Sydney: 23rd December - 31st December

December 23rd

After not too much sleep, and four hours later than we expected we landed safely in Sydney. We picked up our luggage and were through immigration and customs in no time and so headed outside to get a taxi. 20 minutes later we were greeted by Chubb and Chan outside their flat and after a quick tour of the flat, Chubb took me and Laura for a walking tour of Sydney while Chan headed off to work.

Their flat is only about a 10-15minute walk to the Opera House. We walked up past the art museum and down through the Botanic Gardens until our first proper spectacular views of the Opera House - immense.The obligatory photos were taken of us with the opera house and Harbor Bridge in the background, before we carried on walking around the waters edge to the Opera House itself.On the way we passed a huge group of people who all had signs and Christmas hats on, who we found out were waiting for GMTV to film (apparently they pre-record their Christmas eve segment the day before!). More photos were taken when we got to the Opera House itself before we headed off in the direction of the main shopping street, just a few minutes walk away. We stocked up on beers before heading back to the flat where Chubb cooked us up some fajitas for tea, and we all spent till 3 in the morning chatting!

December 24th

We had a bit of a lie in before me and Laura headed out for a picnic in the botanical gardens. Received some good news from Luke telling us that he and Kristen had gotten engaged (congratulations again to you both!).Now, we had planned to go for a tour of the Opera House but after taking yet more photos we decieded it was too late and so instead headed into town for some window shopping and beer purchasing for tomorrows festivities.

December 25th

Christmas Day!!!! Again we had a bit of a lie-in, we've got fairly lazy staying here, plus it doesn't help that we don't go to bed till quite late.We opened up our presents we had all got for each other, I had a "Rough Guide to New Zealand" and nz$20, while Chan had bought Laura a nice top from her work!Chubb and Chan both seemed to like their presents too, so it was good.

After the presents it was time for a quick dip in the pool on the roof.Only me and Chubb went in, and we succeeded in driving away 3 people who were already up there, so we had the roof all to ourselves.It was then time for the first drink of the day....the classic bucks fizz!Chan cooked us all an AMAZING turkey Christmas dinner, and 3 of their other friends came over aswell, so in total there were 7 of us.It was a really nice meal and we had crackers and everything, so it felt like a proper Christmas Day!The drinks flowed and we are ashamed to say that most of the rest of the day was spent on the xbox playing rock band! Oh and skyping everyone to wish them a Merry Christmas.Some people were even lucky enough to have a band performance streamed live over the web cam, you lucky few people!Needless to say, it was another pretty late night, but it was an awesome day all round!

December 26th

Standard boxing day, consisted of getting up late, doing some tidying up and watching a lot of tv.We finished off watching the 3rd series of Gavin and Stacey, had some food and watched the Hangover on DVD, all mixed in with a healthy dose of rock band…..again!

We also managed to spend quite a lot of time in the pool. Me and Chubb created a cracking new game called L ball, there's rumors sky sports are after the viewing rights already!

December 27th

The weather was a bit crappy again today, but we decided to go for a walk to the fish market to get some fish in for tea anyway.The walk was quite nice, as we had to walk through DarlingHarbour to get there.Unfortunately it was raining quite heavily by the time we got to the harbour so didn't really stick around to see much of it.The worlds biggest cinema screen is at the IMAX in Darling harbour, so we bought our tickets for Avatar 3D for the New years day, as the showings we selling out days in advance.From there we went for a quick walk through the harbourside mall and then carried on down towards the fish market.

The market was a huge building with loads of small shops inside all selling (surprisingly) fish.It was pretty cool seeing all the different types they had and some of them were huuuuuge!!We didn't really have much of an idea what to buy, so thought we decided to give it some thought over food.We headed to try the lobster Mornay, which was basically half a lobster with 3 different types of cheese on top - trust us to choose the least fishy of them all. We couldn't quite bring ourselves to try calamari, oysters or the sashimi!Neither of us has tried lobster before but we both like it - although Laura had issues with the fact that it was way too fiddly to eat!

December 28th

Sightseeing was the name of the game today. Went and did a tour of the Sydney Opera house which was well worth the money, very informative and two main theatres inside are beautiful. Unfortunately Grandad, they mentioned nothing about the Brynmawr Semtex factory being inspiration for the Opera house - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/1406473.stm / http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/1407127.stm - booooooooo!!! Take note everyone - it was built in Brynmawr first!

Next stop was 'The Rocks' area, a really cool and artsy area of Sydney….bit of history for you…..The Indigenous Cadigal people inhabited the rocky headland and surrounding shoreline for thousands of years. Then in 1788, Australia's first European settlers-British convicts and their overseers-claimed the land and built their camp atop the sandstone cliffs. Went to the RocksMuseum which explained all about the aboriginal tribes who originally inhabited the land and then about the penal colonies etc. Had a look around the Sunday markets and bought a few bits and pieces - Paul had fun trying some extra extra hot chilli sauce - Graham, check it out http://www.thechillifactory.com/index.php?p=Chilli%20Products !!

Managed to squeeze in some coffee and cake (as I had been banging on about wanting it ever since Singapore really!) before strolling back through the centre of Sydney.

December 29th

Today we were up fairly early as we had decided we were going to walk SydneyHarbourBridge.The weather was actually really nice for a change, so we had some amazing views as we walked the whole way over.Most of the previous photos we had taken of the opera house were a bit crap because the roof sort of blended into the cloudy sky, but against the bright blue skies, it looked incredible.

We had a bit of spare time, so on the way back from the bridge we watched a street performer for a while before going into the gallery of modern art for a quick walk around.Laura obviously enjoyed this a lot more than me.We then met Chubb and Chan at the ferry port and took a boat over to Manly.We had dinner in a place called Hugo's, which is right out on the water.I had an amazing Meatball pizza, while Laura had a very nice pasta dish.Laura also made a cracking spot......Janae from Neighbours was in there with some friends having food and drinks.....neighbours spot number 2!!! Oh and thank you to the ChubbWards for treating us that nice, was awesome.

After dinner we went for a walk through Manly and watched the sun set at the main beach area. We also, managed to fit in a few beverages of the beer variety before catching the ferry back to the city centre. There were amazing views of the bridge and Opera House all lit up on the way back. After getting off the ferry we headed to an Irish pub for our last drink of the day before heading back to the flat….yet another late night for us :o)

December 30th

Finally we awoke to some proper blue skies and so we hotfooted it over to a place called Bronte to have a BBQ. Now, the Aussies do indeed know how to BBQ. There are gas BBQ stations scattered all over park areas in Sydney - even better they are free and most are kept clean - no way that would happen back home.

The ChubbWards spoilt us again by making proper burgers and so we sat and had a feast while overlooking the most beautiful little beach - according to food critic extraordinaire, Pauline Evans, they were the 'best burgers' he'd 'EVER' tasted! Well done Chan - I think burger making can now make its way onto your CV!

Although it has to be said, that our burgers looks a little measly in comparison to some Aussie families who practically had a whole cow cooking on their BBQ!

We spent the early part of the afternoon walking the coastal path from Bronte all the way over to Bondi beach - a beautiful walk with some stunning scenery. This was, however, punctuated by Chubb and Paul stopping every five minutes to compete against each other on the exercise equipment that was dotted along the way.

Finally go to Bondi, a huuuge beach full of bronzed bodies, and chilled for the rest of the afternoon. Chan and I lost the boys to the surf so to speak as they spent a good hour perfecting their body surfing skills - and yes there is photographic evidence thanks to Chubb's underwater camera.

December 31st

So today was the big day, NEW YEAR'S EVE. It's what Paul and I had been waiting for and what we'd effectively planned our trip around. Now, we were still undecided about what where exactly we were going to watch the fireworks as we'd heard that people queue up at some of the main vantage points from like 11am in the morning. We'd pretty much ruled that option out as know one fancied sitting in a park for nigh on 12 hours waiting for the fireworks. We'd also spent the previous few days umming and ahhing about whether to suck it up and book tickets for either the Opera Bar (literally right by the bridge and $295 entry!!) or a meal at one of the restaurants down by the Opera House. With both options costing over $300 plus you can see why we were a hesitant.

So by this stage we were all a little exasperated, luckily one of Chan's friends lived over in Balmain which was the other side of SydneyHarbourBridge. She and her mates had gone and claimed a spot in one of the main parks early doors and then took it in turns to look after it all day. So when Chan finished work we ambled on over to Balmain (about 6pm), not quite sure what to expect. We stocked up on booze, champers and pizza and were amazed at the view when we got there - we were literally right opposite the Bridge but just on the other side. What was even better is that it wasn't rammoed and seemed to be much more a family orientated affair so the atmosphere was really nice.

The time flew by and the family fireworks at 9pm got everyone in the mood for midnight. Only downside is that the midnight fireworks seemed to come out of know where as there was no official countdown. Still, they were some of the best fireworks we have every seen and it was so surreal standing there watching them and even more surreal phoning the folks back home when it was only midday for them! GOOD TIMES all round :o)

http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/nye/2009/Gallery/Photos.asp