Happy new year guys,

It's been a busy few weeks for me since arriving in Australia so I haven't been able to post, although I'm sure you've all been busy yourselves.

Right I'm going to keep this short, I arrived in Sydney and went straight to Manly in north Sydney, which meant I got to take the ferry and straight away saw the opera house and harbour bridge which are amazing. Thank to Dave and Sahar for letting me stay 4 nights at their place. Manly is really cool and definitely worth a visit if you're in Sydney.

I then moved to my hostel and was lucky to be sharing with a load of cool people. We all went out loads as it was Xmas, and I had my first taste of goon, which is basically cheap boxed wine, which is made of fish, eggs and milk.... not nice!

Australia is really expensive, compared to Asia and even back home so I've been doing a lot of cooking and making my own food. Xmas day was really good, we went to Bondi beach and spent the day there. The weather was amazing and I had a great time. Couldn't find GMTV so was unable to send a hello message on tv in the UK! Had a nandos in the evening, which probably counts as my Xmas meal....

I also met Suki and Carl, my sister and my brother in law, while in Sydney. We did a lot of walking and saw all the sights, and the next day we went to the Blue Mountains, which weren't blue.... Nice to look at but we were all quite tired.

New Years Eve was spent on the other side of the Harbour Bridge to the Opera House, but the view was amazing. We got there early as it gets really busy. The weather was amazing again, which was unusual as it keeps raining here. It was a long day but the fireworks were out of this world, and well worth the wait. Getting home wasn;t so much fun but it wasn't too bad.

I also went to the 2nd day of the Ashes cricket in Sydney. That was a really good day out and again it didn't rain. We were sat with the Barmy Army, which is the hardcore England fans. They were quite funny but they seem to be a club for old guys with beer bellies... I also say David Hasselhoff, he was in Sydney and was at the cricket and came close to where I was sitting. We bought our tickets off a guy in the street, so we were nervous they weren't realy but we got in and had amazing seats.

I was glad to leave Sydney as I had been there for nearly 3 weeks, and I started my surf camp which was 5 days and really, really good. It's exhausting but I'm so glad I did it. My surfing has improved and I'm ready to go out and catch some waves now. I'm in Byron Bay at the moment and it rains, and then stops and then rains. Overall the weather here has been absolute garbage, and as a result I may have to change my plans going north as there are floods and generally just rain.

I may have to miss either the Whitsunday islands, Fraser island and even the barrier reef, as I've heard they aren't good in the current weather conditions, and I would rather see them at their best then waste money on them if they aren't going to be worth it so I'm going to work out my plan later today.

I have to keep it short and sweet as internet in oz is so expensive and not the best!!

I hope you are all well, hopefully I'll post again in the not too distant future.

Take it easy