There are no kangaroos in Sydney, plenty of bats though!

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We arrived at the end of the wettest summer in 16 years, although we arrived to clear blue skies. Much of our early days was spent living in constant fear of big spiders....otherwise lots of fun to be had messing around in Sydney.

We started our adventures in Sydney with beers at the Opera House bar; it was really surreal having a few drinks with old friends with the backdrop of the harbour bridge. The fashion show on the pathway behind us was also a great spectacle and reminder that we were back in a big city after a very long time.

Sydney has loads to offer and our exploration in the first few days took us to Bondi beach, quintescential Australia - surfers riding the waves, lifeguards in strange hats, beautiful bodies soaking up the sun. The football (soccer to north americans) Grand Final had a great atmosphere at Aussie stadium, althouhg the standard of the game was somewhat lacking. Otherwise we spent a great deal of time walking around the city centre trying to orientate ourselves. Our first impressions were that Sydney was a really laid back livable city.

It really takes some time getting used to seeing cockatoos and other colourful parakeets squarking around the city parks (cockatoos have to be the noisiest things in the world), and even more unexpected were the bats. There are thousands of them just hanging around the botanical gardens during the daytime (quite literally) and then as dusk settles they take to the sky, and you just hope that they don't crap on your head as they go over. Spooky hey!

After the inital rain that greeted much of our first week, it was great that the sun eventually came out for us and everyone was hoping for a good autumn. Where possible we tried to do as much as we could around the admin of looking for work and somewhere to live. Plenty of drinks with friends; old and new, and continuing to explore the city. The ferry ride to Manly was exceptional, walking the coast from Bondi to Coogee Bay stunning. Combining tourism in the city with our love of wine was hardly challenging at the NSW wine festival with the Sydney Tower looming above; great fun although not knowing anything about local wine we made our wine selection based on the hilarity of the winery names, and Australia is not short of ridiculous sounding names!

An excellent overnight camping trip to the Blue Mountains was an pleasant escape from the city, what with the large lizards, attractive landscape, plenty of colourful birds to keep Matt entertained, and tons of waterfalls on a stunning afternoon walk.

A trip to the lovely northern beaches saw us drive over the harbour bridge for the first time which was quite an experience (well we are travelling geeks)...the beaches were lovely too including Palm beach (we later found out that they film Home and Away there) and Whale beach in particular. Also we cashed in the brilliant leaving present we were given by our friends in Vancouver; parasailing over Sydney harbour. Starting out from Manly we were whisked into the air from the back of a speed boat...it was a stunning morning and views of the opera house and bridge were fabulous..still not tiring of it, and Matt is trying to take photos of it from every conceivable angle!

All the while we were exploring we were trying to find work and playing Australian roulette with the property rental market. It was a period of ups and downs, but as luck would have it Matt managed to pick up some proper work, so that after about 3 weeks in the city he was gainfully employed, and we had secured an apartment in a cracking part of town a week after that. We ended up in the heart of Oxford Street, and what a queer area it is! We have been extremely lucky in being able to stay with Kerri and Angus for a month whilst everything sorted itself out, their location was excellent for getting to know the place and they also introduced us to a Canadian expat group, so we probably know more Canuks in Australia than in Canada! Its great having good friends in a city like this.

The travelling part of our trip has temporarily stopped, but the tourist bit certainly hasn't...Australia is a vast place to explore!

Still no big spiders at this point! Fingers and everything else is still crossed.

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