Rest of New Zealand and on to Sydney: Part 3

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Part 3: Australia

A new country! We believe this is the first time both me and Tom have got a plane from a country that isn't England to another country that isn't England (connections aside), which means that we are now officially world travellers.

Australia greeted us with the realisation that our lack of planning has once again been a little short of the mark. We knew we were heading to my friend from Camp America two years ago Ash's, but as we emerged from the airport into the glaring 28 degree sunshine mapless and with no idea of where either Dee Why or the airport was located with respect to central Sydney, we knew we had some work left to do.

After 20 minutes of walking to the bus stop and consulting the map we walked back to the airport and to the other side to the train station. One train and one bus later (where we saw some sort of large bridge and a weird sail like building, any ideas?) and by a stroke of luck we found ourselves in Dee Why, where a series of phonecalls to Ash with obscure references to where we thought we were ("next to the nab bank opposite some convenience store, oh wait down the road is a car park if that helps") led to us getting picked up. Meeting the Hatcher's has been a delight, and thanks to them for putting us up whilst we sort out our Sydney lives.

Which we have sorted pretty successfully so far! Tuesday and Wednesday this week was a chance to get into the shopping district, where we both bought smart clothes, opened Australian bank accounts, got Australian phone numbers, and signed up to a gym (2 months of little to no exercise has taken it's toll on the both of us).

Tom also managed to book and then attend a day's RSA course which has to be done to work in bars in Australia, and spent the rest of Wednesday and Thursday walking around most of central Sydney handing out CV's to any bars that might be hiring.

Amazingly on Thursday night, the first bar to ring back offered him a full time job in what looks like an awesome bar on Darling harbour front (and what sounds like an awesome bar from what he's been saying, I've not been along to distract him yet). He has already completed 3 11 hour shifts and we've been in the country less than a week!

Meanwhile I was sent off apartment hunting, with similar success! Flats seem to go very quickly, you could ring up within hours of an ad coming on Gumtree Sydney (an advertising website) and the room would be gone. A few viewings were disappointing, a few flats went before we could get there, and then we headed down to one 30 minutes walk South of Sydney CBD where we found our new place. A shared room in a house of 4 similar rooms, near to the train station (though an easy walk for both of us to work) with a 1st floor outside terrace. We can't wait to get on there with a bbq and a few stubbies! (stubbies equals bottled beer).

This weekend involved Tom working and me sampling the nightlife in Manly (Sydney northern suburb). I now know that Ash's mum is a catch with the local fella's and that a chicken and asparagus pie is the post night feed of choice, and that it definitely works. The night-time Manly ferry was also pretty special, going past the opera house and the harbour bridge lit up was incredible.

So a week in and we have settled nicely to what we know is going to be an awesome 3 months here in Sydney. We had a great time in New Zealand and saw loads of an amazing country, but we have both said before the trip that we were really looking forwards to staying in one place for a more extended period of time. Note to my mother: I promise not to enjoy it too much, so that I will come back to England next year!

Hope this 3 part saga has recovered for our lack of blogging over the last month. Anyways, I'm off to the beach!!!

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