HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

It's the beginning of 2014 and I have started it with a bang. I have just finished my Birthday/Xmas pressie trip to Sydney on a New Year in Sydney Contiki tour.
We spent New Year's Eve day on Bondi beach. Yes I did get a photo with some of the fab life guards. New Year's Eve was spent on a boat on Sydney harbour from 6.30pm until about 1am. A long day for sure but soooo worth it! The fireworks were fantastic, both the family ones and the main event. We took part in it as well. The boats on the harbour all had Sydney Opera house based light deco's on them that looked awesome when it was dark.

Although a fantastic, yet late night was had I made myself get up early to fit as much into the day as possible on Jan 1st 2014. I spent the morning on a 3 hour free walking your of Sydney. I highly recommend the free walking tours. They're very informative and good fun. I think I'm going to try and do the one in Melbourne when I head there in March.
The afternoon saw ice cream and a coffee and catch up with my friend Angus who I worked with in the UK around 2/3 years ago. I ends up on the North side of Sydney which meant crossing the Sydney Harbour bridge. About 1.5k each way. Had a great view of the Harbour.

I then heard back to my favourite part of Sydney, 'The Rocks'. There is such a fantastic mix of old and new there, tiny little lanes looking out over to sky scrapers. I found this tour even more interesting and enlightening than the first. You were told the history of how the area came about and what it has seen through the years.

I finished my evening by walking back up from Circular Quay to Kings Cross making a detour through Hyde Park, which was gorgeous at night.

My last day staying in Sydney saw a good lot of catching up. I met up with Emma who I used to work with at the Museum before I came over here. She was in Sydney for the New Years celebrations and then heading off up the coast to Queensland. It was really nice to see a friendly face from home. It was then late lunch with Emma number 2. I caught up quickly with Emma from my Cairns trip after she had finished her Bridge walk.

Then on to Wooloongong to spend time with the Welsh in New South Wales!