While still on the Greyhound heading towards the city centre we turned a corner and suddenly realised that we would be driving across the Sydney harbour bridge! Of course this also meant that by looking down to our left as we crossed, we caught our first view of the Opera House. We were excited and we technically hadn't even arrived yet!

Once we'd dumped our bags we caught a subway train to the Kings Cross area where we were staying. We had been pre-warned by a lot of people that it wasn't the nicest place in the world, but this is where all the backpackers are located so we weren't too worried. The main strip is mainly bars and strip joints but it's a great base for getting around and seeing the rest of the city. We dropped our bags off and wandered through the area and although we can see why people don't like it, it's no worse than many places in London, nothing to be alarmed about.

We took a long but very nice walk from Kings Cross to the city centre and then on to the harbour. Along the way we took in the Anzac War Memorial, Hyde Park, the Queen Victoria building, the metropolis and shops of the city itself, and then the views at the harbour of the bridge and Opera House.

The Queen Victoria building is a very old shopping mall that now houses some very upmarket shops. The interior however has not been meddled with and is stunning. With old tiled floors, steel banisters running around each level and each shop front retaining their original shape, it felt like we had stepped back in time. The centrepiece of the building is a huge clock that hangs from the ceiling. It had been made originally in Hastings in the UK and shipped over to Australia. It is enormous, made mainly from wood and along with a clock face, it had two rows of roman numerals, the days of the week, and numbers for each day of the month stacked on top of each other. These rotate at their various speeds with a marker showing the area that when aligned, displayed the correct information (apologies it's quite hard to explain in text). Along with this there is a model ship that made its way around, and displayed around the circumference of the clock are many different pictures (looking toward the land from sea) of the various places discovered back in 1770 by Captain Cook. It's an amazing piece of work.

When we arrived at the harbour we only had a brief wander around where we took some obligatory photos of the bridge and Opera House, as it was getting late and we knew we would be heading back for a proper look around in the days to follow.

The next day we decided to head out of the city to a place called 'The Blue Mountains'. Many places run tours but we decided to do it on our own by getting a train and then once arriving, purchasing a bus loop ticket enabling us to get around. Unfortunately we had no idea that the journey from Sydney Central was 2 hours! We had also just missed a train and with only 1 leaving per hour, we didn't actually arrive there until 2pm.

The Blue Mountains get their name from the thousands upon thousands of eucalyptus trees that cover a lot of the land. There is a certain oil that when released from the trees creates a blue haze, so when looking at mountains and rock formations in the distance, they can appear to be blue in colour. As well as the rock formations, the mountains are home to valleys carved by rivers, with the main one being Sydney's main source of fresh water, as well as stunning waterfalls, caves and an enormous network of tunnels and mines that are no longer in use.

Upon arrival we bought our bus loop ticket at a discounted rate as it was late in the day. This meant we were able to also buy a ticket for the 3 'attractions' here and still save money on the original bus price. Our mission was simple - to go on all the attractions and see as many of the sights as possible before the last bus in 2 hours time! The bus took us through the village of Katoomba to our first destination, Scenic World. This is the area in which we would go on the 3 attractions. First up was a cable car that traversed a valley at a height of 230m. Although the crossing only took a couple of minutes we couldn't have been surrounded by scenery any more spectacular. Behind us was the Katoomba Falls waterfall, which didn't fall from the top to the bottom in one, instead it cascaded down what can only be described as a staircase effect of 3 or 4 huge drops, so it seemed you were looking at several different falls. It was beautiful. Out in front of us was a view right out into the distance as far as the eye can see of the Blue Mountains area itself. The only thing to see was miles upon miles of green eucalyptus trees pierced by huge hills and mountains, but it was stunning. To the left we could see the famed '3 sisters' formation, which is regarded very highly by the Aboriginal people of the land and is a very spiritual place for them, much like Ayers Rock. The final piece of the puzzle wasn't the view outside but something inside the cable car. Right in the middle was a section of floor completely clear so standing on it and looking down at your feet meant you were also confronted with a 300m drop to the trees below. It's a good job we aren't afraid of heights!

Once across the valley it was onto stage 2, a scenic railway that would take us from our vantage point atop a huge cliff to the valley floor below. We got into a carriage where the seats were in such a position that we were almost lying down, with our feet resting against a board in front of us. It was all very strange but the reason for the arrangement became all too apparent a few seconds after we set off. You see, we hadn't realised that this was in fact, the steepest scenic railway in the world! Suddenly we found ourselves facing straight ahead (we were now basically standing up) as the carriages went over the edge and hurtled through a crevice straight toward the ground at an angle of 52 degrees. Rocks and trees whizzed past us as we struggled to wipe the smiles off our faces from this unexpected surprise! It was really good fun.

Once we were at the bottom, after a very swift walk along the forest floor (where we did manage to quickly take a look inside the entrance of an old mine) we of course needed a way to get back up again. This was the third and final stage of our attractions ticket, and came in the form of another record setter, the world's steepest cable car which took us and approximately 40 other people the 500metres back up to the top.

From here we got on the second to last bus which took us to the Queen Elizabeth lookout point. This was just a vantage point that was closer to the 3 Sisters formation and looked out into the bluey distance in the same direction as our view from the cable car, across the Jamison Valley. It was nice to be able to stand and take it all in rather than running around to try and see everything during our trip in the car. We were here for around 20 minutes before boarding the very last bus which took us along the cliff edge for some final spectacular views, before dropping us off 1 train stop down the line in a small village called Leura. We opted to get off here just so we could have a wander along their high street and take a look around. It's a very pretty place with nice houses and Victorian era looking shops. Then it was off to the station for the 2 hour journey back to Sydney.

Although it was a tour in fast forward, we really enjoyed our few hours here. It's such a naturally beautiful place and can probably only be topped by the Grand Canyon itself in terms of scale and similarity. Well worth the effort to get there.

As we arrived back into the city centre we saw in the free evening paper that Sydney's Christmas Tree lights were being turned on. We had conveniently just pulled in to the underground stop where the festivities were taking place so we hopped off to go and have a look. It was all very traditional, with a choir, a celebrity (we didn't know who she was) and of course Santa himself all making an appearance before the countdown started. The lights were switched on accompanied by a small fireworks display. It was quite strange welcoming in Christmas whilst stood there in shorts and t-shirts, surrounded by everyone in red hats and reindeer antlers!

Our next day was actually spent planning our time in New Zealand. We will be using a campervan for our time there and all the companies have shops in Sydney. After comparing prices and going back and forth we booked one with the company we were originally looking at - Jucy, and their 'Crib' vehicle. It's actually a converted Toyota people carrier type car rather than a motor home.

Making sure our travel in NZ was sorted meant the day wasn't a waste, and there was something else that happened that ensured this. On the way to the shops to reserve the car, we spotted a piece of paper on a lamp-post that caught our eye whilst we were waiting to cross the road. It was a leaflet advertising an event taking place that evening in Bondi Beach, and the words that caused us to look at it were - Sea Shepherd.

I'll let Nikki explain what the evening entailed. 'We were quite lucky as we only saw a poster for the event earlier that day so we rushed our plans to make sure we could get there on time! Held in a small room at Bondi Pavillion, donated items lined the walls for guests to view and bid on in various auctions. They had paintings, photographs, books, custom surfboards and a very special bottle of beer made from glacier water brought back on the last expedition! We heard from various speakers including a crew member and a local MP from the Australian Green Party, and finally from Captain Paul Watson himself. He spoke last and gave a very informative and passionate speech lasting nearly an hour that detailed this year's plans and a lot of facts about the oceans and why we need to get involved and act now before it's too late. The fact he's never been arrested shows that what he is doing is ultimately 'right'. From what we estimated ourselves after the auctions, they raised around £20k that night alone which is a great amount- the bottle of beer went for A$2100 and now holds the record for 'Worlds Most Expensive Beer'! We both bought t-shirts so that we can do our part and advertise where possible!'

On our last day in town we had great weather so we took a walk to see some other parts of the city. Our walk began in a town brilliantly named 'Woolloomooloo' (we don't know the story behind this but we're sure it's a good one!). We headed towards the docks in search of a food vendor with a famous history. Andy had done his homework and was in search of 'Harry's Cafe de Wheels'. It's name came about due to a regulation years ago which stated that food vendors couldn't stay in the same spot for an amount of time (we forget how long, it may be an hour or a day), so to overcome this the owners moved the wheels 1cm every time it was required! Harry's is now stationary and is synonymous with Sydney's gastro elite, with everyone from backpackers to celebrities heading there for the famous 'Tiger Pie'. Needless to say no tigers were harmed in the making of this pie! This concoction consists of a meat (or in our case a vegetable) pie, topped with mashed potato, mushy peas and gravy. We made sure to head down where we ordered 2 vegetarian tiger pies from what is essential a slightly nicer version of a burger van! Whilst eating our pie we browsed the wall covered in pictures of various celebrities eating their pies in the same spot we were standing. We'd be here all day listing them all, so we will just mention the Elton John story. After he got married (we had no idea he had ever married a woman?!) in the 80s, he and all the wedding guests headed to Harry's for pies all round rather than a fancy restaurant!

After polishing off our lunch we walked around the headland from Woolloomooloo to 'Mrs. Macquaries Chair', a point in the harbour which gives a great view of the Opera House with the Harbour Bridge standing behind it. We took some photos here (including one of Andy pointing in the same direction as everyone in England e.g. upside down whilst down under!) before continuing our walk along the perimeter of the harbour round to the Opera House, taking us through the botanical gardens in the process.

This was our first time since arriving in Sydney that we had been right up to the Opera House and it's strange how different it looks close up. It's several separate buildings stood very close to one another rather than the whole thing being one building. When stood next to it you also see for the first time the individual bricks that make up the structure, it doesn't take anything away from it but gives a fresh perspective. We didn't pay for any kind of tour, but briefly went inside (in fact you go down an escalator as the shop and bulk of space is underneath) to have a little look and just so we could say we had been inside!

From here we continued round to the area underneath the Harbour Bridge known as 'The Rocks'. It was here that the settlers all lived (mainly in poverty) with several streets demolished once the bridge was built. These days the Rocks is an area full of quirky shops and trendy cafes, with markets taking place at weekends. There was one on whilst we were there so we browsed the stalls before heading into the free 'History of The Rocks' Museum. The smallish building was full of artefacts that have been found during archaeological digs over the years, exposing everything from the walls of previously standing buildings to tools, crockery and children toys. More interesting than this were the various screens displaying images and stories spanning Sydney from the days of a couple of small aboriginal communities living on the banks of the water, to the settlers, how this affected and ultimately destroyed the local people and their traditions, and the rapid development of a convict colony into what we know Sydney as today. It was really really interesting, a great way to find out and learn about the 'real' Sydney away from the tourist sites, and an even better way to complete our time here!

From the hustle and bustle of a cosmopolitan city to the polar opposite - next stop, the Outback!