Christmas in Sydney

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Upon arrival in Sydney we were staying at the apartment of a friend of a friends in Bondi Beach which was excellent as free accommodation always is and allowed us swim in the sea on Christmas day.

We arrived into Sydney to meet up with James cousin Joanna her husband David and kiddywinkles Jessica and Jack. This rabble were being entertained and looked after by Graham and Chris in Wahroonga (forgive spelling) who extremely kindly extended their warmth and hospitality to have us for Christmas dinner, and then Boxing Day (including BBQ) and many days afterward. After travelling together for 3 months through some of South America we were extremely grateful for their generosity in including us in their festive plans.

Unfortunately the cricket wasn’t going to well and Graham managed to optimise this small insignificance to maximum effect. Despite this Graham and Chris and indeed all their family, Jo and Paul and Sue and Warren were extremely welcoming and as such we managed to latch onto many outings; including trips to Tatarunga zoo (sp), Manly, Palm Beach, fishing near Terry Hills-ish and Darling Harbour.

Whilst in Sydney we managed to meet up with my mate Innis - it is always a bit strange meeting someone out of normal waters. We also caught up with a lad we met in Rio and travelled up to Buzios with; Aide.

We enjoyed the New Year fireworks (featuring harbour bridge and opera house etc) with Jo David Jessica and Jack and then had a days rest before flying up to Coolangatta.

Noosa to Sydney

We hired a car from Coolangatta and made our way up to the Noosa Heads stopping off at a few locations along the way. As expected the beaches on the way up were excellent. I have to say we avoided Surfers Paradise, choosing to spend more time on the Gold Coast. We met up with Innis again in Noosa and enjoyed a couple of beers.

Driving around the East coast making our way back to Sydney was great, we stopped off at many places including the Glass House Mountains, Byron Bay, Coffs Harbour and Forster. Having the car as a base was excellent.

We returned to Sydney for a couple of night before Stacey flew on to Melbourne to meet friends travel and generally enjoy herself and I flew back to the UK to work in the cold.

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Photos

Jess and Jack
Arrived in Sydney and soon met up with these 2 lager louts

Christmas Morning
After a refreshing dip - Christmas morning Bondi beach

The wonderful Graham and Chris
Our very kind hosts for much of Christmas

Christmas - meeting up with Jo
Trust me the blurryness is probably a good thing :-)

Manly beach
Manly by name... British perhaps?