G'day.

Since we wrote last we have been very busy....

We arrived in Sydney on Friday afternoon - 37 degrees!!!

We said goodbye to our tour mates and jumped in a taxi to find our hostel called Wake Up.

After 5 minutes, the taxi driver stopped the cab and said we were at the hostel- neither of us could see it...but he kept saying it was just behind a shop. In the end we got out and paid only to find that the hostel was still a 10 minute walk up the road- not a good start with our heavy rucksacks!!! As some of you know.

We checked into Hostel which is ok. We then went into the city centre to meet some people from on tour for goodbye drinks- we went to the Gaff pub- where you get a free meal when you buy a drink! Not bad. We had a few drinks and were soon dancing on the tables!!! Quite a good night. Quite sad saying goodbye to everyone.

Next day (Saturday) we were up early, to go to Tarongo Zoo. To get to this we had to catch the ferry from Circular Quay. It was a 10 minutes ferry ride to the zoo which is on the other side of the harbour. We had a good wonder around the zoo (in the rain) the heatwave has finished here. We saw giraffes, lions, elephants, tigers, the tazmanian devil, etc, etc and monkeys mating! The elephants were great- they were playing in the water. Think it was the best zoo either of us have been too. To get out of the zoo we took a ride on the Safari Cable car to get a good view of the zoo- we then got the ferry back.

Back on the harbour side we had lunch and made our way to the departure point for our Bridge climb across Sydney Bridge. When we arrived at the place we were both feeling quite nervous! Our climb was at 3.35pm. We got kitted out, signed our life away and began the climb. At all time you are attached to a harnass. The whole climb lasts for 3.5 hours. Its unbelieveable how high you are up- the view was amazing. We were very lucky that we got to see the sunset- the group behind us paid an extra 100 dollars for the sunset- but instead we got it! Hehe. Whilst on the top of the bridge there was a wedding proposal and we had our pictures taken. It was certainly an expereince of a life time.

After the climb we were exhausted- we therefore went back to the hostel for an early night.

Sunday - We were booked to do a city tour. Up early again for a 7.30 pick-up. We saw all the sites - The Rocks, the bridge..again, Hyde Park, Darling Harbour, the suburbs and Bondi Beach. It was windy and rainy at Bondi- but maybe we will go back there. After the tour we did a walking tour of the Sydney Opera house. From the outside it is amazing- however inside it wasn't as we had expected.....but was still quite good. Learnt lots of history about the Opera House - experts!

After our tours we did some shopping, laundry, went to the hostel bar for food (which is very cheap but nice) watched Australian idol (tv shows aren't as good as ours) before having another early night- we need to catch up with our sleep!!

Today (Monday)- up early again for our day trip to the Blue Mountains. We were picked up in a 4WD- and drove tp the mountains which were about an hour away. We saw some amazing views, the Three Sisters (picture above), some caves and a waterfall. It really is strange how the mountains are blue - its hard to describe. We also stopped for lunch- which was good. After our adventure up the mountains we stopped in the afternoon at a wildlife park, where we saw kangaroos, crocs, etc.... Teresa fed the kangaroos and was chased by a goat...brought back some nasty childhood expereinces! Everyone on our tour was quite friendly- we even had a couple from Suffolk- Haverhill. We take back our comments about older people in the past!

Back to the hostel- for tea and internet- think another early night is needed tonight plus layin in the morning. We still have a lot to do on our lists- but need to wait till the morning to see what the weather is like. We both want to go to Palm beach- to go to the Home and Away set...hopefully we can go tomorrow if weather is good.

Will update this site soon- and hope to update pictures tomorrow....it takes so long to do we will need to allow a few hours as we have so many!

Speak to you all soon

Lindsay and Teresa xxxx