New Year in Sydney/ Gold Coast and Brisbane/ Cairns

Hello and Happy New Year from wet and soggy Cairns! Usually I take great pleasure in telling you all how amazing the weathers been but it can't be said for here, it is wet season though so I suppose it should be expected. There is a cyclone off the coast at the moment and that's where all the rain is coming from...and boy is there a lot of it! The weather hasn't been all bad though, it was beautiful while I was in Sydney and still quite nice on the Gold Coast so can't really complain!

New Years in Sydney was AMAZING! I got to Sydney on the 28th and headed out to meet my friends from back home, Sarah and Laura, straight away. It was great catching up with them. Liz Balston arrived the next day so it was great to see her too and have another Turriff Teachers reunion! I'm afraid there wasn't much sightseeing done so apologies for the lack of pictures but we were too busy having fun! I'll be back in Sydney to fly out of there at the end of Feb so will cram it all in then. Saw plenty of the city though and it was really pretty and had a great atmosphere.

On New Years Eve we got up really early to queue for entry to the Botanic gardens, where the best view of the Fireworks is. The queue was HUGE, even by the time we got there at 9am. It was a really hot day but thankfully we managed to avoid being burnt. We had to queue for 4 hours just to get in but it was worth it. We spent the day having a laugh and a few drinks, we met some great people while we were in the queue. At 9pm they set off the family fireworks...spectacular and made us even more excited about the midnight ones! When it finally came round to midnight (although it didn't seem as if we'd been there since 9am, having too much fun!) it was worth all the waiting. The fireworks were amazing, the best I've seen! It's something I've always wanted to see so it felt really special to finally be there and even better that I was in such good company with the girls. What made it even better was some other random Scottish people we happened to be standing next to for the Fireworks...one of who (wearing a kilt!) burst into "Flower of Scotland"....so good! After all that we were really tired so it wasn't a late night.

The next day we had a nice long lie and then headed out for a nice New years Day meal at the Australia Hotel. We then had a few drinks in bars in the Rocks area. The first one was really nice, we sat on the balcony overlooking the Opera House. Was such a hot day on New Years Day!

On the 3rd of January Laura and I went to Newport to go to one of my uni friend's weddings. She met an Australian guy while travelling last year and is now married to him (don't worry I won't be coming home with any rings on my fingers!). The wedding was beautiful...complete with bagpipes, brought a tear to our eye so far from home! Kate did well to get the groom and all the groomsmen in kilts! After the reception we went back into Sydney to meet up with Graeme, my friend from uni who Gayle and I met up with a couple of times in NZ.

The last few days in Sydney were pretty relaxing, went to an outdoor swimming pool one day and on the last day went to Manly Beach for some hardcore sunbathing. We had a nice meal out in Manly since it was going to be my last night. Flew out of Sydney on Tuesday and was pretty gutted to do so...the girls and I just had so much fun!

My next stop was Gold Coast, back to visit my friend Matt...I flew in and out of Brisbane this time (in the picture) and although I didnt spend much time there it looked great so I'm looking forward to going back to visit. The next day we had a barbeque by the water so that was good fun, and had a night in with a few of Matt's mates. Just relaxed the rest of the time...went to see The Curious Case of benjamin Button...go and see it if you haven't seen it already, it's amazing! On my last night we went up the Q1 in Surfers Paradise, 20th highest building in the world. The Gold Coast is lined with skyscrapers right next to the beach so it was beautiful seeing all the lights at night right next to the ocean.

On Saturday, I flew up to Cairns where I am now (getting soaked!)...havent done much yet but mainly because of weather! Had a night out last night and then today tried to start organising my trip down the east coast. I'm excited now!! Looks like its going to be a lot of fun. I have a few more days in Cairns, hoping that the weather will get better so I can have a snorkelling trip on the Great Barrier Reef.

Will keep you updated soon!

Rach