Hey up!

Greetings from the Blue Mountains! Since we left you in melbourne we've been keeping ourselves pretty busy and our moods have definately improved....along with our tans!

Sooooo, fromm St Kilda we took a day trip to Phillip Island - bit of a hike away but so very worth it. After spending the day getting cosy with the local wildlife (kangaroos, Koalas, Dingos, Wombats and Emus) we got to the island coast and sat there amoungst a 1500 strong audience on the beach for sunset. After freezing our buttocks off for what seemed like ages, one lonely little penguin (fairy pengiuns apparentely) came waddling out the sea, seemingly undaunted by the crowd of people waiting for it on the sand. It just waddled on past us into the reeds- was so cute! After the first penguin, many more followed for the next hour or so. No photos to show you tho as photography wasn't allowed... After we made our way off the beach we were able to get much closer to the penguins as they huddled in little burrows..awwww.

The following evening we left St Kilda headed to the coach station for our overnight coach to Sydney....like most of our transport on this holiday it was pretty awful! Hannah didn't sleep a wink of the 12 hour journey but I took a sleeping tablet and was completely knocked out for most of the journey - mwahahaha. Arrived to brilliant sunshine at 7.30 easter morning in Sydney but completely knackered. Luckily managed to leave our backpacks in the hostel (in the middlle of Chinatown) for the day and headed to the harbour .....not before stopping at the supermarket for our easter eggs of course!!

After checking in, showering (woop woop!!) and getting something to eat - we met up with our new zealand friend Caroline!

Next day we had decided to be proper tourists and do the whole Opera House, Harbour cruise excitement...and we couldn't have asked for better weather. After meeting up with Caroline, who was staying with a friend just north of the harbour, we had a tea/caffeine-fix by a harbour cafe and then jumped aboard one of the harbour cruises. Later on we decided to hit sydney nightlilfe so after meeting up with Caroline on the train, we headed out to Kings Cross........Sydney's Red Light District. Classy.

Didn't plan our night terribly well tho, as being easter monday much of the clubs listed in our lonely planet guides were closed...which led us to finding ourselves unwittingly in one of Sydney's most popular nightclubs.....for gays that is.

Nursing rather large hangovers we still managed to get to Sydney Fish market for a seafood lunch. Caroline was boring with fish n' chips, Han went for Stuffed King prawns and I went all out for a bbq Octopus (maybe not the best hangover cure) - we then chilled in the Chinese Gardens for the rest of the day and caught an early night for our surfing lesson the next day!!

I can honestly say i'm hooked. Surfing was such a buzz and once again we had become lucky with the weather. Don't be under the false impression tho that i'm any good. In Fact i was crap, but i'm up for another lesson.....Hannah on the otherhand loathed every second of it - but thoroughly enjoyed catching the rays (and watching/perving on the surfers) from the safety of the sand.

Which leads us to how we ended up in the blue mountains - after initially planning to get to byron bay for friday it turns out you can't quite take the Australian 'easy-going' lifestyle to quite this extent. We found that the entire town was booked out till tuesday! Not wishing to spend the rest of our budgets in expensive hostels in sydney we headed out to the serenity (and cheapness) of the blue mountains - off to hike (yes hike) around the 'three sisters' this afternoon - but we're going back to Bondi Beach tomorrow for some sun (for hannah) and some surf (for me)!

We'll post up some more photos soon!

Much love

Rhi and Han x x