First experience of a night bus in Australia. Surprisingly not as comfy as Asia as you just get a chair and not a bed. Found our hostel Mount Batten pretty easily. Right next to china town but also very close to Darling Harbour. Our first day we wandered into the city, I wanted to go to Martins Place where the siege had happened last week. There were thousands of flowers outside the Lindt cafe, really sad sight!
Wandered around the many shopping centres and visited all the Christmas decorations!! Spent the evening at Darling Harbour. They had giant santas lining the harbour. It's full of bars and restaurants, seems a cool place to hang out.

Christmas Eve, headed to the shops and grabbed our food ready for Christmas Day. Decided on chicken and veg and eaten mess for pudding. That evening we had some festive drinks with the others at our hostel and went to a local bar. All the bars were packed!!

Christmas Day was a strange one. Facetimed everyone at home as they were having drinks at Katie's. We then decided to do follow the crowd and go to Bondi Beach. Wow the buses were busy, the queues were so long. Once we arrived the beach was full of people in bikinis in their festive hats. Grabbed some lunch then went down to the beach. Our bags had to be searched before getting on to the beach as no alcohol is allowed. Although everyone seemed to have it on the beach. So many police everywhere too. Luckily it was a sunny day to start off with otherwise not sure where everyone would have went! Around 4pm it started to get cloudy so we tried to head back, again insane queues for the buses. Cooked our 'Christmas meal' when we got back and hung out with the others. Then watched a Christmas film. We both decided we definitely prefer Christmas at home. It was cool to experience but not the same as being with all your family. I really missed Christmas dinner too.

Boxing Day started off sunny too. Today we thought we go to Coogee beach just down from Bondi. It was so windy on the beach so ended up looking round the shops. Headed out that evening with everyone from the hostel and ended up at Scuba bar which was fun. Not many English at our hostel mainly Germans and a few dutch.

The next day was a right off as we were both very 'tired'. I managed to go out in the evening with the Dutch girls but Ash couldn't make it. We went to Darling Harbour and watched a live band then the fireworks. Then explored The Star casino. I felt like I was in the film the hangover. It is huge!!! The amount of money people have here too is crazy.

Following day we explored Taronga Zoo. We had to get a ferry to get there. This is an experience in itself, driving past the harbour bridge and sydney opera house. The zoo was pretty cool but after the elephant conservation I ended feeling sorry for the animals in their small enclosures. Listened to a talk about the elephants too. They talked about tourists and elephants in Asia but didn't mention anything bad about it which I was quite shocked about. The zoo had great views back over the harbour and into the city.

Went for a day at manly beach today. It was half an hour on the ferry but the ferry again was through the harbour so great views!! Manly is a cool place, a town surrounded by lots of beaches. Headed to the main beach which was packed. Went for a dip in the sea which actually turned out to be getting thrown about by the waves. The lifeguards kept telling everyone to get out the water but no one did. Grabbed some food and looked round the shops then caught the ferry back. That evening we had a new girl in our room so we went out to china town for dinner. We are obviously missing Asia! Later on we went to meet Liana and Craig after their bridge climb. They didn't get back down until 11pm!! Went out for pancakes on the rocks. Very up market part of sydney!!

We booked a beginners surf lesson for today. The four of us headed to manly for 9am and met out instructors. He drove us to a quieter beach and we got kitted up. Showed us how to pop up on the sand and paddle to catch a wave. Then headed into the water for our first 2 hours. The instructors would help us catch a wave and push us into it. I could catch the wave easily just kept getting my feet wrong when popping up. Ash and Liana had surfed before so they were able to get it. I eventually got up but then couldn't stand for long. There is so much to think about!! Craig and I crashed into each other a few times and somehow managed to swap boards without noticing. If you're not prepared for the wave you nose dive off the board, much to the instructors amusement. Had a break for lunch then we had another 2 hours. I defiantly felt I had the hang of it better. I managed to get up most times I just still couldn't stay up for long. I was just happy I could stand though. Really want to try surfing again!!

After surfing we met at the Opera Bar, which is underneath the Opera House. It was packed!! We shared a bottle of sparkling wine, ash is getting into his fizz now! Ordered food here too which was surprisingly not that expensive. Ash and I had steak which was really good.