Sydney 23 December -3rd January

23rd December - Took a flight from Melbourne to Sydney to arrive around 3pm. The hostel i'm stayng in is called Wake Up! and located next to the central bus station and around 500m from Central Staion. Brilliant central location, about 10 minutes from Darling Harbour and 20/30 from Cirular Quay. It's a very large hostel but clean, good facilities and great to be staying with people i know. I'm staying with another 9 people who i did my first week with so it's nice to see a few friendly faces around the place. It's often harder to meet people in such big hostels whereas in smaller ones you seem to get to know everyone.

24th December - Christmas Eve - Spent the day wandering around Sydney trying to get my barings, seem to get very lost in the centre, even with a map. Sydney is definitely much more like London and i miss Melbourne already. Melbourne seems a lot more European but a lot more laid back too. In the evening we all went down to Darling Harbour to meet the boat for out Christmas Eve Cruise. A huge poah, glass bottomed boat which took us around the harbour, under the bridge and past the opera house. The cruise lasted around 3 hours which meant we could watch Sydney fall into darkness and see the city sights lit up which is so beutiful, especially around the harbours. The night ended at a backpackers bar we've all seen too much of, The Gaff.

25th December - Christmas Day! After been told it was going to rain, i was pleasently surprised, although a little disapointed to see it was fine, but overcast in the city. However, around 11am i headed down to Coogee beach with 6 others and found nothing but blue skies and scorching sun. We set up camp on the grass banks above the beach and made ourselves a untraditional christmas lunch of sausages and burgers. A very surreal experiece surounded by people in beachwear and matching christmas hats! The day was lovely and i had a brilliant time just chilling out, soaking up the sun and drinking with friends. A brilliant atmosphere and not overcrowed. Because the weather is so warm we were comfortably able to stay on the beach until around 10pm when we headed back into the city.

26th December - Boxing Day - Everyone i'm staying with got glammed up int heir best and headed over to Randwick racecourse. Randwick is about 15 minutes on the bus out of town and the village up from Coogee. The races were free for internationals so we had a little flutter on the horses and i'm happy to say i managed to win $60! I've never been to the races before so an experience in itself but nice to feel a little more glamourous than my tradional backpacking style! The day consisted of around 9 races with plently of time between for sparkling wine and betting.

27th/28th - Spent most of the time at Coogee, a place now very close to my heart and somewhere that instantely feels like home. The city is far too big for me and i constantely feel lost. There;s pleanty to keep a tourist entertained and i've spent time around the various art galleries and a few museums. Hyde Park is a great place for a picnic and the botanical gardens a much needed escape from the city caoas but coogee is homely and the southern sydney coast stretches for miles in both directions. The coastal walk to bondi is only about an hours walk.

29th - Grandpa's friends Jeff and Shirely took me out for the day along the North Coast of Sydney. We beagn at Manly, a short ferry ride from the city, but a short drive from their home north of Sydney in Chatswood. We stopped at a lookout at the northhead of Manley which looked back over the city. The day was beginning to cloud over so the view wasn't that clear but nice to be looking back over the city all the same. We headed north stopping off at several of the beaches along the coast. (need to find my map to get the names!) It was so lovely to be out of the city and seeing a different side to Sydney. We travelled past the waters edge of (need map) which was lined with housed built on the cliff edge. Incredible how big the houses were, on stilts to support them but with beauitiful views ovetr the water. We made it up to the furthest northernly point of Palm Beach (where home and away if filmed, though it looked nothing like it!). The sand begins to change colour as you move further north to a redder, darker colour. After a day of beach spotting and beautiful coastal lookouts i was treated to a lovely home cooked meal by Shirely with pudding included!

New Years Eve - After scouting for spots the previous day me and some of the girls i'd met on the great ocean road decided to watch the fireworks at a spot called Mrs Macquarie's Point in the Domain next to the botantical gardens. An early start of 5am meant we were sat in line at 6am behind around 150 other people, most of whom had camped out the night before! With the gates not opening until 10am we had an uncomofrtable 4 hour wait as the sun was rising and getting hotter by the hour. At 10am the gates opened in a complete unorganised mess with people pushing to try and get in the gate ahead of you. We squeezed ourselves infront and through the gate to find we had to race everyone 10 minutes down the road! Completely mad with film crews filming us waddling as fast as we could, picnics in hand. We finally made it there and camped out under a tree with a brilliant spot. We were just behind a group of people looking out across the water with a clear view of the opera house, bridge and the numerous boats parked up. We ended up being sat next to a large group of germans and another of brits which we got chatting to, played cards with and shared a few drinks. The atmostpehere was buzzing and the excitment was completely infectious. The sun began to set behind the opera house and soon it was time for the first set of fireowkrs at 9pm. Supposedly these are for families with small children. We couldn't bleive these were only the small fireworks! The bridge stayed unlit but nevertheless the fireworks were huge. Everyone was on such as high after this and the day really did seem to go quickly. 10 seconds to middnight and the whole of circular quay, darling darbour and surrounding areas were counting down together before a big explosion of light eurrupted from the bridge to mark the start of the new year in Sydney. The fireworks were really breathtaking, the best i have seen and hard to describe. They must have lasted at least 10/15 minutes going off in all directions and illuminating the bridge and surroudning boats. It was definitely one of the highlights of my trip so far.

New Years day - 35 degrees!