Arriving in Sydney after our short 4 hour flight from Nadi was great! Although it was raining when we landed (seriously, who knew it rains in Australia?!), John was there to pick us up and whisk us off into the city. We dropped our packs off at John's amazing Darlinghurst apartment (right in the city and with a great open-air layout and huge sun deck), and walked over for a tasty thai lunch. We toured his neighbourhood a bit on foot, and walked around King's Cross, the vibrant adjacent 'hood, before coming back to his place and hopping into his car for a trip around the city. John's new truck, the Family Truckster, carried us up through the fancy suburbs (we even saw Nicole Kidman's house!) and up to the Gap, the rocky cliffs that overlook the opening of the Sydney harbour. After a little hike around at the top of the cliffs, we headed back down to a bar along the harbour for a cold beer on a sunny patio. While we were relaxing here, John took a call from his friend Dan inviting us out to catch a Sydney FC soccer match. I probably don't have to tell you that it didn't take much convincing on Mark's part. We finished up our drinks and headed on our way.

We met up with Dan and his girlfriend Kate at their place and walked over to the stadium. A $20 general admission ticket got us into the stadium with our choice of seats. It was a smaller crowd than usual because it was so close to Christmas so we walked right up and sat just a few rows up from the pitch. It was a fun game to watch and pretty close, with Sydney tying Adelaide at 2-2. We had a couple more drinks back at Dan and Kate's but headed home before midnight since Mark and I had been up since before 6am Fiji time.

Nicely rested, we headed on a John-guided walking tour of the city. Walking through King's Cross, we headed down towards the harbour, stopping for an early lunch at the apparently famous Harry's Cafe de Wheels, which served hotdogs and mashed potato-topped meat pies. It was surprisingly tasty. We wandered along the harbour, checking out the finger wharfs (and Russel Crowe's place), before walking through the botanical gardens. This area gave us stunning views of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. The Opera house is an incredibly cool building, and obviously a very recognizable landmark. The white sail shaped roof looks very cool, but I didn't realize that it was completely done up in white tiles, which you wouldn't be able to tell unless you walked right up to it.

We had a quick drink in the Opera Bar, beside the Opera House and then headed to the ferry docks. We had a great tour of the harbour from the deck of the boat, all the way to Watson's Bay and back. It was so great to see Sydney from the water and check out all the huge sailboats and yachts along the way.

John does have some cool connections in this city and this one provided us with the opportunity to drive the 300 passenger ferry boat in and out of the port. It was awesome cruising around through one of the most famous harbours in the world.

That night we ordered delivery burgers; they arrived by bike and we spent the evening hanging out on the patio.

The next day we headed out to take in a Sydney (and hometown) favourite - horse races. It was a quieter day due to the proximity of Christmas but many were still dressed up to see the thoroughbred's go around the track. It was a pretty lucky day overall with Mark making $50 on two good bets early but the best was yet to happen.

For the last race, John bet on a horse that had the worst odds of the day, 101-1. His horse had a yound female jockey that we figured was getting discriminated against, hence the lopsided odds. After a slow start, she pulled the horse to within the leader while rounding the last bend. The final stretch concluded with a contested finish. The look on John's face was awesome when he realized that he had just turned $2 into $200.

Our Christmas Eve was a good night at home baking three types of cookies while watching the not-so-Christmas movie, Bad Santa. We made Grandma K's macaroons and my family's molasses and Christmas (sugar) cookies. We got to a bit of a late start so it was almost 3am by the time I pulled the last batch from the tiny oven.

We slept in a bit Christmas morning and got ready to head to Bronte Beach. All the locals like to spend Christmas on the beach so we were in good company. The surf at that beach was crazy and so much fun to splash around. The waves were no bigger than I've seen before but the beach had a pretty good slant so the waves not only knocked you onto the beach but then the surf could easily drag you out. It was a lot of fun and I definitely got knocked around a lot. We relaxed on the beach for the afternoon then headed back to John's to ice some cookies and prep the bbq.

John's flatmates and their friends (all from Holland) joined us for a Christmas bbq feast. Oh man did we eat! We had 10 people out on the sun deck with chicken, ribs, roast and many many sides. It was great to sit out under the stars on Christmas day and share a great meal with family and new friends.