The first stop in Australia was Sydney, and a great place to start off seeing the country. After arriving and finding a hostel in the King's Cross area we started by walking to the botanical gardens near the Opera House. We had no idea how beautiful they would be and we ended up spending a few days during our weeks stay just reading and relaxing in them. The views out to the harbour were amazing, showing off both the harbour bridge and Opera House as well as all the posh boats sailing around. On the first day we walked down by the harbour there was some sort of marathon going on with people whizzing round the harbour, a fantastic place to go for a run. On the second day we explored the Opera House like true tourists and also went over the harbour bridge which was quite a trek! The views over the city were great from the bridge. We wanted to go to the very top of the bridge above the road but we didn't realise it cost $200 to do so! There were loads of pictures of celebrities who've scaled right to the very top but I bet they didn't have to pay the fee!

We didn't expect the city to be so lovely. It's such a clean place and really nice to walk round at any time of day, especially night time when it's lit up wonderfully. We also knew that we'd get a shock with the price of everything in Australia but Sydney itself softened the blow, but we certainly didn't eat out at restaurants all the time like we could in Asia! Another day we visited the aquarium which showed off lots of sealife that's native to Australia and Dan went to the zoo another day which he found pretty interesting. We also found that it wasn't very busy for such an iconic city which was refreshing and allowed us to see the better places around the city without feeling too much like a tourist! Hoping that other places on the east coast will be like Sydney, starting with Cairns which is next on the list before travelling down the coast and finishing in Melbourne.