The best way to describe how we felt stepping off the plane in Sydney is culture shock. Not that it was an alien culture but more that it was so familiar to us, after three months in Asia it was strange being somewhere that looked so like England. The houses, the people, the shops, the cars all reminded us so much of back home, where were the hawker centres, the night markets, the tuk tuks?!

We found ourselves in Coogee Bay which is real backpacker territory, second only to Bondi which seems to backpacker central. They say that you can tell a new backpacker arrival by the way they run down to the sea, yelp when they realise how cold it is, then get sent flying by the surf, washing up on the beach a bedraggled mess minus bikini top. Sad to say, but I think we pretty much fitted that description in our first few days in Oz. I find the waves just huge and it took me about a week to master the art of diving through them rather than have them break over my head and send me tumbling. Next step was buying a body board and although we are both completely rubbish at least we look the part carrying it on our back on the way down to the beach.

Christmas day was different but great, it was absolutely baking and we spent the afternoon on Coogee beach with friends from the backpacker hostel. It was a busy day for the surf lifesavers - on Bondi they rescued 150 drunk, sunburnt backpackers from the waves. New Years Eve was amazing, we got down to the harbour front at 11am to secure a spot and settled down on our picnic rug to empty the contents of the coolbox while we waited for the big moment. At midnight the bridge just exploded with light and colour and everyone burst into applause and cheering. I have never ever seen a fireworks show like that, it truly put London's millenium 'river of fire' spectacle to shame!

As for the boring stuff... we have found a nice little flat and both got jobs and it looks like we'll be in Sydney for a few months before we head off around Australia.