I arrived in Australia at the end of December 2012 in the midst of a heatwave that break records. My journey started in Perth where I celebrated the New Year and before taking in much of the country before flying to New Zealand from Brisbane later in January 2013.
Throughout my time in Australia, I seemed to move in lockstep with the heatwave as it crossed the country.
I arrived in Sydney mid-afternoon in baking sun and was out in it far longer than anticipated. Arriving at Central Station and trying to get a metro ticket I found that my debit card was not being accepted. This resulted in a 20 minute phonemail to my bank conducted on a train platform and ended up with them telling me that there was nothing they could do but send me a new card to my home address.
Thankfully I had emergency cash in USD plus a credit card in my backpack. But these were buried right at the bottom and would mean having to pull out and then repack everything right there on the platform.
I had a quick look at the map, and mentally ignoring silly little things like scale decided that a walk through a couple of parks would be quite nice.
Which is how I ended up trudging through Hyde Park with a fully laden backpack on the hottest day in history.
DigiDonkey 