Waking up very early on my last day in New Zealand I was so excited, Uncle Gideon dropped me off at the airport in plenty of time, gave me a chance to browse around the shops. 14th October 2009 I arrived in Australia, the fight went well and once again didn't get bagged searched or held back, so far so good (
I then had a little trouble getting out of the airport the shuttle that was meant to be there for me was no where to be seen, so it ended up being an expensive taxi ride to Coogee, I had been told to stay in Bondi beach or Coogee beach if I were staying in Sydney, A friend I met in New Zealand was staying in Coogee beach so I thought I may as well go there as its always nice to see a friendly face. It's been 3 weeks since I arrived and so far I have been sight seeing in the city, seen the famous opera house and Sydney Bridge. I went on a boat cruse at night around the harbour and have been spending a lot of time on the beach! As the weather has been so hot and sunny, just need to get a tan now ha-ha! I hope to get a job here and stay until end of March then head up the east coast with my new friend Nikki, Claire and hopefully Nicola if she can sort her visa out. We hope to get a cheap camper van but were see how it goes, as busses might be cheaper n easier. No luck on the job front but I am still looking so fingers crossed.
January 11th 2010
I now have a job in a juice bar called Melon Head, I work 5 days a week and without a doubt every weekend, I get $12 hour cash in hand. It's an easy job making smoothy's, juices and serving salad, its great as I get free food which makes up for the bad pay. It's a small busyness but gets very busy, reminds me of ferg burger! But as it's so near the beach business depends on the weather. I moved out the wizard of OZ back packers and got a flat 2 mins from the beach and 3 mins from work. I live with Nikki, Claire and Shauna from the wizard, Nicola who I worked with in Ferg burger and Kevin joined us after who I also met in NZ. It's only a two bedroom place with a lounge, kitchen and bathroom but rent is so so cheap! So everything went to plan once again with settling down in Coogee, Sydney (
Christmas in Coogee, my first Christmas with no family around. I Cooked dinner for 8 people on a 3 hob and small oven, there was chicken, roast potatoes, carrots, onion and pumpkin, cheesy leeks. Unfortunately the weather wasn't as hot and sunny has it had been 3 days prior, but we set the table up outside and luckily the rain kept away. Not everyone could quite finish their food and Nikki being Nikki initiated a food fight, but it was defiantly worth it! After tiding up the mess we created, we went to meet up with everyone down at the beach and had a dunk in the freezing sea. The plan was to stay down the beach al day but the rain sent us away so a snuggled up DVD was watched instead. Upstairs was having a party and as we couldn't hear the TV we took their invite and went up to see a crazy neighbour trashing his flat up. Didn't spend much time up there for our safety. Plus the following day I had work early.
New Years in Sydney, luckily enough I wasn't working New Year's day. Ross, Nic, Me and Shauna found the best location, first idea was to go to a bay near the Sydney Bridge, but that morning Ross had found a map of what bays to go to. So a quick change and we headed to 'looks ave bay' we took two hectic busses through the city over to balmore but got a bit lost - for the best as we ended up at 'Mort bay' which had the best view of the Sydney bridge. We set up camp at 2pm so we had the best views. Claire, Kev and Kelly joined us later with sparklers and party poppers. We watched the 9 o'clock show for the children then stayed for the 12 o'clock show. Which was so worth it!!???? There weren't only fireworks on the bridge but darling harbour which is on the next harbour along from circular key and fireworks behind us. After that the bus drive home took about 3 hours and they were packet solid but we had a giggle with people walking past giving us a show. The next day I had work early but the busy day at work didn't go through as planned as the weather was bad, so I got sent home early and got free tickets to Space an outside rave at Moore Park in Randwick
Had a great time for my first rave, there was 2 stages with similar music and I danced all night.

Mum and Dad's visit to Australia
Sunday 17th January - I had to go to work early this morning but it was ok as mum and dad didn't arrive until 5.05pm. So I finished work and went home to pack my bag for my two nights in Sydney city centre. I caught the train to the city centre then the train to the airport, I had plenty of time so I hoped that they would hurry through, but of course they took just under an hour to get out. I wasn't sure what to do apart from give them hugeeeeee hugs! Mum and I had a few happy tears. Dad was a tough cookie and held them back. We then took a taxi to the travel lodge in the city, after changing rooms as dad wasn't too happy with the view of a grey wall, mum handed me presents it was Christmas all over again! Jason and Clare had bought me a beautiful tiffany necklace in a shape of a key with a diamond in it, for my Christmas and 21st birthday. That night we went for a walk for dinner, couldn't really find anything so went to the pub called cheers. Had an early night that evening ready for the sightseeing day tomorrow.
Monday 18th January
Woke up very early, dad was just too excited and couldn't sleep. We headed out to which we thought was the right direction to circular key but after a few streets away we realised we were in fact going the wrong way, a very nice local could see our confusion and set us in the right direction. A short walk to the harbour and the pictures began in front of the famous Sydney Bridge. We had a wonder around the Opera house then took a ferry ride across the harbour over to Manly beach. There we took a walk around the beach, seeing lizards and fun decorated rocks. We had a lay down on the smaller more concluded beach. Around lunch time we strolled back to look for a good fish restaurant and that we did! Dad has a mixed grill of fish with chips and salad, mum had a fish salad and I had calamari, chips and salad. Down the road there was a 'Ben and Jerry's ice-cream bar so for desert we had that. Of course dad managed to spill it down his top. After we strolled back to the ferry and took a very breezy boat trip back to the circular key. Had a coffee in star bucks and walked back up to the lodge, I fell straight asleep at around 7pm and managed to sleep through till 7am.
Tuesday 19th January
Had one last stroll around Sydney centre and managed to catch Jason on msn then went to the botanical gardens to take the red train tour around the gardens (managed to get it cheap as Nic my flat mate works for them) that was only short but nice to go on. Then we bussed over to Coogee my new home beach, there we dropped off the bags at the Dive hotel and took a stroll around coogee, showed mum and dad my palace - NOT! And then went to sit on the beach steps to await for hotel room to come free, at around 2 we went back and got changed in to swim suits and went across the road back to the beach, there dad experienced his first dip in Australian waters, that evening I took mum and dad out for dinner to a eatery in coogee called 'Thai me up' where I had a very spicy curry, mum a stir fry, and dad Thai chicken a very pleasant meal. After we took a stroll around coogee coast in the south direction not a long walk as it got a bit dark down the path. So we went home instead for an early night as the walk tomorrow was a long one!
Wednesday 20th January
This morning I headed over to the give to meet mum and dad around 10am to go on the walk from Coogee to Bondi beach along the coast. Unfortunately it was quite the hot day so I knew mum wasn't really looking forward to it, but we carried on. The walk was meant to take 45 minutes but it did take around 2 hours walk but we were stopping a lot to see the surfers and the unusual huge waves. The waves were so big they were covering most of the beaches, so most of them you weren't allowed in the water as it were too dangerous. We went to see some crazy surfers on bondi beach though. On bondi beach we got a drink to cool us down then headed straight on the bus too town via bondi junction. In the city we went to paddy's market next to china town, so there were millions of Asians. Unfortunately we were very disappointed with it and bought only a key ring for Jason. After a quick bit to eat we went back to coogee. Where we went shopping to buy food for dinner, as dad had kindly offered to cook for my flat mates, he cooked a lovely beef stroganoff with rice and salad oh and a veggie stroganoff for the vegetarians in the flat.
Thursday 21st January
BLUE MOUNTAINS DAY!! Getting picked up at 7am outside the hotel it was quite a long drive to the zoo we went via the oldest house in OZ it wasn't in to bad of condition actually. The feather dale wildlife zoo was great fun; there we saw all the native animals, birds and even reptiles. Kangaroos where all over the place rooming 'free' and the koalas where in open cages, when we got there as it was still quite early the koalas where still sleeping but a few were awake so we could pat and stroke them. The crocodile was awake but being shy and staying under water in his pool. The peacocks where walking around not being shy, with the sun reflecting off there beautiful coat. We got picked up in a full bus by Dave, he took us to see wild kangaroos and we were lucky enough to see 3! 2 adults and 1 baby, of course we couldn't pat and feed these ones. We then headed over to the walk in the blue mountains, it was getting very hot and the sun was shining it seemed it was going to be impossible to walk up and down all the steps, mum managed to walk to the lookout point and then headed back, so dad and I carried on walking around through the cut out rock and over the waterfall it was a fun hour walk but very HOT! The bus then drove us to a little village where we got lunch and sat under a tree to eat. 45mins later we drove over to the view point to see the 'three sisters' didn't stay for long as there was no shade and temperatures where rising! We then went down the road to scenic park there we got the scenic skyway which took us 720 across ancient valleys, you could look right down through the glass floor, then we went on the steepest railway in the world, it seemed we went through rock mum didn't like it very much as she gripped on to my leg for dear life! When at the bottom we walked through the forest and then sat down to wait for the scenic cable way to get back up to the top. It had been a long day but there was one more stop till home time but it was only to a park to get shown how to throw a boomerang. It was then a 2 hour drive home, we did try and get on the ferry to the circular key but we had missed the ferry and it would have been a 40 min wait and in that time we would have been in the city buy bus. That night when returning to coogee I went home and ended up going out that night for my friends last nights drinks, I'm not too sure how I made it out so long after that intense day.
Friday 22nd January
Today we deserved a lazy lye in day so we went and caught the bus to Maroubra beach, it's the next beach south from coogee, its a lot bigger and more of a surfers beach as the waves get bigger there, after catching some rays we caught the 4 o'clock bus back hurried a shower then got on the bus to go to circular key to then walk through the botanical gardens to watch a play the wind and the willows, it was very clever how they involved the pond in the play and costumes and make up was very good. Half way through we had to get up and go across to toads castle we sat on a hill this time so it was a lot easier to see, they got the kids to leave to find toad and rabbit and weasel made the play for adults very funny! After we just went home as not a lot else to do.
Saturday 23rd January
I had to work today but I didn't mind to much as temperatures where the hottest Oz have had in the 4 years, mum and dad managed to leave the hotel room once to go to the shop to buy salad for dinner, I saw them pop their heads in to melon head but it was too busy to stop and chat. After work I went up to get a chicken for the rest of dinner and stayed in the hotel all evening as it started to thunderstorm at 5.30ish.
Sunday 24th January
Shopping day today! I got up and went over to mum and dad's for breakfast and then we went and wait for an hour to get a bus to Bondi Junction, there is a massive Westfield which was great as weather was to pleasant still. I managed to get all my presents and rest of my Christmas present from mum and dad. We a snack of sushi - my favourite! Then got the bus home (this time we checked what time the bus left so we weren't waiting for hours) when we got home we had a cup of tea then went out for dinner, after humming n arring we finally decided on a curry, after we took a stroll around the beach.
Monday 25th January
Mum and dad's last day ( we took it very easy and only went to coogee beach, the weather wasn't that sunny but it was still warm and the sun came out eventually! Dad and I went for a swim, and then a lie down then one last time in the sea. When the sun went in at 5ish we went back for a shower to get ready for the Brazilian dinner, we booked it last night as there always busy, I had gone there for my Christmas work party. Not looking forward tomorrow(!!
Tuesday 26th January
Well it was a good buy to mum and dad ( at 9, they hopped on the shuttle and head off to the airport, I had work at 9.30 as it was Australian day so everyone had to work today even though the weather wasn't great. But I suppose it took my mind off saying goodbye to the parents. It was so lovely to see them; it was as if I hadn't been away from them. Apart from they were both a lot skinnier! I'm not too sure when I see them next as I'm going to being travelling for a lot longer! But hopefully they can come out to my next country and see a bit of that!