G'day Folks!!!! Sorry we have been a bit late in updating the blog...no excuses we have been lazy (by lazy I mean we have been busy seeing the sights to even think about the blog.... you get what i mean!!!)

Anyways....

So we left the gorgeous New Zealand behind and are now downunder so they say. We have been in Sydney for 2 weeks and in that time we have done quite a lot! We got the boring bits out of the way, like sorting out tax file numbers and an Oz bank account (our first joint account!) which means we can look for work! Although Sydney reminds us of London quite a bit and so we have decided to wait until we work as its quite expensive.

So what have we done?

The Opera House....well it has been one of the sights Andrew has always wanted to see and it didn't disappoint!!! It was fantastic and we have taken photos from every angle we could!!! We decided to do a backstage pass tour (a little extravagant for our budget but it included a big fry breakfast so we made allowences!) The tour was for only 8 people and it took us everywhere in the Opera house. We stood on all the stages and in the conductors position holding the baton! Emma even sang on the main stage, which was amazing! Andrew didn't sing, however he did video Emma though!!!! It is a sure trip highlight!

We have seen a few beaches Sydney has to offer and Bondi was our favourite...however we did have a classic bondi experience! We both got a little red...needing a lot of aftersun! And Andrew got stung by a jellyfish. The life guards had a joke with Andrew saying well that could kill you! Andrew wasn't amused! It really hurt!!!!!! well for... 20 mins at least.

The hostel we have stayed at was called the Palms. It was fairly cheap and was quite small which was good as it enabled us to meet some nice people.... one of which we have kept in contact with, Tamara! She is Belgian and a really good laugh. She was with us and a few other people from the hostel when we took a trip to the Blue Mountains!!! The Blue Mountains are a breathtaking sight. They are about an hour outside of Sydney and Dan (the hostel manager) took us for a day trip to see them. We had a walk down to the bottom of them and then took a really steep cable railcart to get back up! We also visited a magnificent waterfall but had to climb thousands of steps and felt the burn for the next few days. We had planned to do a daytrip on our own which would have cost about $80, this way it cost us $5 towards petrol...well worth it!!!!

Australia Day!!!!! This happened while we were here and it was a really big celebration. We witnessed the biggest firework display we have ever seen! But before that all around the City things were happening, live music, street performers, nice food etc The bottleman was one of our favourites, he played well known tunes using bottles as a drum kit!!!

Emma has bought a Digeridoo!!! It is amazing, it has a really nice design on it and we actually can get a tune out of it! Emma simply fell in love with this didge and we are both looking forward to seeing it again when we get home...we had it shipped home rather than carry it around for the next 5 months (we don't love it that much haha!!)

We tried Sushi!!! Now this was a big thing as we all know it is nearlly impossible to get Andrew to try anything ... but i think this trip has certainly helped a lot! We had "seaweed" as we call it and to be honest it was ok...we have since had it a lot more and with time really started to enjoy it! The first bite though, we wished we had the camera!

We have walked for what seems miles to really see lots of Sydney. We went on a ferry ride, we went up the observation tower (with Amy from bridlington - who just happened to be in the City!) we have had a mixture of weather, but on the whole have really enjoyed our start in the Oz leg of our trip!

Onward to Melbourne....