After a pretty dreadful 13 hour bus journey from Melbourne we arrived in Sydney and impressed we were too! We spent the first 3 nights outside the city on a beach called Coogee which is a nice scenic walk away from Bondi. Both beaches were stunning (and all the ones in between) and what with the weather being awesome we did not a lot else. It was our first serious beach time of the whole trip though so we're not to be considered lazy or anything! We met up with Bernadette (whom we met in Santiago) and she took us to Palm beach (Home and Away) and made us muffins - she's so lovely! She's a great singer and we spent most of the evening requesting her to sing us songs. We met up with my parents - hurrah! It was so great to see them and they treated us so well, I don't know how we'll cope with the backpacker lifestyle again! On the first day with them we headed over on the ferry to Manly beach which provided excellent views of the harbour. Manly is quite cool but was a little overcrowded during the day. Mom and Dad treated us all to a dance show in the Opera house which was like nothing I'd ever seen before... I can't describe how controlled and precise the dancers were, it was fabulous. We had drinks and dinner in the Opera bar, it made me feel like a very important person. We spent a day attempting to shop and then we headed out to Bondi again. We had a mare trying to sort out a hire car what with it being Easter but we did locate one in the end. We had dinner at Darling Harbour thanks to Natalie's parents and ate so much fish we were going to burst. On the last night I made Dad climb the Harbour bridge with me and what a good move it was! It was a 3 hour climb in total but it wasn't hard going. We had a spectacular view of the city and got a nice photo or two as well!