So long Australia

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We have made it successfully all the way down to Sydney, a whole 2546km give or take a few hundred and it only took 5 weeks! After our time in Port Macquarie and Byron Bay it was time to see some scenery again, this time in the shape of the Blue Mountains.

After another 6 hour journey we made it to Sydney, we then jumped straight on a train for a couple of hours and arrived in the Heart of the Blue Mountains, Katoomba. We stayed at in a hostel that couldn't have been anymore homely, duvets, big sofas and free mulled wine, winner! But from where we were you couldn't tell all that we were sat in the middle of a mountain range. However when we took a walk that night to one of the viewpoints, it all opened up into this vast mountainy area (technical terms I know). The mountains rather than going up were carved into cliff faces that curve round for miles. And sat in the middle of it all are the 3 sisters, 3 rocky humps jutting out of the cliff which attract all the photographers for miles around, us included, just not for the standard photo, man of the mountains photos!

We said we were going to have 3 days there in all, 2 full days walking and then one getting to and from Sydney. It was quite unfortunate that in the 2 days we had, it was foggy and rainy on both for 70%!o(MISSING)f the day. We still walked on them both too, once to a 'ruined castle', but instead of a castle it was a big rock formation because Australia isn't old enough to have a castle! And once we had gotten to the top of it, it did clear up and we had an awesome 360* view of the mountains. We wanted to go on further and make a full day out of it but we had been told by the locals a storm was coming in later and we didn't fancy being stuck in a forestry mountainside.

The second day took us to the Wentworth Falls, where a British traveller fell from a few weeks beforehand so it had been in the news. It's a massive waterfall and looks hellish impressive when you can see it but the fog stopped that. The best we got was an imaginary image from which the sounds of the crashing water formed. We then walked around the cliff side, half way between the bottom and the top on a well made path and even though the fog you could see the massive golden red sandy cliffs going up a few hundred feet.

Even with poor weather and temperatures that we get at home it was still great to get out of the cities and towns again and do a bit of adventurery stuff. We found to on the last day too that we could have hired bikes and gone for a ride, a little too late! We were off and had Sydney to explore before jetting off to New Zealand.

Another train ride later and we were back into the heart of Sydney, staying at a well known place called Kings Cross. We had heard a lot about the place, and read a bit too! I was described as 'Sleazy and Hip', where you can find a cheap hostel, good food and a lady of the night if you wanted, I didn't fancy the last.

We had arrived with the afternoon to spare and wasted no time in getting back out of the hostel. In the following 3 hours we'd walked through the botanical gardens, past the opera house, had a drink at the champagne bar at the opera house overlooking the harbour bridge, carried on round to The Rocks and then made it to China Town by 6.30pm to have tea. And it wasn't a rush either. We still had a lot of the evening light left after tea so we went round to the Darling Harbour which we thought was much nicer than where the opera house was. It had an ongoing on-the-water football tournament, a massive inflatable duck parked up next to one of the jetties and the worlds biggest IMAX on the corner, not to mention the huge choice of seafood restaurant which Laura loved. We started to make our way back to the hostel but couldn't make it that far without a stop at a shop that specialises in hot chocolate.

The next day was bright and sunny, hence a beach day. We picked our beach, opting for Bondi over Manly beach and made our way there. We asked for directions off an elderly woman and once she finished telling us where it was finished on "it's the best beach in the world". I wouldn't go that far, it was good but no where near the standard of the rest if the Australian beaches. For one it had a huge concrete wall around the edge of the sand, and two it lacked sharks! But for a beach right next to sydney it wasn't bad. We finished off the day by going to the IMAX, the screen was that big you had to pick a part to focus on and stick with it. The screen came with a health warning at the start informing you on how to avoid dizziness. We chose a good film in Skyfall, and the screen did make it worth the $25 each price tag.

Our third day we explored the city in more depth, going to the fish markets some of the art galleries and watching the football tournament. They had the professional youth teams competing in a 4 a side tournament. Laura had been looking forward to a good meal the whole time in Australia and tonight was the night. We went out, all dressed up, to a proper fish restaurant and indulged in some amazing food and drink. It was well worth the wait.

Our last day, seeing as we hadn't seen a few of Australia's native animals was a trip to the zoo day. Sat on the opposite side of the river, Taronga zoo overlooked the whole of sydney city centre. We saw all the creatures that we'd missed; the platypus, crocodile and emu. It finished off sydney well and the following morning we were up and off at 5am ready to fly to New Zealand. We can't wait!

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