Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!!

Apologies for not updating this sooner but we've travelled rapidly down the east coast and have had very little time, and also the internet over here is really poor! Worse than South East Asia would you believe! We have just found a flat in Sydney and are now searching for jobs. Will tell you about our flat in the next blog, which I am currently writing up by hand!

Before we fill you in on our adventures down the east coast, we will tell you a bit about our Christmas! The day we got here we found a supermarket, bizarrely called 'Woolworths' but not the same as at home, and brought the food for our festive meal. We wanted to buy a turkey for the big day, but we couldn't decide which to get until, much like the angel Gabriel talking to Mary, the tannoy in the supermarket announced to us that only 2 big frozen ones were left and were greatly reduced! Jonny ran off in an excited hurry to 'catch' one of the bargain turkeys - we got one weighing 5kg for 9 pounds!! Amazing! Having arrived in Sydney on the 23rd, we spent the entire of Christmas Eve shopping for presents for eachother! The centre of the city was so busy with people searching for the last minute buys much like us! After pigging out in the much festive pizza hut, we headed to Darling Harbour to see if we could catch a glimpse of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge but alas we didn't as they were further around the corner! Unbeknown to us there was a firework display that evening which we watched from the Harbour that was very impressive, which made Christmas Eve special! We got back to our guesthouse and spent about 2 hours wrapping up presents! Then as we went to bed, I wondered...Does Father Christmas know that I'm Australia and where to put my presents?

On Christmas Day, we exchanged presents. Jonny got me some J'adore perfume which I really wanted so now I don't feel like a grubby backpacker anymore! I got Jonny a dive as he has taken to diving so excitedly. I also set him up with a small poker account .. lets hope he doesn't lose all our money on that! We put our huge turkey, which Jonny decided to name Macca, in the oven and prayed it would cook! We headed out to Bondi Beach, but remarkably it was raining! The beach was busy with people nonetheless and we braved the freezing cold to go in the sea! It was so cold but the waves were so big and choppy that it was so much fun! After we came out, we got interviewed by Bondi Rescue, a TV programme which is aired at home, so watch out for us if we make the cut!!! We returned to find 'Macca' cooking well and started to prepare the rest of the food. We had a delicious feast of turkey, gravy, sausages wrapped in bacon, carrots, brussel sprouts, parsnips and stuffing and not forgetting crackers! It was brilliant! We spent the evening sharing cheesecake with and chatting to the only other backpackers at our hostel which was really enjoyable. It certainly was a different kind of Chirstmas and we both missed home considerably but we enjoyed ourselves.

On boxing day, we went into the city. The sales were heaving with people - there was a huge queue stretching down the street just to get into Gucci!! I wanted to get some hair straighteners and eventually found some for a great price! It took us 40 minutes to get out of the shop it was that busy! Jonny was not amused! When we got back we began our 3 day binge of turkey sandwiches!

We spent the whole of New Years Eve queuing and waiting to get to Mrs Macquaries Point (Botanical Gardens) to find a good view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. We queued for 4 hours and by luck we managed to claim a strip of grass with a cracking view of both. We waited for ages and then an aeroplane display started which consisted of 3 planes and lasted for 5 minutes which was a bit disappointing! The fireworks at 9pm were good and from every hour onwards a firework would go off in the warm up to midnight. There was a parade of light where 50 odd boats were adorned in lights which was really cool. The fireworks from the bridge were great and in the setting overlooking the Opera House was brilliant. We had a great time but something didn't make it feel spectacular, I guess we were not wowed! Regardless, we will always remember spending new year 2010 in Sydney! The atmosphere was amazing.

Best wishes to everyone for the new year, Love Kirsty and Jonny xxx