We can't believe that we have been in Australia two weeks already and we are now leaving Sydney to continue our journey up the coast. Sydney has been a pleasure, and we have really enjoyed our time in this lovely clean city.

Our flight from Melbourne was absolutely fine and we arrived at our hostel, unfortunately we were not upgraded this time, so it was back to dorm life. Our hostel, jackaroo, is lovely and right next to the train station so everywhere is easy to reach, which was a bonus.

On our first full day in Sydney the sun was shining unlike in Melbourne with clear blue skies, and you guessed it we went straight to the beach, bondi beach. We decided to buy a weekly train ticket as it worked out cheaper, we had the option for twenty more dollars to include the bus and we opted to save the pennies. The guy at reception told us from the train stop, bondi junction it is about a ten fifteen minute walk to bondi, we thought the walk would do us good. Well it was a big regret, it was in fact at least a half hour walk one way and on the way back it was all uphill, after four days on bondi the walk was literally the Bain of our lives!

When we finally reached the beach, after spotting a westfields, and loved it immediately, although it was busy. It was a great view, and huge, you could sit either on the grass or on the sand. Lee immediately spotted the size of the waves and loved watching all the surfers, they were very experienced, and made it look so easy. We still had one more sun cream left, that I bought from home (we haven't needed it for a while), as we applied it, we soon realised it had glitter in, trust me! We are both too tight to throw it away so we have been walking around covered in glitter that doesn't even come off in the shower!!!!

We noticed a big crowd in the middle of the beach, so we both went to have a look, only to find out modern family were filming and had hired an area of the beach. From that moment I had lost lee for the day, he was waiting for Gloria (if you don't know who she is google her and you will soon realise why).

We even found the place where all the crew had set up base so lee hung around there for hours waiting for the stars to come out. Luckily for me we were meeting some friends we met in Thailand, Aimee and Ryan, it was lovely to catch up with them while lee was memorised watching the film set. Everyone was dying to see Gloria, some mother was pushing her little boy through trying to get him to merge in with the extras, by playing the the sand edging closer. Only until he got His finger stuck in the barrier, they tried oil, sun cream the lot the poor little boy had sheer panic written all over his face, they called the life guards and the nurses. Finally his finger came out and guess what.... They got access onto the set right next to the cast. Lee was gutted he didn't think of that!!

After hours, lee's moment came as Gloria was escorted from the beach to their base surrounded by guards, lee had the biggest smile on his face as he walked near her side and took some photos and see her in the flesh up close. He also managed to get a good picture of Phil (one of the dad's who is so funny). He was really happy! We were so happy to be back in our swimwear in the sun and already couldn't wait for more days down the beach. That night we just chilled out and cooked some tea. Lee was thrilled to find his uncle bens rice he loves, so has eaten chicken and rice most nights, just like being at home!

The next day we wanted to book our greyhound (coach that we can hop on and hop off the whole way up to cairns) and start thinking about trips, and plans for the next couple of months. We spent the majority of the day going around different tour operators, looking into different tours and finding out prices. We have now have a good idea of our itinerary, with our top attractions that we want to do, the whitsundays, Fraser Island and the Great Barrier Reef (thanks Becky for all your help! ). Lee is desperate to surf, he says it's the main thing he wants to do and get really good at it. We found out there is a surf school in between here and our next stop byron bay, which is meant to be a beautiful beach and has the best waves for beginners. Lee was adamant he wanted to go, and after a lot of persuasion I decided to also give it a go, a two day intense surf camp, which starts at 6am in the both mornings!

That evening, after cooking some food ( we have been good and cooked every night, but must admit the novelty is starting to wear off and lee is craving a pad Thai! ), we headed out with some friends to darling harbour. We really liked the harbour, it was very beautiful. Luckily there was a free firework display on, it was amazing, and much bigger than we expected, we loved it. Of course lee was snapping away and was thrilled to use the firework setting on the new toy! (Check out his snaps)

Sunday was spent chilling on the beach, topping our tans. Lee kept watching the surfers making him even more excited to try it out. We walked along the beach, to some rock pools which we climbed across. There were some amazing views, and we loved watching the waves crash up the rocks. That night we just headed to Central for a look around. The tubes here are much nicer than England and have two floors! Lee has been amazed by the amount of expensive sports cars here (you will notice by the photos,and he moans at me for taking boring pictures!) we even saw three lamborghinis, lee estimates it was nearly three millions worth and couldn't believe his eyes! He wasn't the only one snapping away! After a few days, spotting these cars soon became the norm!

After a few days topping up our tans, we both decided on Monday to explore the city, and of course visit the iconic harbour bridge and opera house, two landmarks we were dying to see! They certainly didn't disappoint, we loved walking around circular quay soaking up the sights. We wandered around the rocks, which we loved and even walked across the bridge, a 1.5 miles walk (well we almost reached the end haha). We had amazing views of the city and thoroughly enjoyed our day.

Tuesday was back to the beach, but this time it wasn't for sunbathing. We wanted to do the coastal walk, from bondi to coogee walk. We knew it wasn't going to be easy, but we defiantly underestimated the distance and the difficulty, there were some very steep hills! It was a cliff top coastal walk, with stunning views of beaches, parks, cliffs, bays and rock pools. We saw so many surfers and kept stopping to watch, lee was trying to pick up some tips. We saw many beaches, tamarama, bronte, clovelly and coogee, also Mackenzies bay, Calga reserve and Gordon's bay all absolutely stunning. The clifftop provided great lookouts! What we really loved, was some of the beaches, had public swimming pools built into the sea.

When we finally reached the finish (coogee) we stopped for a well deserved sit down. While we were struggling walking, we noticed so many Australians love keeping fit, there were so many people running, they really look after themselves! It was difficult to drag ourselves back up for the long walk back. It was 6km one way, so a 12km round trip, and it took us around 5 hours. Not forgetting our half hour trek to and from the station on top of it! It's fair to say we were absolutely shattered, we are so happy we did it, the views we will never forget and it made us fall in love with sydney even more. We are so proud we didn't cave in and get the bus, although our legs weren't!

That night lee found out from our room mate you could hire surf boards for free from our hostel. He couldn't believe he only just found that out, so that was our plan for the next day no ifs or buts! Lee was up early and excited to try surfing, he said he wanted to get some practise in before our lessons to be one step ahead. The only board available was small hard ones, these are advanced, not for beginners. Still lee was confident he could go out on his own in the massive waves and hopefully stand up a few times. He carried his board all the way on the train and the walk, so excited to hit the waves.

He hired a wet suit for two hours and spent the whole two hours in the water. He was absolutely exhausted and soon realised how difficult it was. He never managed to stand up, but we think that is down to the advanced board, hopefully he will have more luck on the beginners board! All the gear no idea springs to mind. We carried it all the way back and lee had a much needed lay down.

That evening we decided to head down to darling harbour one last time. It is the mardigras here, so we watching some drag queens perform and some street performers. It was lovely until we got caught in a massive thunderstorm and had to run back to the train! We were going to see the opera house at night lit up, but the rain soon changed that!

Our last day in sydney, and for the first day the weather was rubbish. We decided to go to the opera house, and walk through the beautiful royal botanical garden, to mrs Macquarie's point, a beautiful lookout of both the opera house and the bridge and the city skyline. It was worth the walk. Poor lee has a cold, which he has had for two days now, so we spent the rest of the day resting, as we don't want him to feel ill for surf school, especially as it is so physical and you need a lot of energy!

Our alarms are set for half five nice and early I know. Our greyhound is leaving at seven and we have an eight and a half hour trip to arrawarra, where spot x surf camp is. We will be there for two nights, hopefully by then we will be pro surfers. Lee is so excited to hit the waves, I am more apprehensive but I will give it a go. Anyway we are off to bed now, as we have an early start. Speak soon and don't worry I will make sure I get plenty of videos of lee on the waves! He hopes to be standing up by the first lesson then learning how to turn on the next one haha!

Oh and by the way you might notice there is more pictures of me than lee, that is because he barely lets me touch the camera, it is his new baby and he says I don't know the correct settings for different pictures!