"OMG, I'm in Australia!" Those were my first thoughts as my plane came into land at Sydney airport. I realised was more excited about coming here than any of the other countries I've been to (which I was actually quite surprised about), I think because Australia is the only country on my route that I actually knew existed since I was little! I've been staying with my friend Kristen, who I haven't properly seen since we were at school together, so it's amazing of her to put me up. We had a great time on my first night in Sydney, catching up and laughing about old times and people we used to know!

Sydney itself is awesome, I really like it there and it's one of only a few places that I've visited (ever - not just on this trip) that I think I could live in. It's so much more chilled out than a city like London, but there's so much to do! On my first day I made my way to the harbour and saw the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, and it felt very surreal - one of those 'Wow, it looks just like it does in photos' moments! Apparently the Opera House took 16 years to build instead of the three that it was supposed to take, and the guy who designed it left halfway through the project in a bit of a strop and never saw it completed (he died last year), which I thought was a bit sad. Even more surreal was taking part in a bridge climb to the top of the harbour bridge, which wasn't as scary as it might sound, despite the top being 85m above the road. We all had to put on fetching grey boiler suits, and attach everything we wanted to take up with us to them, before strapping into a harness to ascend to the top. The view was great (especially the thunderstorm on the way down) and our guide pointed out various sites and explained their history on the way up. It was kind of overpriced for what it is, but hey - it's not every day you get to stand on top of one of the most iconic landmarks in the world!

On the subject of iconic things, Kristen and I also went to the world's most famous stretch of sand and sea - Bondi Beach! We watched the surfers and then embarked on the coastal path that starts at Bondi beach winds all along the coast to Coggee. It takes in five or six beaches along the way, so as you can imagine it's a very senic route. I'm sure it was longer than the 5km it says it is though, because it took me and Kristen hours to walk it! On the way along we saw the Bondi Icebergs club where lots of famous people go (and where Kristen goes to stalk them!), a film crew for the Bondi Rescue TV show and a helicopter on the look out for sharks - eek!

Another highlight was the blue mountains, which are just outside Sydney and are stunning. They look blue because of the eucalyptus haze that surrounds them, and they're surrounded by red cliffs and green valleys. I went on a guided trek around the various bushwalking paths to see the Three Sisters (which were much smaller than I thought), waterfalls and hanging swamps. I also did a canyoning and abseiling trip - and yes, the abseiling was very scary - terrifying in fact! The hardest part was lowering myself over the edge of the cliff - the instructor had to talk me through it each time and told me it was best to look up rather than down! We did 5m, 15m and 30m abseils - the 30m was the best because there was a 20m freefall at the bottom, so I was just dangling on the rope rather than walking down the cliff - the view from here was awesome, and I saw a red parrot land in the top of a tree just as I slid past, as if to say hello! The canyoning was a lot of fun - we all had to don super thick wetsuits and wade and climb our way through rivers and gorges, swim through pools, and at the very end, abseil down a 30m waterfall! This was made harder by the fact that the rock was very slippery, and that you had water running down over you all the time - this meant you couldn't look up without getting water in your face, and therefore had to look down...

I won't go into too much detail about too many more of the things that I've been up to in Sydney, because I've been rushing round like a proper tourist trying to see and do everything, and if I write about it all I'll just bore you all to tears! But seeing Biffy Clyro at the Metro Club deserves a mention. I know it probably seems a bit strange to go all the way to Sydney and to then go and see a band that I've already seen five times in the last three years, but I knew I wanted to see a gig while I was in Oz, and it might as well have been a band I already knew! So me and new friend Lina went to rock out for the night. The Aussie support band were hilarious - they looked like The Darkness with bigger teeth. Biffy were awesome as always, which made me very happy. (Unlike the hangover I had the next day after Lina and I decided it would be a good idea to go drinking after the gig, oops).
I also really enjoyed the Museum of Contemporary Art, especially the exhibition by an artist called Yoyoi Kusama. Kusama does lots of 'immersive' pieces - so the art is all around you - and this ranged from a balcony full of silver spheres shining in the sun to entire rooms designed to represent clouds, or fireflies over a lake, or (my personal favourite) hallucinations that Kusama had about polka dots taking over her life! Apologies if that all sounds incredibly geeky, I'm very easily carried away when I get excited about arty stuff!

Also during the week I was in Sydney, I went to Taronga Zoo, pottered round The Rocks markets, drank fizzy wine and sang karaokewith Kristen and her crazy friends (my song was Aerosmith's 'Don't Want To Miss A Thing', in case you were wondering), spent a day at Manly Beach and went surfing (which was very difficult thanks to super strong currents and rips), strolled round the Art Gallery of New South Wales looking at Aboringinal and modern Australian art, chilled out in the Botonical Gardens and eaten more meals served with chips in one week than I did during the whole rest of my trip. Phew! So as you can tell I've been keeping myself very busy, but there still lots of things I want to do in Sydney (surfing at Bondi for a start), so I'm glad I've got a few more days here between flying back from Cairns (which is where I am now) and flying home to the UK. Apparently Kristen has a big night out planned for the day after I get back... I'm not sure whether to be excited or scared!

Bye for now, I'll update you on what Carins and Cape Tribulation are like when I get back!

Kimbob xx