Hunter Valley was great, what we can remember of it anyway! It reminded us of Stellenbosch in South Africa, the last wine region we visited. Here we went to 6 different vinyards were we tasted over 10 wines in each!!! The next morning we got up early and boarded the Greyhound coach. Finally after 2 months in this huge country we were on our way to Sydney! It was only a 2 hour drive from Newcastle before we were driving over the iconic Sydney harbour bridge with the Opera house below us. Wow. We were here. Once at the coach station, we had to make a plan to where we were going to stay in this big city??? Hmmm maybe a little unprepared. Still, we found a cool hostel for $60/night. Sydney is expensive! Once settled we started to phone around the many friends we knew here. Lorna got in touch with David, one of her old school friends. I got in touch with Sheryn & Grayson who I used to work with in London. We then contacted our good friend Joel and a few others we had met whilst on our African adventure. It looks as though Sydney is going to be quite a social occassion. The first night we went out for dinner with David to a great little Italian restaurant before heading back to our hostel. The next day we met up with Joel & Brent for lunch before they drove us to our hostel to get our things. They would not let us pay for a hostel in Sydney whilst they had a spare room!!! It was so good having friends in this city! Over the next 2 weeks, Joel & Brent drove us to the harbour gateway, the magical Blue Mountains, Palm Beach, they took us on walks between Bondi & Coogee, and we even ended up in the drag club where they filmed part of Pricilla Queen of the Desert!!! What a fun evening that was! They really have made our Sydney visit amazing!! Thanks guys. We also met up with Sheryn & Grayson, drinks in Paddington one evening and then dinner round at there place the next. Good to see they have settled back home. We even had Phoebe a girl we met in Kenya come running over to us. What a small world! On the last Thursday we met with a few friends from Africa. Belinda and her partner Tim (who are expecting a baby), the lovely Vicki, Joel & Brent. Cool evening. Weird how Lorna and I are still carrying the same bag and wearing pretty much the same clothes from when we waved goodbye to them way back in December! Sydney is a very cool city. Surprised us both. Not sure what we expected, big shiny new buildings I suppose? In reality it is a very cosmopolitan place that reminded us both of London. Not just the areas (Paddington, Oxford St, Liverpool St...) but for example Paddington the area we were staying was like Notting hill mixed with an edge of Camden. Cool! It didn't take us long to get our bearings in this city, probably due to the fact that we walked everywhere. We did all the sights, the harbour ferry, the Opera House tour, many walks, Sydney observation tower, the Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney Aquarium, the magical victorian Luna Park etc etc etc It would be great to see this place in the summer!!! Sydney is a very well laid out city. On one side it's a big city with skyscrapers, on the other side it's a city with golden beaches, botanic gardens and parks. Beautiful. I'm sure we will be back one day... Tomorrow we fly to New Zealand. It is cold in Sydney, it is apparently FREEZING over there!!!! We have both had to buy proper Gortex wind, rain, snow proof jackets. Hmmmmm. I think we got something wrong in the planning stages of this trip! Still we are both very excited, and we meet with Mieke our friend from London who will be travelling with us for the month! So until New Zealand, bye for now, Steve & Lorna xxx