Happy New Year!

Well we have had a pretty busy 2 weeks in Sydney and after New Zealand it was a bit of a shock to the system to find oursleves in such a big bustling city again (the population of sydney is the same as the entire population of NZ!) However we love Sydney, its a really beautiful city, very clean with lots of gorgeous beaches, harbours and of course the stunning opera house. Oh and the shopping is pretty good too!

We managed to see many of the main sights and beaches including a 30 minute ferry ride across the harbour to Manly and a walk along beautiful coastline from Bondi to Coogee beach, watching crazy aussies tombstoning of the rocks. We also visited some of the markets and just relaxed in some of the bars overlooking the gorgeous Darling harbour, one of our favourite places in Sydney.

Just 2 hours away from Sydney are the Blue Mountains so we caught a train and spent 3 nights in this much more tranquil setting. We caught an explorer hop-on-hop-off bus to see the local towns and the famous 3 sisters. The mountains get their name from the blue haze created by the eucalyptus trees and we did a few bush walks to explore the forest that covers the valleys. We were both complete wimps freaking out everytime one of the numerous lizards ran near us thinking it might be a snake! Fortunately we didn't come across any snakes or spiders but saw many weird and wonderful birds including some cheeky and very noisy cookatoos. One of the main tourist attractions in the area is Scenic worlds which helps you see the blue mountains via rides in 2 different cable cars and the worlds steepest incline railway which takes you down into the valley.

We also did a day trip to the Jenolan caves, a series of limestone show caves. This involved a 2 hour guided tour climbing up and down 900 steps inside the cave networks. This was an amazing trip and we saw lots of different rock formations, learnt how they were formed and spotted rocks shaped like various objects such as a rhino and a champagne bottle. We were particlarly impressed by the cathedral cave, a huge chamber with natural accoustics, where they have live concerts and special events.

We spent a very surreal Christmas day on Coogee beach, giving Bondi a miss as it is a no alcohol zone now. But this was fine as Coogee is a much nicer beach and was packed with backpackers and locals cooking bbqs, running around the beach and playing in the sea in santa hats and reindeer ears! It felt very strange being in the sun for Christmas but we tried to get in the festive spirit with some decorations that Jess had sent us from home. We had a nice picnic lunch, not quite the same as mum's roast turkey, and sat on the beach until the evening, watching the sun go down.

New Years eve was fantastic. We decided that as this could be the only time we are in Sydney we would have to get up early (7am!) to queue to get into one of the best sites to see the fireworks. So we joined 20000 other people trying to get into the Botanical gardens from where you get amazing views of the opera house and bridge. We managed to get a great spot, mainly due to the fact thatone of the guys from our hostel got up at 3.30 am to get near the front of the queue, andit wasn't too crowded as we were in one of the lower areas of the park right above the harbour limited to just 2000 people. It was a schorching hot day, over 30 degrees so we spent the day wilting and seeking shade before we started drinking the alcohol we'd smauggled in as the sun set over the harbour. The fireworks were incredible, with a warm up session at 9pm and then the main show at 12pm which lasted for at least 15 minutes.We think Sydney has to be the most amazing fireworks display in the world.

Our time in Sydney came to an end all too soon and we found ourselevs getting up at an ungodly hour to catch the Oz experience up the East Coast to our first destination - surf camp. We enjoyed a big meal and some drinking games with about 50 other people at the camp, going to bed in the early hours knowing we were being woken at 6am - urgh! Next morning I literally had to drag Alex up with a very sore head although he soon perked up when dunked in the sea - a good hangover cure apparently! We then spent 2 hours attepting to surf and its much harder then the pros make it look. Alex did really well, and was standing, riding wavesand having a whale of a time. I however, found it really difficult and managed to stand forabout 2 seconds before falling off again. I think we both swallowed a good few litresof salt water too but it was great fun even though really exhausting. Alex is keen to drag me out to have another go and now considers himself a fully fledged surfer dude! He'll be wanting to dye his hair blonde next!

Lots of Love

Lorna and the surfer dude

xxx