Back to travelling then with a bang and a 10 hour overnight bus direct from Melbourne to Sydney. We arrived in Sydney at 6.00am very dazed and confused but excited to be in a new city.

As we left it far too late to get into a hostel or hotel in Sydney, due to the time of year, we are staying with Connie Scurr in Pymble, which is North of Sydney. Connie is the mother of Bron, who is one of Caroline's good friends from Melbourne (are you still with us!) They have very kindly let us have a tent in the back garden, considering they already have a house full for the festive period (5 adults and 8 children!!)

Our first day in Sydney (Friday) we went with the family to Olympic Park to the swimming and fun pool there and spent the afternoon going down water slides, zipping around whirl pools, lazing in jacuzzis and generally having a laugh messing around in the water! The day was finished off with a good old aussie barbie and flying fox (bats) watching, they are so huge, much scarier looking than the tiny little bats we get back at home, they look like proper blood suckers out here!

Saturday we did the touristy things and headed into the city centre, it was so bizarre seeing the famous sights and they really do look just like you imagine! We wandered around a very posh area called The Rocks where there was a market on selling all sorts of bits and pieces, we didn't look too close our bags are too heavy as they are! We walked right across the Harbour Bridge and went up one of the Pylons, which gave great views of the city and the harbour area and was lovely and cool in the breeze as it was a scorching hot day! It was also interesting to learn the history behind the building of the bridge, such a huge project that took years to complete!

We walked along the Cicular Quay which is the main ferry departure point and as a result it is a very hectic area. This then leads to the Sydney Opera House which you can walk right around. It is such a beautiful building completely unique in design. From Mrs Macquaries Point you get the fantastic vantage point of both the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, spectacular!

The Botanical Gardens were lovely too, we liked the fact that they encourage you to 'walk on the grass, hug the trees, smell the flowers and talk to the animals!' There were loads of possums, flying foxes in the trees flapping themselves to keep cool and cockatoos that would perch on you if you feed them a bit of bread. Andrew had one on his arm, another poor girl had three on each arm and one on her head and couldn't get them off her!

We also randomly bumped into Dan and Rich, the two lads from Sheffield who were on our flight to Brazil from the UK. This is now the fourth time in the fourth country we have completely randomly met them! Unbelievable how small the world can be!So we went for a few bevvies with them to catch up on the past few months, the last time we saw them was in Uruguay!

Sunday we caught the ferry to Manly Beach, which is a narrow peninsula on the North Shore. The ferry ride was great with beautiful views of the city and the harbour. Manly Beach itself was totally packed, you could hardly see any sand for people but it was a beautiful beach and we had a lovely few hours lazing in the sun and a walk along the coastline.

New Years Eve tomorrow, they believe there will be over a million people around the harbour watching the fireworks and we will be two of them!

Lots of Love

Sarah and Andrew xxx