Happy New Year everyone!!! Sorry its been so long since our last blog. Time has just disappeared. So we arrived in Sydney on Sunday 28th December after enduring a long overnight bus journey. We had arranged to stay with friends in Sydney so we caught the bus to Coogee where they were staying. Headed to the beach that afternoon and then went shopping at Bondi Junction. Chilled out and watched a film that evening and had a boring early night! Got our hair done the next day so decided to have our first night out in Sydney with Max, Johnny, Rowan, Mooney and Tim. The photos pretty much speak for themselves!! Amanda was drinking shots from a teapot - and people say us Leeds girls dont have any class! Wandered round Sydney the next day and went down to Sydney Harbour for our first glimpse of the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. Then walked over to Darling Harbour and stopped off at the Lindt Chocolate Cafe for a yummy choc fix. The next day was NYE so we all had an early night in preparation for the long and exciting day ahead! Got up at 5.30am and made our way down the Mrs Maquaries Point for the best seat in the house! Even though we had to queue for 4 hours in the blistering heat to get into the area it was totally worth it as we managed to get into the restricted viewing area so we were literally right on the harbour. Chilled out in the sun for the day though most of us were fighting for some shade as the sun was so hot. Luckily we managed to escape getting burnt. Decided not to start drinking until tea time - we wanted to remember the fireworks the next day! By 11pm we had drunk a bottle of sparkling wine each and were a little excitable to say the least! When 12pm came we were all very cheery and a little emotional but it was without a doubt THE best NYE ever!

Spent New Year's Day at the Races in Randwick. Sarah won $55 after betting African Prince would win on 11 to 1 odds. So the year had started off pretty well. Amanda didn't win anything even after a special tip off from a barman! But the day was still really fun and provided a new and exciting way to enter the new year.

The next day we decided to do the Coogee to Bondi Beach coastal walk which is apparently really beautiful and it was, except despite the heat of the previous days it was exceptionally cold and by the time we had walked there we were too cold to stay so we took some windswept photos and then promptly left! After stopping off for a spot more shopping in Bondi Junction we got ready to go out for dinner with our new Irish friends who we met in Hervey Bay. We had a yummy Thai meal with them - it was bring your own bottle to the meal and so a few glasses of wine were had and then we headed to a nearby bar for more merriment. We spent several hours there dancing about and selecting songs from the jukebox, our three choices went down very well indeed!

Had a very relaxing day the next day as all the boys were at the cricket so us girls had the house to ourselves which was lovely and quiet! In the evening we met up with Amanda's friend from uni, Emily, who now lives in Sydney which was very nice. Had a drink down in Darling Harbour which was very pretty at night. The next day we moved into a hostel as Tim's flat had got a bit overcrowded and we already thought we might have outstayed our welcome. Fortunately for us another friend from home, Andy Cardis is now living in Sydney and he took us over to Manly on the ferry which takes you right past the Sydney Opera House so we got some good snaps. Manly is was just a really cool place with a nice beach except they had to stop everyone swimming as the water had become too dangerous! Being on the beach was pretty hazardous too as it was very, very, very windy and you took your life in your hands trying to sit and sunbathe! We had a relatively early night as we had a big day ahead of us.....we were going to Palm Beach, the home of Home and Away!! It's 2 hours outside of Sydney but we loved it! We saw The Surf Club and the lighthouse and took plenty of shots of us pretendign to sit on the beach and ponder just like they do in the soap! That night we met up with Andy again for a drink, taking part in yet another quiz but this time we didn't win, it was far too hard for us!!

The next day we headed back to Coogee to visit all of the guys in the flat there and to take them a small present to say thankyou for letting us stay - beer and wine seemed to suffice! We then had to head back to town to catch our flight to Melbourne and start all over again in another city.....