Hi All,

Well its day 9 of Oz and we are still having lots of fun on our adventures :). We landed in Sydney really early Friday 27th October, and headed towards our hostel. It cost like 35$ for us both to gte the train to the nearest stop only 20minutes away! So straight away we realised how expensive Oz was going to be! We tried to check into Sydney Backpackers but we were to early so left our stuff and headed for some lunch. The first place we passed was a place called 'Pie Face' we had already been recommended to go here so this was our first stop! Pie, Mash on top and gravey, yummy! Although it did cost us like 8$ without a drink :(. We walked passed our hostel that we are staying in for Christmas and looked inside, they had decorated it all in halloween things, so now we are excited as we hope they kit it out in Christmas things :).We then took a stoll up towards 'Sydney Harbour Bridge' and the 'Opera House' standard first thing to do in Oz!!! That afternoon after checking in we just chilled out, slept for hours as the airoplane had been so freezing we couldnt sleep at all the night before! We got up for a few hours to eat dinner, we went to a bar next door, with meals for 8$. We both had a steak and chips, it was huge and really tasty! sooo good for only 8$! Then headed back to Sydney Backpackers for an early night!

The next day we got up without setting an alarm clock, although when we looked at the time it was 12.27pm...opps! So pretty much missed the morning. We then headed out to set up our greyhound passes (bus passes) and sort our 10night base jumping passes (hostel). We managed to get a room in base for Sunday night as our greyhound bus didn't leave until Monday morning. We then went and bought our 'house' for the next few months...a tent! They were all so expensive but we managed to get one for 100$, baring in mind that every night we camp its like 25$ for two, and if we hostel its like 25$ each! That afternoon we met up with Christine, our friend who we met on the Asia tour. e decided to meet at Kings Cross (cheap drinks), but when we got there she told us about a free day festival going on near Central (close to our hostel). We headed on the train to Central and found the festival, we paid a small contrubution to get in. It was really good there, had food stands, bars, stages with live bands and DJ's. If you look at the photo on this blog we have a 'Chip on a Stick', covered in chicken salt, sooooo tasty! We chilled there drinking lots of wine and beer and listening to the music, there had been a Zombie Walk in Sydney that day so loads of people dressed as Zombies! That evening we headed back to our hostel stopping a McDonalds for some healthy dinner (burger and chips).

Our next day consisted of waking up waking up and heading around the corner to our new hopstel 'Base' and dropped our huge bags and our new home the tent off. We decided to make today a true Ozzy sightseeing day and headed out for the Opera House again and the Botanical Gardens. This was a beautiful garden and has a brilliant view of the Opera House and Bridge in background, we are thinking about trying her for New Years Eve! A lady stopped us when we got to the Opera House asking if we would feature in her music video, I had to hold up a sign saying why I loved Lee, I wrote 'he makes me laugh when he does silly dances', while they filmed us Lee did a silly dance!That afternoon we got online to start booking a weeks accomodation..... on a campsite! Then went into out dorm (8 people). We started to talking to a girl called Naomi who went to Monmouth Girls School, we were talking about people we may know etc. We also met a guy in our room who had a story, he basically had been dating a girl out here and living with her for four months, until one day her boyfriend turned up!!! Oh dear!!!! We went and had dinner jkust down in the bar of Base and then bought a box of wine between the four of us and started drinking, as more people in our room came in they sat down and started talking to us all, it was a really good night, ended up sleeping around 1.30am.

The next morning was not as good as we had a little hangover and had to be out of our room for 6.30am to start walking to the bus stop to get our greyhound! Very sleepy! We managed to make our bus and only had a two hour journey up the coast to a place called Newcastle.When we got dropped off we then had to get a localbus to Belmount, our driver was really helpful and gave us drirections to our campsite. It was along a bay and looked really pretty, although there wasn't much to do here. We set up camp and headed to realax by the pool, we were so sleepy and just fell asleep by the pool. We headed to the shops to get some food in for the next couple of days, including burgers, rice and noodles. We also found two lilos, we thought these would make good beds for our tents! That night after burger and rice meal (see photos) we went to bed....... aghhhhhhhh it was freezing! We hardley slept it was so cold, I put on jeans, two tops, hoodie and inner sleeping bag but still was too cold!

The next morning after very little sleep it was boiling in our tent, as Lee says "our igloo turned into our sauna". We had a stroll around the bay but there really wasnt much else to see here. We bought a few more supplies for dinner and I bought some pink fluffy socks (hoping this would make all the difference!) After another afternoon by the pool we even got in the freezing pool then later had a BBQ steak, jacket potatoe and ravioli we then headed back to thew tent for another freezing night.... at this point I can tell you the socks didnt make that much of a difference!

Our next morning was another early one, up at 7am ready to pck the tent away and deflate our lilos ready for a 8am bus to the greyhound, and a 9.25am bus to Port Macquarie. The walk to the bus stop was hard, our backpacks our now really full and really heavy, and poor Lee has to carry the tent on his backpack as well. After five hours (a stop for 40minutes) we made it to Port Mac. We headed towards the 'Sunndowner Breackwall Resort' it was about a 30minute walk with all our bags, again very heavy, we set up camp next to the beach and took a stroll to find some food. We found a little Italian resurant witha 8$ meal deal, folded pizza and a drink! It was really tasty! We headed back to the resort and had a lay by the pool until the sun came down. We had showers and realised how cold it had already started to get to headed to the guest lounge, which is just a room with a sofa and tv, but it was warm! When we were in the lounge I got chatting to an old man, he said he had a spare blanket we could use for the three nights, I was a very happy lady! So that night we had a blanket :)

Our next day started with a really long walk to the beach.... 45seconds! We took our beds (lilos) to the beach and led out all morning, this is when we decided to take random jumping pictures (look in Oz album), we also used our new suncream a massive tub! Our lunch that day was hotdogs from a tin :) can't beat it! Then spent the afternoon by the pool this was to get all the sand off our lilos! Followed by a nice warm sleep under the blanket :)

Our final day in Port Macquarie consisted of rain and clouds :( not the best start to a day. So we decided to be productive and go and get some clothes wash and do our laundry. That afternoon we strolled to the Koala Hospital, we looked around and saw around 8 injured Koala's, we also read many stories about the Koalas and how they had been injured in the bush fires. We headed back and chilled by the pool.... tonight was our last night with the blanket, although it was very cold that night!

We woke up and checked out by 10am. our plan was to eat and walk to the bus, but oh noooo we didnt get to stick to the plan. Lee was packing the bag up and stood up he caught his back on the side of a sharpe shelf, he was in sooo much pain that he kicked the wall four times!!!! After the shock of it all he realised he had actually hurt his toe really bad and we think it is broken! opps! Change of plan instead of camping we are going to a hostel for two nights so lee can put his foot up and not have to get in and out of a tent.....(I am extremely happy as I get a bed for two nights and not the lilo )

Next update we will let you know about Coffs Harbour (seeing Ruth), Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise and Brisbane!

Take Care All,

Love Zoe and Lee x