Ok guys, here goes, i'm going to attempt to catch up all up on the last two months of my life in Australia which have just been absolutely amazing! This is why i've not written anything I've been really busy doing so many things up the east coast. From Christmas and New Year in Sydney, surf camp at Crescent Head (or Cresso), chilling out with Steph and Sally in Byron Bay (girls I met surfing and ended up travelling the whole east coast with), kayaking with dolphins, visiting Nimbin, going to Australia zoo (Steve Irwin zoo), celebrating Australia Day with the locals, walking the national park in Noosa, camping on Fraser Island, visiting the spot Captain Cook landed, sailing the Whitsundays (or Wetsundays should I say) and roadtripping back down the whole of the east coast because we couldn't get any further north...AND of course you have all the mishaps and adventures we've got up to along the way!!!!

So as you can imagine I know have this mammoth task infront of me as I sit here and try and decribe this all to you in the most interesting, shortest and funniest way possible - so here goes!!!

I arrived in Sydney at 10.58pm, we almost didn't land as Sydney has an 11pm curfew where no planes are allowed to fly in after which I found extremely amusing it being such a big city. The hostel that I was in over Christmas and New Year wasn't the best. I was in a dorm with others 13, crammed in a small room with no fan and the temperature was hitting about 28 degrees outside and then add 13 people at night it got up to what felt like 35 :S The days leading up to Christmas was spent wondering round Bondi beach where I was staying and then getting my barings with the city. I also met with Amelia a couple of times just tocatch up as she was spending most time with her boyfriend Chris who was also out here travelling.

I had a good Christmas Day in the hostel, it was a little strange spending it with people i'd known for a couple of days and didn't really feel like Christmas. Some of us headed to Bondi beach for the morning before we had an Aussie BBQ at the hostel together in the afternoon. Later on I met up with Amelia, her boyfriend and his friends and we all sat at a bar outside of Bondi beach watching the crowds and their festivites on the beach.

After Christmas I ended up going out in Sydney with people from the hostel, we had a good group of us, most we're from my huge dorm room and we headed to Sydney Aquarium on one day, did the Bondi to Bronte walk along the cliff side, headed to the cinema a couple of nights or just topped up the tan on Bondi beach because it was so close. I also met up with Vicky who I'd travelled round Cambodia, Vietnam and Loas with as she's from Syndey. I went round her house for the day and opened my Christmas presents from Mum, Dad & Jonathan....I also opened the cards that some of the family had sent all the way out here to me (thank you!!!!). Although not sure why you sent 2 sets of pjs mum - I'm struggling enough to fit stuff in my bag let alone a mass of pjs hahaha, you crazy lady (love you really!).

New Year's Eve was truely unforgettable. I went to a place called Blue Point Reserve which is a park the other side of the Sydney harbour bridge. It looked directly onto the bridge and had the Opera house in the background. We headed over to the park at around 3pm in the afternoon and luckily for us some friends had save us a spot because apparently we were late! The place was packed. People start the NYE celebrations at like 10am and most places are full by mid afternoon, its completely different to any new years i've had before. Anyway we were total pikies and snuck in alcohol to the park, my bag was so big it didn't really had a bottom (Mary Poppins bag) so they're alcohol search was unsuccessful. We amused ourselves on the bottle of vodka I sneaked in for the rest of the aft/eve and waited eagerly for the fireworks to begin. The 9pm show was a warm up and was amazing but the 12 o'clock midnight was the big daddy....honestly had never seen anything like it and was totally worth sitting on a concrete pavement for 9 hours to see!!!! Seriously WOW!!! Really hard to describe but they have 7 barges either side of the bridge out of sight, along with fireworks on the bridge simultaneously going off...was breathtaking! My favourite part was when it looked like there was a waterfall coming off of the bridge!!

NYE in Sydney was really different to that at home as usually you'll bring in the new year and then carrying on partying but over here they all dispursed and went home after 12. We definitely weren't ready to call it a night so we headed back to a friends apartment in Darling Harbour and partied there until about 5pm. We then got a taxi back to Bondi and a couple of us who were still not up for bed headed to Bondi beach to watch the sun come up on 2009.....was amazing! Don't think i'll ever be able to say that again.. (or maybe I will, we'll just see ;) hahaha).

After New Year I decided to book into a hostel in central Sydney to get a feel of the city life, even though it was only a 20 minute bus journey from Bondi. I loved living in the city, especially the shops which Amelia & I frequented a couple of times haha! So whilst in the city I enjoyed visiting the Botanical gardens, good sunbathing spot, did the touristy things such as the Opera House, Harbour bridge and took the ferry over to Manly for the day. I also took the train to Katoomba one day and went to the Blue Mountains. They were absolutely stunning and the reason they appear blue on a sunny day is because of the menthol released by the Eucalyptus trees. I spent the whole day walking, trekking down to the valley floor seeing the waterfalls and spectacular views and afterwards took a really scary train ride back up to the cliff tops. There's so many walking trails here you can be amused for days and days in the mountains.

My last couple of days in Sydney was spent hanging out with Amelia as she was leaving to go back home. I initially didn't enjoy Sydney that much, but after a while I realised how amazing it was. The pace of life is so laid back and relaxed, you can finish work at 5pm in the city and be on the beach at 5.30pm. It's such an easy way to and people are so chilled out compared with people at home! Good job I didn't get that work visa for Aus as it means I can come back and work....

Love, hugs & kisses sent to you all

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