25th January:

Today Oz Intro began and i met the group i will be spending the next week with. There was around 16 people in my group most of them were girls. I walked into my first hostel room and found i was in a 10 bed dorm with 9 other girls. Having not shared a room since school trips, i was a bit apprehensive but the girls all seemed nice and even though the room wasnt the nicest in the world, it was quite big and spacious. Gettin myself onto the top bunk was a challenge for the first time though, with no ladders or steps i adopted a 1,2,3 jump technique which by the end of the week i mastered with perfection! :-)

We were instantly thrown straight into out first trip of the week which was a sight seeing around sydney and Jet boating.

We went to the famous Sydney Habour and the Sydney bridge and took some photos outside. We attempted the jumping picture but not sure if this worked out so well. Judge for yourself. hehe. We walked around the Botanical Gardens which was gorgeous and then Simon (our group leader with beautiful eyes) took some bread and stood in under some trees and huge birds came down and sat on him. One of the birds jumped onto me and was eating bread out of my hand which was wicked! After a while its claws dug into me so much i had to thrown the bird to someone else. There were also loads of bats in the Botanical Gardens who live in the trees, the noises they made were so loud and the glided around the gardens beautifully!

The Jetboating was next and i was really scared after watching other boats in the habour. I decided to give it a go though and absolutely loved it! We were not allowed to wear ponchos to protect us from the water and we got absolutely soaked!! It was so exciting! The guide counted 3,2,1 and then span the boat round suddenly and we all got covered in salt water. It got into my eyes and mouth but on a positive note, I now have a new appriciation for waterproof mascara! Poor Ashleigh, sitting next to me was completed soaked and as soon as she wiped her eyes clean and was able to open them again another wave of water covered her from head to toe! Bless! Jill who sat in front of me was having such a good time she keep turning round with the biggest grin on her face!! She loved it!!

We headed back to the hostel after to dry off (which didnt take long in the sun) and then we all went to the beach for the aftenoon and played some dodge ball! Girls against boys!! The group seemed to trible at this point as there were 2 other Oz Intro groups running at same time and all had congregated on the beach. Me, Nat, Claire and Morgan were outnumbered by about 15 boys and lost in the end tho but i think we put up a good fight!

26th January: AUSTRALIA DAY!!

Today was Australia Day which is the biggest party day in Australia! Today we had a day of surfing planned and then on the evening we were to go on a party cruise around the habour!

We drove to a (supposive) private, deserted beach to surf, purely so no one could see us make idiots of ourselves while attemping to learn to surf, HOWEVER being Australia Day, the beach was completey rammed with people in camper vans who had set up BBQs and partys in celebration of Australia Day!

Knowing how clumsy i am, i was a little nervous of surfing as there is no way im gonna come away from this in one piece! Jai was our surfing instructor. Jai was exactly what you would imagine an Australian surfer to look like. Blonde shoulder length hair, tanned with a white sun-creamed nose and completely uncomprehendable!! Jai, taught us the basic, the most important being how to say "Shakamalaka!!!" and do the surfer hand signals. He also made us roll around in the sand until we were completely covered. (Bye bye beach babe, hello sandy, wet mess!)

We then headed down the sand to the beach and all attempted to surf (if you can call it that). After managing to actually get onto and stay on the surf board i was pushed out by Jai to catch my first wave and OMG i cant believe how hard it was. I followed Jai's instructions to the tee. Paddle, paddle, paddle, 3 large paddles then lift leg, jump onto board and surf away! I got as far as paddle paddle paddle, 3 large paddles, lift leg and then fall into the water bum first! lol!!Good start! I was now adament i would conqure surfing so i grabbed my surf board and headed back into the sea. The next two attempted went pretty similar to the first although head first seemed to be my prefered falling off method! lol!Finally though persistance paid off and i managed to stand on my surfboard and ride my first proper wave!! Shakamalaka!!!!! :-)

I left the beach covered in bruises and a few burns but i loved surfing and will defo be doing it again along the coast!!

Back at the hostel 20 odd girls were queing for the 2 showers in the hostel and preparing themselves for Australia Day Party Cruise. We stuck Flag tattoos on our faces and some girls dresses in flags and jumped the bus to the crusie. There were around 500 people on this cruise most of whom had been drinking legendary 'Goon' all day so were completely hammered making the journey to the party crusie on the party bus a noisy messy one. Our group was quite quiet as we were all tired from surfing but most importantly we were all sober! Boo!!

The party cruise was fun. We cruised around the harbour for 3 hours, watched fireworks over the bridge and danced alot! Me and some of the girls had brought Oz fans which were a god send on this boiling hot boat but it was soo sweaty i lost all self respect and accepted the sweaty, frizzy mess i had become! The partyy carried on in Side Bar but by 1am i was soo ready for my bed. I had to make use of my ear plugs, and eye mask in order to attempt to get any sleep in our hostel as the doors had to be left open as no air con and being on top of MacDonals and in the middle of town, lets just say i didnt have the best nite sleep!

Wednesday 27th:

The morning after the nite before and no one was in any fit state to do anything today. Luckily all we had to do was important stuff like get our medi cards, tax files numbers and set up our bank accounts. We completed this in a daze then onto the aquarium where all the water and swaying did not help the hangover. Saw some amazing fish and sharks though and took some fab photos. Nemo was there too! Back to the beach to rest for the afternoon and sleep off the hangover.

Thursday 28th:

Today we went to the legendary BONDI BEACH!!

If im honest i wasnt that impressed with it as i though i would be. It was a bit overcast which didnt help but im general i didnt think bondi was anything amazing. I was looking for the camera which film 'Bondi Rescue' but no luck. Damn!! I did manage to get a picture of a guy in speedos tho!! YAY!!

We sunbathed for a bit then did a costal walk to a smaller beach and had a BBQ and my first experience of 'Goon'. Hmmmm, not the greatest drink in the world, dont know what all the fuss is about'. We played some volley ball, which ive never played before and i will admit i was a bit scared of the ball as the boys hit is sooo hard and once again Morgan got hit in the face. Opps! I did get a good few hits in tho and my team won! Woop Woop!! :-)

A nice thunderstorm hit Sydney (again) so we spent the nite in drinking and chilling in the hostel.

Friday 29th:

I had been really looking forward to today as we had planned to go to the blue mountains! It took about 2 hours to get there which i used as an opportunity to catch up on some sleep and then we arrived at the Blue Mountains and i was in awe!!

The Blue Mountains were so beautiful! There were unspoilt water falls, fresh water lakes, cliff top walks and phemonimal views! Unfortunately, i did not see a kangeroo (some of the others did) but i had an amazing time anyway. I took some excellent photos and a few videos too as its hard to show you how beautiful it is in a still picture. We learnt about the three sisters (which are three rocks formations which sit at the top of the Blue Mountains and the story behind them is:

There were 3 sister that woke up a beast who was going to kill them but there dad (who had a stick with magical powers) turned them to stone to save them from being killed. The dad then got chased by the beast and turned himself into a bird and flew away. There is suppose to be a bird which jumps and digs around the same place in the mountains and the story is that this bird is the dad who is looking for the magic stick so he can turn himself and the sisters back to humans. Hmmm interesting!

After the walk we went on Australians steepist railway which was brilliant but scared some of the girls. An icecream and photos of the boys in suggested posing around status and the three sisters and we headed back to hostel. Other crap nites sleep tho.... dont know if my body will ever recover from this lack of sleep!! lol! :-)

So.........still no tan and am starting to get a little annoyed so i did it! I went and brought some fake tan! I couldnt take it any longer!! Feel much better for it!

Saturday 30th Jan: PARTY BUS PUB CRAWL!

Today we had the legendary Party Bus Pub Crawl planned and we had to all dress up for this so our day was spent looking for outfits! We went o Bondi Junction which was amazing for shopping (wish i had known that earlier). We had decided on a Cave girl theme so went to look for material and cave girly accessories. Not having been to Bondi Junction before and unable to locate a map, we decided to ask for directions from a local however the response so probably the most unhelpful thing i have ever heard. We asked " Do u know where the fancy dress store is?" (simple question i feel) He replied " Not sure, but i think its where the chinese used to be". Hmmm, well thanks.... thats really helpful seen as tho we have never been here before and dont know where the chinese use to be!!! lol!

After hours of shopping (and not going to where the chinese use to be) we got our outfits and headed back to hostel to get ready! The Result, if i do say so myself was excellent!!! We all made a massive effort... even the boys and we looked awesome!!! We had a few drinks in the hostel to get us in the mood and headed to the party bus! The Party bus was rammed with over 80 drunken revellers and music and lights were blasted out while we drove around the streets of sydney. No seat belts, all standing up im sure it was pretty illegal but im not complaing!!

I videoed the Party Bus experience as once again photos do not do it justice. We had an excellent night, visiting numerous bars, dancing on tables, we went to a proper coyote ugly bar where girls dance on the bar... this is where we lost all the boys including our tour guide simon! lol!

Oh and lets not foget the couple who decided to have sexy time on the back seat of the bus on the way to the last bar in full view of everyone! (YES.. we did see u. U dirty b****es!! lol)

After dancing the night away losing my voice from all the singing and being more tired than i ever thought i could possibly be we headed back to the hostel. I was one of the only people to actually get onto the return bus back to the hostel god knows where everyone else went. I was just happy to get back to my bed!! :-)

Sunday: Farewell Dinner

Today was our last day in our Oz intro Groups and we all had a farewell meal at the Sydney Tower Revolving Resturant. Still feeling a little hungover from yesterday i was not enjoying the revolving aspect of the meal at all! I had absolutely no coordination in this resturant and kept tripping over and dropping everything. On the pother hand, this is where i tried Australians Deliciously - Kangeroo!

If im entirely honest, i kinda liked it! I thought it tasted like a misture between beef and lamb. It was nice, however i could not eat more than a tiny bite cos after all it is a kangeroo!! EWW!!

We all enjoyed one last nite togather before saying our goodbyes and all going our seperate ways. Overall, i absolutely loved doing Oz intro and wouldnt have changed a thing! Now ive just got to decide what to do next!!! Hmmm!!