Sydney 24th December 2007 - 2nd Jan 2008

Xmas Eve, was the usual, last minute xmas pressie shopping, although it was for food this time! Sydney is weird...I could actually walk down the street without being pushed into the road and buy a bottle of wine in the booze shop without having to wait more than 5 mins. Evryone is so chilled out here. They hardly celebrate xmas so it was a bit depressing for Santa'a little elf this year! I wanted to hear the xmas songs in the shops and the lights on down the street!

Xmas Day, we woke up and gave each other our little gifts and headed to our mates house as they invited us for xmas dinner at their apartment. Lorraine (AKA Spotty) and Olivia are just 2 of the girls we met on Fraser Island. The girls cooked turkey, ham, brussels, carrots, sweetcorn (for Mark as he doesn't eat veg!) and even had christmas pudding with custard and brandy butter! Bailey's to drink too! I was loving it. She even had xmas DVDs, a xmas album and fairy lights around the tree! I felt alot better when I got a xmas dinner! Nothing like Mum's though.

*Message for Mum* I want a big xmas dinner when I get back at the end of Feb, even the xmas pud and some of your mince pies you made, is that alright? Thanks Mum.

In the evening of Xmas Day, we climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Over 1000 steps and the second highest viewing point in Sydney. We went up at 6.30pm and came 9.30pm so as we went up it was still light, then when we got to the top it was twilight, and on the way back down it was dark so we got to see all the views in different light. It was wicked. Definately something to remember. It'll be wicked to say that on Xmas Day 2007 I was on top of the Harbour Bridge. Take a look at the pics. After that we went back to our friend apaprtment to lap up some more of their amazing food!

Boxing Day was so hot. We decided to do nothing else but head to the beach. We caught a short 20 min ferry ride to Manly Beach and chilled there. It was lush. We met up with my friend from England, Michelle who had been living in Manly for 4 months so it was good to see her again.

On the 28th we went on our tour to the Blue Mountains, it was great to escape the city! It was another very hot day. We got to see some amazing views. It was described at the Grand Canyon of Australia but covered in rainforest. It was beautiful. Take a look at the pics. We got to ride in the steepest cable car in the southern hemisphere into the canyon viewing sights of the "Famous 3 Sisters". We also got to ride on the steepest train in the world! It was very scary almost being vertical as you went backwards up the canyon, Views were out of this world. On this tour we also had a quick look at the Sydney Olympic Stadium and had a cruise on the Jet Cat through the harbour back to Circular Quay (city centre dock).

On the 30th, we went on a tour to the Hunter Valley where it is known as Wine Valley. It where all the wineries are and where many of the famous wines in England are made, such as Lindemans and Tullouch. The tour was called the Wobbly Wine Tour. Basically, we rose bikes between the wineries where we had 3 different wine tasting sessions, tasting up to 15 wines each visit! It beat drinking 'Goon' anyway! Yes, we were very wobbly on the way back. The day was a scorcher too! The whole bus slept the whole way back, no wonder after all that wine!

NEW YEARS EVE...the build up was like nothing i've seen before, that's why they don't celebrate xmas as much! We had tickets to the Opera House Bar so we were right in front of the Harbour Bridge to watch the fireworks. It was the most spectacular fireworks display i've ever seen in the world. I can't believe I was there, witht he best view you could get, and I didn't have to camp out with the millions of other people all day from 6am to get my spot. Our tickets cost $275 and it was worth every penny! (or cent in this case!).

New Years Day, we chilled in the whole day, with a hangover...we didn't mind as much as the night before was so good. Normally we're out sight seeing everyday! In the evening we had a 'posh' meal at the top of Central Point Tower' (Thanks for the suggestion Claire Athey!). It is the highest building in Sydney which has a slowly revolving restaurant at the top so you can see all the views of Sydney for the top whilst you dine. The views were amazing. The food was a buffet with allsorts of food. I even ate crocodile curry, roast kangaroo and tried an oyster! It was all lovely apart from the oyster which felf like snot and tasted like errr fishy water?! YUK!

Wednesday 2nd January 2008. We checked out our hotel and well here I am. tonight we're roughing it all the airport again to save money (pykey's) as we fly to Melbourne at 7.45am tomorrow.

Next stop Melbourne...only 2 weeks until NZ!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!