While in Canberra, I had gotten a lot of sleep and largely recovered from the exhaustion, injuries, and illness that had put something of a damper on my time in the capital city. I’m certain that sleeping in a bed (after five weeks in a sleeping bag) helped, too.
The lovely drive up the coast of New South Wales gladdened my heart, and I greeted Sydney with considerable enthusiasm. I checked into the tremendously cheap hotel/hostel I’d found (thanks to a recommendation from the NSW Tourist Office in Adelaide), and set about exploring my surroundings. I was in a very multi-cultural part of town, just a couple blocks from Chinatown. It was a vibrant area, with myriad shops and ethnic eateries. It was also convenient to the train station and bus stop. So it appeared to be an ideal spot from which to explore the city.
Sydney's Chinatown
Waltzing Australia 
And were there gumtrees there! LOL, just teasing. You went up the coast? How did you go? Normally we’d go through Goulburn and the Southern Highlands. You must have taken the long route?
I was traveling by bus, and it took a long an meandering route, though I couldn’t tell you exactly what route we took. There were golden fields, grazing sheep, green hillside paddocks filled with horses, mountains with wattle bushes in bloom, wildflowers, sun dancing on the ocean — and lots and lots of gum trees.
That’s fascinating really because the bus we take goes down the highway (and certainly past sheep, wattle in season, gums etc) and nowhere near the sea. Sounds like you either went down to Bateman’s Bay and up the coast, or via the Southern Highlands and Kangaroo Valley. Both would have given you lovely drives and well worth doing as a tourist.