15/05/2005 : We arrived in Sydney yesterday evening. The flight from Melbourne took just over an hour and was pretty good considering it was with a budget airline! We checked into our hostel which is really nice. Its called the Maze Backpackers and its right in the city, just 15 mins walk from the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge! We had a look around Darling Harbour last night and spent most of today walking around the city and finding our bearings. So far we are loving it. We paid a visit to the visitors centre to find out what there is to do here. Its a really big place so we want to make the most of every minute! Hope everyone at home is ok! Take care, Lots of love K & M x 19/05/2005 : The weather here has been shocking for the past few days. Nothing but rain rain rain! We are having loads of fun exploring the night scene in Sydney! We have only been here for 4 days and have been drunk nearly every night! Apart from all the bars and clubs, there is loads of things to see and do. We have already been to the Skytower which is the largest building in Sydney that overlooks the entire city. We also went on a 3D simulator that they have inside the tower. Your chair moves as you watch a huge video screen talking you through the history of Sydney and lets you explore all of the things the city has to offer. Very funny!! Yesterday we went to the Australian museum where they've got an Egyptian exhibition on. It was really interesting. There were loads of mummies and old 'stuff' to look at. We got to see some dinosaur skeletons and learn all about the aboriginal people that have lived in Oz for nearly 40,000 years!! It was like being back at school again on an excursion!! We are off to the Sydney aquarium today which is supposed to be a really good touristy thing to do. We've got a book of discount vouchers so our mission is to try and use up as many as possible during the time we've got here!! Hopefully we are going to go to see the 'Blue Mountains' and go to a wildlife sanctuary at some point over the next few days. We are going to have to wait and see if the weather bucks up first though. We'll write again when we've got more news. We hope everyone at home is ok. Take care, K & M x x 26/05/2005 : We've been really busy over the last few days. We visited Bondi Beach on Monday. It was quite a niceday but we were a bit disappointed with the actual beach. Its not very big and not as nice as the beaches we saw in Perth! Still worth seeing though. On Tuesday we went on a day trip to the Blue Mountains and to a wildlife santuary. We got to see and touch koalas and kangeroos (pictures will be on soon) and then we went for a walk through the Blue Mountains national park and had a picnic. Luckily the weather was ok and it didnt rain and we got to see the beautiful lanscape that looks like a mini Grand Canyon! We also got to ride on a really dodgy railway which is apparantly the steepest railway in the world! Very funny but very scary too!! Today is Karen's 23rd birthday, so we are going out for a meal tonight before hitting a few clubs and hopefully dancing til dawn. We leave for Auckland first thing on Sunday morning and we have to be at the airport for 4am!! We're not really looking forward to that! But for the rest of this week we are just going to soak up the sights of Sydney and have as much fun as possible. Hopefully we are going to have some more of our photo's on the site by weekend so keep checking! Take care, K & M x x