We left Church Point early this morning in an effort to avoid the morning commute, but a 11 mile drive down to Manly still took over an hour.

Thankfully we were able to drop off our luggage at our final Airbnb stay and then drove on to the airport to drop off our hire car after 65 days driving the white goddess.

It was quite sad to hand her back after so long, almost got used to its constant bleeping whenever we got close to the centre reservation or another car!

It was then off to Mascot to get the train into Sydney CBD and spend a few hours revisiting a few of our favourite spots in and around Circular Quay, The Rocks, Opera House and the Botanical Gardens.

Today was an odd day weather wise, one minute it was warm and the sun threatened to appear, the next the rain came down and we were putting on our rain macs and taking cover.

Our first scenic stop was the old favourite Circular Quay and a pit stop at the Contemporary Art Museum. It brings back lots of memories, notably one NYE in 2016 when we waited almost 9hrs to catch the fireworks from the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

We couldn’t not take a photo of the Opera House, despite the weather being a little wet and cloudy making visibility limited.

After a wander around the historic Rocks area we headed to the Opera House passing a promotional poster for MJ the Musical, which we are going to watch this Friday. It’s going to be extra special as our godson Charlie is in the show and plays Marlon junior. It’s an amazing achievement and one that he is loving to be a part of – we are so very proud.

We carried on our jaunt around the coastline passing the opera house and then onto the botanical gardens where they were setting up a stage for Guys and Dolls. Sadly it doesn’t start until after we leave Sydney – gives us yet another reason to return in the future!

In an effort to keep up our exercise regime and get our 25,000 steps in for the day, we circled back to the Art Gallery of NSW. There was a number of new features and artefacts that really caught our eye.

After a hour or so of cultural deliberation, we walked on to the old Sydney Hospital, passing Hyde Park Barracks, The Mint Quarters (oldest building in central Sydney) and touched the nose of the boar statue which is supposed to bring good luck!

Carrying on to Hyde Park and the Sundial Fountain, close to St Mary’s Cathedral we marched on to QVB for some retail therapy of sorts….

As our legs started to tire, we made a short detour to Darling Harbour and the large redevelopment that is being carried out with new apartments being built in the hundreds.

We then crossed the Pyrmont Bridge across Darling Harbour, passing yet another promotional sign for the MJ Musical before making our way to the Manly ferry.

In better weather we would have been outside on the ferry taking photos and enjoying the views, but with the rain coming down and the waters a little more bouncy, we stayed safely inside and within 20mins we had made it back to Manly Wharf.

Having unpacked and got the last of our washing done, we headed out for a walk along Little Manly beach before meeting up with Caroline later in the evening for drinks at The Hold, a late night party bar, where we proved to be the oldest in attendance by a good 20-30yrs!!

It’s great to be back in Manly for the last 5 days of the tour and to reacquaint with our friends for a final few days down at the beach.

Tomorrow we plan a relaxing day beach side catching a few rays and stopping for coffee at a few of our favourite places.