards to Port Macquarie for a brief (very brief as it turned out) stop...

Again, a nice beach...



...and an information board telling you how most of the town used to be a prison of some sorts. You're probably best reading about that yourselves...

And back in the car for another few hours down to Maitland - stop chosen because it's a good base to have a look round the vineyards of the Hunter Valley.

Despite not being the tourist mecca of Coffs Harbour or Port Macquarie, it was actually surprisingly pretty. River side walks...



...and Ye Historic Buildings...



...and a really great fish and chip shop - Froggies - just over the bridge.

I am booked to do the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb on Tuesday and, while not particularly afraid of heights, it is looking like an increasingly stupid thing to have committed to do.

In Brisbane, The Story Bridge is a vast web of metal...



(apparently "The Symbol of Brisbane" said the guide, although I notice the City Council have wisely eschewed this ugly Mecanno in favour of "Picturesque Town Hall and suntopped palm tree"...)

Anyway, in the best traditions of jumping on the bandwagon and fleecing tourists, you can climb this one as well...



Don't those people look small?

And vulnerable...!

When you arrive in a city late in the day, as we did in Brisbane on Sunday, there's not enough time to get your bearings and explore properly and you might be left with a less than flattering opinion of the place. (viz Hereford...)

So I apologise to Brisbane for my earlier comments comparing it to Birmingham (and to Birmingham for using it as a benchmark for badness) and am thankful for the full couple of proper exploring days before leaving for Sydney.

Brisbane is called the River City and so, in addition to the normal ways of exploring which give you the flavour of anywhere new (by walking, by public transport, eating and drinking, from somewhere high up, etc), this city has to be explored by river.

You can do this fairly easily in Brisbane, because the river is an integrated part of the public transport system. The River Cat...



...darts happily up and down the river from very early to very late. The ticket for the sightseeing bus includes unlimited river travel, so we did some unlimited river travel.

And it turns out that Brisbane is actually very nice...

Lots of desireable, and very expensive, waterfront properties...



(This one, it turns out, is not as old as it looks. It was built in 1980 by a member of the Lloyds Insurance family. He spends most of the year away on business so, as the guide told us, the live-in housekeeper and the gardeners have the whole place to themselves for much of the year.)

Brisbane has an industrial history...



(Brisbane Powerhouse: Now an arts centre à la Tate Modern)



(Now swanky apartments)

And it has old Coloninial buildings a-plenty...



...nestled in between the very new, very high and, apparently, very secure office blocks...

(Thanks to Peter, who has helpfully commented on some of my Brisbane photos to tell me what they are...!)

We have obviously not found the picturesque and touristy parts of Brisbane yet.

This is forgiveable because it's a very brief stopover of just a few hours - overnight, in fact - before it's the foray futher north to Fraser Island. We're back here on Thursday for a proper look around and it might all look a bit more rosy then.

Highlights so far appear to be the Riverside Expressway...



...which despite being new and looking relatively clean, is still a six-lane urban motorway cutting pedestrian access to the river bank.

The tower blocks...



...which seem not to have any architectural merit.

And the groovy hip'n'happening Southbank, which is where we are staying...



...all fountains and paving and cafe terraces. Lots of people jogging and cycling. You know the thing.

Sign shows you that you either have to be in a car, or a member of the Bangles, to use this bit. Think about it.

Time for a bit of a lie-in today and then spent the morning in and around Melbourne.

In a recent poll, it is apparently Australia's most "liveable" city and it's easy to see why. There are lots of parks, wide streets and quite a bit of regeneration going on. The riverside is particularly nice, even though the Yarra River is very polluted and they are trying to clean it up.

At Federation Square, they have built some new piece of tessellation masquerading as an arts centre...



...and a steady stream of visitors was ambling through to (not) spend hours looking at the Danish Book Fair (or whatever it was - something akin...)

There is the obligatory bizarre pedestrian bridge (viz Gateshead, Berlin and, Kevin McCloud, Castleford)...



...and some big, non-descript sculptures...



We had time to take the tram to St Kilda...



...which is a bit seasidey: it has those shops where you can buy flip-flops (thongs), a jaunty hat with a slogan, kangaroo scrotum cigarette lighter...



...and it has Luna Park, which contains one of those rickety wooden rollercoasters which looks like it was bolted together in the late forties by prisoners of war and has maybe been checked over for safety purposes at least once every ten years since then.

Lots of excellent places for lunch though! (Of which we only had time, and the stomach, for one...)