G'day mate

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G'day ya flamin galas!

Expecting cold weather when we landed in Sydney we were greeted by blue skies and niceness. On the bus ride into Sydney it was clear the quiet towns of NZ were well behind us. NZ has a total population of 4 million people and Sydney has more people than that!

We were staying in the Kings cross area which, truth be told, is fairly similar to the Kings cross area of London so my eyes were pointing strictly at the pavement on the walk down the high street to avoid any swift backhanders from my lovely other half! On our first full day we headed straight for the Opera house which didn't disappoint. The Harbour bridge is tucked in just behind and makes for a fantastic backdrop, and also an excuse for many, many photographs! After glimpsing every angle of the Opera house from the outside it took us a further 20 minutes to work out how to actually get in! We decided that we had to see a show and so booked up a reservation for the following night and headed off to the gardens surrounding the harbour. Completing our tourist trail on the first day we headed to the Rocks area which was really nice, took in the Rocks museum and finally the art gallery before heading home. Dinner was some typical ozzie food in the format of the cheap thai place round the corner. Marvellous.

The following day we were up and off to do a tour of the inside of the Opera house. While the main concert hall is brilliant the rest of it doesn't quite live up to expectation. Still our show was in the concert hall so it didn't really matter about the rest! After that we caught the ferry over to Manly and chilled on the beach with some lunch, watching the surfers come in on the waves. I was sat there in my shoes and socks feeling very British. In the evening we were back to the Opera house to see 'Sounds of the Movies' which was performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and a collection of singers. It was brilliant and the Orchestra were amazing. I had never seen an orchestra perform before and they didn't disappoint. ne of the highlights was the theme tune to Ghostbusters which had everyone clapping along and the conductor even singing the words - very amusing! It was a quality night out.

On our last full day we were up early and off to Darling Harbour. After a look around it was over to Chinatown where we stopped for some lunch before heading over to the famous (apparently) Sydney Fish Market. After looking at fish we headed out to Bondi beach which, disappointingly, wasn't as good as Manly. Never the less though there were surfers aplenty and it made some good watching. In the evening we stretched the budget to go out for a few .... well only a couple actually, drinks by the Opera House. With a live band, the lights on and the bridge illuminated behind it made for a really nice evening.

Leaving Sydney behind we flew up to Cairns the following morning to tropical heat and inevitably... tropical rains as well!

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