Sydney and the start of Oz!

---

G'day!

So we made it safely to Sydney as I mentioned. We had booked the YHA "The Rocks" hostel which is right near the opera house and the harbour bridge. We got into our dorm room and found no one else in so we dumped our bags and went for a look around, the hostel had a cool balcony which looked out over the Harbour with great views of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Having checked out the views we went and got some lunch, the hostel had given us some handy vouchers so we managed to get a steak (my first for 2 months!!) and a beer for $10 each, a pretty good deal! We then headed for George Street (similar to Oxford Street in london) and wandered around for a while before deciding to go to watch The Hangover II, which was pretty good, but too similar to the first film for my liking (sequels are never as good as the original!). We made our way back to the hostel and then decided to check out Darling Harbour to find some dinner, it wasn't quite as vibrant as the guides had described and we ended up getting a Mcdonalds due to not being able to afford the restaurants. We then headed to a bar a friend of mine recommended called "Scary Canary" which lived up to its name.... It was a very strange atmosphere in there, people going crazy at like 9pm on a tuesday evening, nothing seemed to fit and it was just a bit weird, hard to explain unless you witnessed it. We made a beeline back to the hostel and retired after not having had much sleep on the plane the night before.

The next day we decided to go and visit the nearby seaside town of Manly, 30 mins away by ferry (which was an interesting trip due to the very choppy waters!) We went down to the beach and tried to take a walk listed on a guide map but got lost and ended up walking around some posh suburbs, but it was still cool to see how Ozzy's live. We got some grub, looked around Manly a little more and headed back to Sydney on the ferry. That night we ate at the hostel, they were doing burritos and a drink for $5 a person, winner! At dinner we got talking to a girl from the UK, who bizarrely lived 3 doors down from me at Uni.... strange! We then used some more handy coupons to go for a beer at a local Pub, which felt very english compared to life in Asia!

Our third day in Sydney saw much nicer weather, we walked along the Harbour Bridge, then took a closer look at the Opera House before walking through the Botanical Gardens. It was then time to head up the Sydney Tower which stands a mighty 250m above street level, Hevs was pretty nervous in the lift on the way up (I wish I had taken a photo of the way she was standing!) but once we got up there she was alright (just about). The 360 views up the tower were amazing, we stayed up there for about half an hour before grabbing lunch in a food court popular with city slickers. One thing we had noticed about Sydney was that everyone smelt really good.... So we decided to head to a department store to "sample" the perfume testers (true backpacker style!). Smelling great we went to the backpacker area for a pint and look around. We then headed back to the hostel where they were doing another cheap meal, a bbq this time, and I managed to try my first Kangaroo meat, which was pretty similar to beef in my opinion. When we headed back to the room we found our first room mates (we had the room to ourselves the first 2 nights), after a few mins of talking it turned out the couple owned one of the hostels we will be staying at in Fiji, small world! We then headed up to the movie room where someone put on the film Chopper (big in Aus i believe), it was pretty odd, but amusing in parts.

The next day it was time to leave Sydney so we caught the train to where we were to pick up the Campervan. It took ages and they tried to fob us off with some pop top van but we got our way and made our way out of Sydney, after a few dodgy moments we found ourselves on the Pacific Highway and began to head North. After a quick McD pitstop we carried on the long drive to Port Macquarie. We found a supermarket and stocked up on food (and some booze)and parked up on the street and made some dinner. We then walked around the town for a bit which was a little quiet for a Friday night and then went to try and find somewhere to park up for the night. After looking around quite a few street spots we settled on one we had been at about 45 mins before, a little scared (because we weren't in a proper campervan park) we shut the curtains and went to sleep.

The night went fine and we didn't get asked to move on by anyone so that was reassuring. We walked around the town again and it turned out it was the first day of a big rock and roll festival in the town, there were lots of Hot Rods and strange looking people wondering around and it was quite a cool little atmosphere. We then went to the beach which wasn't brilliant so after lunch we decided to move up the coast some more. Halfway on the journey we saw a sign marked "tourist route". We thought it would be cool to get off the highway and see some countryside for a bit which was really nice, the signs were a bit crap though and we got lost a few times. After finding our way back to the highway we decided to stop in the town of Nambucca Heads. We drove around for a bit before finding a nice campsite (less worrying about parking somewhere we shouldn't be). We went out to the supermarket for some food and came back to cook some steak with rice and peas (slightly odd combination...sure).

Today have driven up to the town of Coffs Harbour, but as it is a Sunday there isn't a lot going on, not 100% sure where we are going to stay tonight but we will make our way up to the highly recommended Byron Bay tomorrow.

Speak to you all soon!

(more photos at the bottom of the page)

James and Hevs

---