We arrived in Sydney and found Greg and Kim's place with only one wrong turn, so not to bad. We found what we thought was the right place even though we couldn't see any building number and we rang the flat…..result Kim answered. We went in and had a nice relaxing evening catching up and eating a delicious stir fry, with second helpings mmmmmm, thanks for all the seconds Kim. We then crashed out for the night.

The following day (Saturday 10th) we had a nice lie in then got up and caught up some more with Greg as he was back from his night shift. We then caught a train into the city centre with Greg and Kim. They took us for a walk around the harbour seeing the Bridge and Opera House before we grabbed a coffee to wake us all up then got a ferry to Manly, which was fantastic as you got to see the Bridge and Opera House from the River. We arrived in Manly, which was instantly one of our favourite places, since the second we got off the ferry we were given a free yoghurt, mmmm. We then walked down the main street looking in all the souvenir shops for a fluffy kangaroo for one of our photo requests, we must have driven Greg and Kim mad taking them to all the tacky shops.

Greg and Kim finally managed to get us through the main street and to the beach. We headed down to the sea for a quick paddle, then they pointed out a blue bottle (jellyfish) on the sand, we hadn't seen one yet so it was pretty cool to see. We then had a walk along the beach and saw hundreds of them, we all ended up doing a hop skip and jump dance along the beach to avoid them all. We finally came to a sign, which said the beach was closed for the day…. Oops we then decided to walk back along the path away from the jellyfish, looking out at the sea realising that a lot of people hadn't seen the sign. We then headed back to the ferry and back to Sydney centre.

When we arrived back we decided to try and get another one of our photo requests and stood on our heads in front of Sydney Opera house. Which lead to a bad back for the next few days, cheers Dean lol. We then headed back to Greg and Kim's Flat for dinner and seconds again mmmmm. We then headed back into town in Greg and Kim's travel Van, making us very envious that we got a wagon instead of a van, although I did think I may have to give Greg a push start on a couple of occasions hee hee. We got to Darling Harbour to watch fireworks on the Bridge which were supposed to start at 9:00. It got to 10 past and we were starting to wonder if we had got the right place. Then about quarter past we saw some fireworks going off in the distance. We had a look around us and there were loads of people and we assumed everyone couldn't have got it wrong so we hung fire for a bit longer. Finally they started going off and we had a wonderful fireworks display over the harbour, which made up a bit for them not having Bonfire Night out here.

We then had a walk around Darling Harbour seeing it all lit up with Christmas Trees, streets lights with Santa masks on and other Christmas bits. We then walked round to a newly opened playground area. It was amazing, it had a water works thing with channels of water which you could block off with dams and change the directions with doors and increase flow with buttons. It also had a massive spider like climbing frame which we had a play on, which reminded me of when I was a kid, but this one was double the size of the one I used to play on. They also had a zip line but there was a queue of kids, we did consider going up to tell them it was past there bed time and it was time for the grown ups to play but decided not to in the end. We then headed back to the Crows Nest area (where the flat was) to have a drink in a local bar before headed back to the flat and calling it a day.

The following day (Sunday 11th) we arose after another lie in got ready then headed to the local town as Greg and Kim needed to pick up some bits. They came back with Herpes….. look at the Sydney pictures to see a photo of it. We then headed out to the zoo. We parked up and headed in making Greg and Kim jealous as we got YHA discount rates. There was a sign saying they had Tiger cubs on show until 1:00 and since it was already 12:00 we decided to head straight there, we queued for a bit then got shown into a viewing room and saw 2 of the 3 tiger cubes. We then got rushed out so they could let more people in and told they would be on show all day…. typical we could have looked round the other animals first. We then had a walk around seeing all the animals; Giraffes, Gibbons, Sea Lions, Tortoises, etc, etc. We then headed to a seal show just as it started raining. They opened the door and we asked if it was still on and they replied; "For some reason they make us work no matter what the weather, sun, rain, snow, thunder, so yes its still on". We got shown in and picked a spot with a little bit of cover. After a few minutes I notice that we were all sitting on metal seats and there was lightning and thunder over head…. I started to think maybe this wasn't the best idea….. then the staff came and started evacuating everyone saying the zoo had had some direct hits. We quickly got away from the metal areas and then decided to head back to the van to get our picnic. After huming and harring for a while we decide to eat it in the van instead off on the grass in the pouring rain. After filling our stomachs we headed back in via the coffee shop to see some more animals including; Elephants, Snakes, Spiders Kangaroos, Wallabies, Platypus's, Kookaburra's, and Snappy the Crocodile. We then did the sky train across the zoo and got to see some nice sights of Sydney Harbour. We then headed back to the flat, to have dinner, with seconds again mmmmmm.

On Monday 12th unfortunately Greg and Kim had to work (I remember doing that once upon a time) so we headed out on our own, to find the station and head into the city centre. We then met up with Quin and Emma just as our umbrella broke, which wasn't too good when it was raining. We had a walk around the Rocks for a bit catching up. We then walked past the oldest pub in Sydney and thought it would be rude not to nip in for a beer. So we sat and chatted over a schooner. We then headed to the Sydney Opera house and went in to the entrance hall for a nosy. We then headed for a walk around the Botanical Gardens and saw a couple of flying foxes. We then headed back to the city area to see a couple more pubs and to chat some more. It was really great managing to catch up with Quin and Emma, just a shame the weather was a bit poor and we couldn't make the Blue Mountains.

We then headed back to Greg and Kim's and headed out for an all you can eat Indian, which was delicious. After stuffing ourselves stupid we headed back to the flat and crashed out. Thank you again Greg and Kim for having us, and for all the seconds, we had a wonderful time.