Nelson Bay and Sydney

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The weather didn't improve for a few days until we arrived at Nelson Bay. This was a really sweet seaside town. It was not warm enough for the beach but at least the rain had eased enough to get out of the car and make something to eat! The town was really nice with loads of harbour side restaurants etc.. We were so grateful to be able to get out of the car we spent a lot of time running and strolling along the beach. There was also a really nice national park for strolling in with some lovely views high above the bay.

After realxing here, we wanted to have one last bush walking experience so we travelled to Ku ring gai chase national park only about 25km outside of Sydney. We spent the day walking which was fun if not a little scary. We got attacked by loads of leeches in the morning and then in the afternoon a snake jumped out at me. I never realised they could jump like that!! I'm glad it jumped away from me into the bushes!! I was very traumatised for about 5 minutes, mostly because I jumped back and so Steve didn't get to see it (honest!)...The national park is really beautiful with lovely jungle, rivers, beaches and some old aboriginal art. After walking all day we were exhausted but really excited about finally getting to see Sydney!!

We first headed out to the beaches at coogee and bondi. We spent the day realxing on bondi, our first and last sunny day in oz!! In the evening, we visited Steves cousins sister who lives in coogee for dinner which as really nice, we got to eat food made in a kitchen and sleep in a real bed!!!

The next morning we said goodbye to the car and headed out into Sydney centre. The first views of the opera house and harbour bridge are amazing!! There is loads of lovely greenery in the area so you can sit with a picnic just looking at the sites, its really lovely. We were also lucky enough to catch the Queen Mary or is it Queen Victoris we can;t remember which was a massive cruise ship leaving the harbour for the first time. The quay area is really like Londons south bank only with a bit better weather!! In the evening we caught a ferry to Manly. This is a cheaper way of getting to see the bridge and opera house from the water without having to pay for a tourist boat!! We also got to go a see the beach at Manly before heading back into Sydney. The next day we got up early so we could run over the bridge..we thought it looked really close by but it actually took 50 minutes to get there so on the way back we gave up at the opera house and strolled back again through the lovely botanic gardens...We then headed out to a market at an area called the Rocks which is kind of like Borough but is really quaint right next to the quay. After strolling around the market in the afternoon we headed out into Kings cross for a night out. Its quite seedy there but we ended up in a really lovley indian restaurant.

We woke up to our last day in Oz 😞 We had such an amazing time but we were really looking forward to NZ We headed off to Oxford street to browse the book shops and cafes which is really good fun. Then we headed back to the park for a free short film festival called tropfest. This went all all afternoon and evening and most of the films were really good so it was a great free day! In the morning we headed off to NZ.....

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