Australia

We arrived in Sydney early evening, it was cloudy so couldn't see much out of the window on the flight. The weather didn't make Sydney look to good, wasn't sure what to make of it really, it was far bigger than I expected. We got to the hostel, was a bit seedy, but good enough and after looking at other hostels on the way around Sydney I think we were actually quite lucky! The hostel was quite a walk from the centre, as soon as we got there we took a walk through the city and down to Sydney Harbour, Harbour Bridge and Opera house. The views were quite amazing and definitely better as it got dark. After having a wonder it was quite late by the time we got back to the hostel.
We spent the following day sorting ourselves out, working out what to do about transport around OZ. We also went for a look around Darling Harbour and walked up onto Harbour Bridge. In the evening we got the tube down to Kings Cross and met Dave Lindsell, really good to see him. We made the mistake of going out in flipflips, they won't let you in any bars and in Oz they are big on ID and Ian didn't have any so the eveing was a bit of a struggle. We managed to worm our way into one bar so just stayed there. Danielle and Lucy came out, it was really great to see them. I think Dave was a little taken back by the whole crazy girls thing, but i think he enjoyed it! Ian and I got the last train back to our hostel, was quite merry after my drinks! (Thank you very much Dave).
Friday was Australia Day, which was awsome and definitely made me like Sydney much more. The sun was shining and there was so much going on all day. We met Dave down at Circular Quay where there were bands playing,then went for a walk around to the Opera house, stopping to have a rather expensive drink on the way! We then made our way down to Hyde Park to meet Danielle and Lucy, on the way we had lovely ice creams and there were loads of vintage cars on show for Australia day. They were fantastic! We then relaxed in Hyde Park, listened to the bands and got Australia flags to join in the celebrations! Dave then left and Ian and I went for a chinese in China Town, it was so busy, was really cool just to sit there and watch the world go by. We raced back to the hostel and got changed so we could make it down to Darling Harbour to see the fireworks. We got there just in time, battled through the crouds to find Dave and then watched the show and fireworks. It was spectacular, really fantastic! ( Mum, you'd have loved it) We then met up with Danielle and Lucy and said goodbye, until we get back there on 11th Feb.
Ian and I hired a car, we had to get to the other side of the city to pick it up, we struggled with our bags and my my I was sweating when I finally got there! We got the car, a little rusty coloured Yaris and drove to Canberra. We had a few hours there, went around the new parliament buildings and looked at the old and then went and looked around the botanical gardens. Got a bit scared as it said beware of the snakes all around! There were heaps of lizzards, but I quite like lizzards! From Canberra we were going to drive down to Lakes Entrance on the South Coast and stay there for the night, but the plans went a bit wrong! We realise after passing Cooma that we must have taken a wrong turning! Over 60km out the way, so we had to drive all the way back...but we did get to go to the Snowy mountains region! We saw loads of kangaroos, in fact we saw about 50 kangaroos and only 2 cars over 90kms! We drove and it got to about 9pm, realised that no petrol stations stay open in Oz! By this time it was quite dark and when I was driving a kangaroo jumped at the car, I hit it, but there was no dent so all's good!! We realised that we weren't going to make it to Lakes Entrance on the petrol, it was pretty touch and go, but we drove until the petrol almost ran out and then slept in the car in a small town called Orbost. Not the best nights sleep I've had, but I have to say the back seat of the Yaris wasn't that bad! Ian was in the passenger seat, I woke up with sore knees as they'd had to stay very bend all night! But, we were off by 8am this morning when the petrol station opened. Not sure what would have happened if it didn't open on a sunday!! We got on our way and travelled about 2 and a half hours to Wilson's Promontory National Park. We walked to a few beached and went for a walk over tidal river, but got cut off as the water was too high. It was so windy down there and not good weather, it started to rain so we didn't walk too far. I have to say the weather really does make a difference, the national park would have be fantastic had the weather been nice and we weren't getting sand whipped into the back of our legs on the beach. We made our way to Melbourne, got here earlier today. It's busy because of the tennis being on, but so far I'm impressed with what I've seen and I'm going to Ramsey Street tomorrow... I can't wait!!!