Well we arrived in Sydney (back in civilisation hurray) with only a short delay on the flight, jumped on the airport shuttle, which dropped us off at our hostel doorstep and we had arrived.

Hostel (Eva's in Kings Cross) was a lot better then the one we stayed at in Cairns, very clean only small downside we had bunkbeds and a single bed. After a bit of furniture moving we managed to get the single next to the bottom bunk, but I spent most nights extracting myself from the crack between the two. As it was after 19.00 by the time we had got in and we had chowed down on airport food whilst waiting for the plane, we headed around Kings Cross looking for booze. Kings Cross in supposed to be a little rough, but the street we were off (Mackeay St) was full of posh eateries, wine shops and delis (we had found gay central!!) anyway strolled into this nice little bar/ restaurant and polished off a lovely bottle of Marlborough and got the low down from the waitress who had spent some time in uk (army kid) and headed back via an absinthe bar (no we didn't dare partake) to our bunks.

Day 1 = sightseeing mission after @ a 20min walk into the centre we located the botanical gardens, which were lovely if not full of bats (apparently there are something like 11,000 in the gardens - yuk) and had a lovely stroll through the gardens to the bay. You will note from the large no. of photos of the opera house and the harbour bridge we were quite impressed, its a stunning sight as it comes into view.

Next we headed to the opera house and booked our tour, as we had over an hour to kill, we headed to the bridge to try and book a harbour bridge walk as well (NOT MY IDEA!!). There is an area of originial buildings along the harbour called The Rocks, which is really charming (Great french patisserie) and has some really good markets on a weekend (lucky i can't fit anything in my backpack or I would have spent a fortune).

Opera house tour was good (Steve liked it more than me) i thought it was a bit short to be honest, we watched a video about how it was designed, saw three theatres; were told a few anecdotes about Nicole Kidman working in the lobby as an usher and that was it, bit disappointing really..Its a fabulous building though

Now we come to the harbour bridge walk, now Steve doesn't like heights and neither do i, i also have a deeply ingrained dislike of steps so this was never going to be fun for me and it wasnt.

You get given all this safety gear and briefed etc and shown how the lanyards attached bla bla bla. (dont happen to mention that the man safe system is attached to the bridge with cable ties or the copious amounts of rust on steps/ ladders etc!!!)

To get onto the bridge you have to walk up some steps in one of the stone pylons, we takes you out to a walk way (timber it was like walking on a narrow scaffold over the M1 scary) They also didnt mention the 5 storey cat ladders you have to climb up to get to the arch, this wouldnt have been so bad if there werent trains passing by your head eveny 15mins!!

I'd insisted on going at the back so we didnt hold anyone else up and so we could quietly freak out together, good job really. Steve was impressed with the view, i was just thinking half way can we get off now!! The whole nightmare lasted 3 hrs and my legs were literally shaking for an hour when we got off NEVER AGAIN.. went home got drunk , dont remember much after 8.30 (Steve informs me that i'm missing about 4 hrs - i hate drinking wine)

Next day we had to move hostels (packing and lugging rucksacks with a handover in 30 degree heat is never fun). New Hostel (wake up) is nice enough, more like a basic hotel, its got a bar, cafe and travel desk which is keeping our food costs down at least. Again for some reason we have bunk beds?? This time thank god the bottom bunk is a double, so no more cracks for me, just keep banging my head!!

Dumped the bags as we couldnt get into the room as we were too early so got the ferry over to Manly, again loads of piccies of bridge et al from the ferry this time wooho! Manly is lovely though, just what i expected really, posh but funky little beach town (a bit like a baby brighton, very art deco and cool) Caught a few rays on the beach while Steve did his usual fish impression and spent hours chucking himself into waves. The weather turned cold (sorry that 18 degress to you - so warm rather than hot) we we trudged back to the hostel. Burger, beer and bed was had as early night required (getting old now takes two days to recover from a big session)

Today was another beach day, but we tubed it to Bondi beach, stunning beach (God there are soo many) and headland, again caught a few rays (still not brown though, slightly mucky colour rather than white) and steve was a fish again for 2 hours, before i called it a day and we went for a walk along the coast.

Apparently one of the best things to do is a coastal walk from Bondi to Cooggee, what it didnt say in the book that there would be a thousand others doing the same walk. It was like trying to walk along Oxford Street during Xmas sales, but it was pensioners rather than Sales maniacs on a mission. We didnt realise there was some sculpture exhibition on and the "art" had been installed along the cliffs and beaches. (sorry i say "art" loosley because i have a very low opinion of modern art - its all crap and thats me being nice) Views great, surf bonza, but a liitle crowded. Found a lovely little italian on the esplanade at Bondi and are now back in town (paying fines/ booking tours/ drinking beer whilst Steve watches the Liv v Chel match from yesterday)

We have booked a day tour to the blue mountains tomorrow (25 quid each isnt the exchange rate brilliant!!) hopefully i will see a live skippy/ koala rather than the dead ones to date.

We leave for Christchurch NZ on the 29th, will be said to leave Oz, but getting really sick of finding sand in unimaginable places.