One of the best things about travelling is the people you meet along the way. We've made friends with people in their 40s, 30s, 20s and our own age, although I'm still the youngest person out here travelling that we've come across! Everyone's got the same thing in common. We're backpackers. It's great how everyone gets along. We've met people of 24 different nationalities on our travels, and the people we have become better friends with have been from other countries. The only slightly bad(and really, only slightly because the trip was amazing) thing about the kiwi experience bus was that there were often too many English people on it! It's always interesting meeting other nationalities. It is a real eye opener hearing everyone's stories and learning about different countries.

Our week started with a visit to the Sydney aquarium, which is regarded as one of the best in the world. The aquarium is right on the harbour with some of the tanks under the sea. There was such a variety of fish there including the largest great barrier reef collection, something to wet the appetite before the real thing! We also managed to see penguins, a crocodile and plenty of sharks. The shark tank was the most impressive because you can walk around the tank in underwater tunnels, where the sharks swim over your head and on both sides. That tank contained a couple of large turtles and some manta rays and stingrays as well. The aquarium was also home to two Dugongs, the only captive ones in Australia. These are awesome animals, apparently sometimes mistaken for mermaids....somehow. Chris attempted to take a picture of most of the characters from Finding Nemo. The fish tried their best not to give him good photo opportunities, but we got a fair few. I'm sorry to disappoint you all as well, but there is no P. Sherman living at 42 Wallaby Way in Sydney. There isn't even a wallaby way. We checked.
Next day, after missing out on the one in Melbourne, I left Chris to his own thing and went on the Sydney Cricket Ground tour. As you can guess, quite a big thing for me, and I wasn't let down. The SCG is one of the most famous grounds in the world and is an awesome sight just walking towards it, not least because of the history attached to it. The tour I was on only had four people on it, me, 2 Irish guys and an Indian, so we were able to be quite interactive with the guide. We were shown around the impressively advanced indoor training facilities first, then moved on to the actual ground. The guide took us into the players area and the home dressing room, before leading us down the steps the players would walk down when going out to bat, which was pretty special for me. We walked right round the pitch, which was being dug up and re-turfed for the Aussie Rules fixtures to be played at the ground. Not a pretty sight for me. Tampering with the holy grass. The tour also involved going to the football/rugby ground located right next to the SCG. Walking down the tunnel didn't have quite the same effect on me as the cricket ground did, but it was still really cool to walk out the tunnel onto the pitch and see the glory of the stadium.
The next day(busy week!), we were off out bright and early to go see one of Australia's natural wonders, the Blue Mountains. This was probably our best day in Australia so far. Its hard to describe how amazing these are. It is classed as a mountainous region, but they aren't actually mountains, they are pieces of rock that have gradually eroded away from each other forming large gorges up to 760 metres deep(that'll do, I'm no geographic expert!). We took part in a good 3 hour hike in the morning, where we walked up, down and around the valleys and "mountains". We walked past many beautiful waterfalls and the scenery was just stunning whenever you looked through a gap in the trees. We ended up at the 'Three Sisters' lookout in the afternoon. The 'Three Sisters' are a famous rock formation, three towering rocks over a valley below, and are the biggest attraction of the Blue Mountains. That day, as you all know, was also St. Patrick's day. You wouldn't have believed how many Irish people there were here in Australia! They came flooding out for the evening celebrations, and even the opera house was green for the night. We went out with some Italians staying in the same room as us, and found an Irish bar not too far away. It was a really good night joining in the celebrations.
Leaving Sydney today, got a lovely 12 hour bus journey up to Byron Bay where we'll be for a couple of nights.