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Hello everyone – that time has come around once again and it sure has been a while this time. The last time I wrote was just after Nay left me back in July and now it's the beginning of November!

Right then, what have I been doing all these months…As soon as Nay left I landed myself another waitressing job which I did until the end of September and when I wasn't working I was busy catching up with friends and enjoying the Sydney lifestyle. When my time came to leave that job it was because my friend Nicola was coming all the way from Cornwall to see me for two weeks, and what a great time we had together.

Australian coastline

I flew up to Brisbane to meet her and it was a tearful reunion on both parts. From there we went south to the Gold Coast to a place called Surfers Paradise. If you've never been there before, then imagine Newquay on steroids (how a friend from work put it) – it really wasn't our cup of tea. But none the less, we still had a good time – the sun was shining and we were happy.

From there we went to Byron Bay and that was perfect. It's a great place for a bit of 'me time', which is just what we did. We timed it just right so that the day after we got there the sun put it's hat on and we were able to spend our days on the beach sunbathing and reading.

We spent our evenings chilling out at our hostel – The Arts Factory Lodge – a really cool place on the outskirts on Byron. We were sleeping in the 'Wagon', a big canvas wagon shaped tent. It was fantastic waking up in the mornings to the sound of the kookaburras calling one another and all the other Australian wildlife. One of the highlights of the trip for both of us was when we did a 14000 ft tandem skydive with a 70 second free fall – amazing! I've done one once before and loved it, so it had to be done again. The views we got of the area were great and thrill was one you never forget.

Bondi Beach

Once our five days were up in Byron we carried on our journey to Sydney. Again we were lucky with the weather and it was warm and sunny everyday and we had a busy schedule being tourists. We visited the zoo, did the Coogee to Bondi walk, went on a ferry ride, went to the theatre to see Miss Saigon and ate lots of tasty food. My second highlight of the trip was when Nicola treated me to two nights in a five star hotel in the CBD – it was heaven – thank you Nicola.

On Nicola's penultimate day we had a day trip up to the Blue Mountains and what a great way to end a perfect trip. We saw the Three Sisters in perfect form as the weather was once again on our side, unlike the last time I went and the mist obscured the rock formations. Then came the time for Nicola to leave – another sad day for me but the beginning of yet another adventure as I had my mum coming out to see me next.

Click below to read more from Rachael's November diary entry...