SYDNEY
4th June: Arrived in Sydney at 6.30am, we had booked our hostel on the net so once we had landed we gave them a ring as they do complimentory pick up. Our hostel was called Boomerang Backpackers in Kings Cross the staff were not that friendly and there seemed to be alot of long term lodgers here, but the rooms made up for the short fall they were huge with a couch, wardrobe and TV, we shared a bathroom with two other rooms it was a real surprise because it looked plain and average on the website. It cost 50A$ per night and you got free breaky which consisted of cereal, toast and tea. We went to bed for a few hours to catch up on some sleep time! That night we strolled into Sydney Opera house(20mins) to meet Margaret and Tom Foley, Margaret is a good friend of Clares and she and Tom were on there honeymoon. We headed of in search of some munchies on George st and eventually settled on McCartys Bar afterwards we went down to Circular Quay and found a nice Cafe Bar were we had some drinks and caught up with all the goings on! First impressions of Sydney are thats its really friendly, beautiful sights and begging you to have a good time!

Over the next few days we explored sydney be foot and took in the sights of Sydney bridge,Darlinghurst wharf, Miller point, Hyde park, Opera house and in the evenings we met up with Margaret and Tom.

As we had missed there wedding we booked a dinner cruise for the 4 of us on Sydney harbour as a wedding present. This was really nice the cruise ship had two levels and we had a window seat on the upper level we got complimentory Champayne and a bottle of house wine. The meal was 4 course and all the food was very tasty, there was a caberet band playing and an opera singer did a few numbers to give you a taste of whats on offer in the opera house! We all had a nice time and we got to see the Sydney Harbour sights at night! The cruise lasted 2hrs.

Coming to OZ we knew that our biggest issue we would have would be sticking to the budget and after seeing the costs of transport and accomadation we knew we were in trouble, but we found a light at the end of the tunnel, a campervan hire company nearby the hostel were doing deals on vans hired from Carins and returning to Sydney The Van was a Hiace Toyota Hi-Top inside was sink, fridge, 2 ring gas cooker, microwave, TV and all the other bits and piece's we would need the sitting area converted in to a huge bed and all the linen was supplied there was an awning that fitted onto the side of the van so you had a sheltered sitting area out side chairs and table were even supplied! The daily rate for this was 50A$ our budget was 120A$ per day so this was workable in our budget. The van was set up so you could just pull up and stay were you felt or you could stay in caravan parks which are all over the place and cost between 15A$ and 30A$ per night. We booked flights to Carins an the net for 150A$ each and we were of to collect the van there! LET THE ROAD TRIP BEGIN!
Our last night in Sydney we met up with Margaret and Tom and splashed out on a feed and some cocktails in the Hard Rock Cafe. Margaret and Tom were off to Melbourne next but we would meet up near Brisbane in a couple of weeks.