Wednesday 21 March 2007

We're in Byron Bay!

We're in Byron Bay now. We left Sydney over a week ago after going on a Blue Mountains tour which was good. It was really cloudy when we first got to the Blue Mountains so we couldn't see the three sisters or anything at all really at first but out tour guide was really good and took us for walk through the bush first and then took us back to the three sisters when the clouds had gone. We went on the really scary, almost vertical train back up after we had done out bush walk down 1000 steps. The train was sooooo scary, I knew it was steep but i didn't realise exactly how scary it would be.

After surviving the train ride and seeing the Blue mountains we headed back to Sydney for one more night. We left the next day on the Greyhound bus to Newcastle. It was a really nice town and there was a huge surf competition going on there so there were lots of people around. We also went on a wine tasting tour in the Hunter Valley while we were there. That was really fun and we did all get more than a little tipsey. We went to about 5 different vineyards where they all gave us at least 6 wines to try and a few ports too. One place specialised in a kind of spirit called dragons breath, once you'd drunk it really did feel like you could breathe fire, it was sooo spicy. We also got to try lots of cheese on the tour too which was yummy. I now know alot about wine, I can tell you what wine to drink with spicy food, what to drink with fatty meats like duck and all sorts of other handy wine hints. It was a really nice day and the sun was shining so it was really good.

We stayed in Newcastle for a couple of nights and then moved on to a place called Coffs Harbour. We didn't really do much there except lie on the beach and swim in the sea although the second day we were there it rained all day so we went into the town and looked at the shops. It was a nice enough town but there was really that much there so we only stayed there a couple of nights.

After Coffs we moved on to a place called Lennox Head. I loved Lennox. It was a really small town, only one main road, one pub, one supermarket, one hostel but everyone was so friendly and we met loads of people there. We stayed there for a few nights. We went body boarding in the sea which was fun although difficult because of the size of the waves. We also went swimming in the lake which was great. The lake is a reddy black colour because of all the Tee Tree oil and Eucalyptus from the trees around the lake, it was really beautiful and lovely to swim in, and no crocs which is always a bonus. We havn't actually seen any dangerous animals yet, although we did think we saw a red back spider in the toilet but we're not sure about that. We had a really nice time in Lennox Head and could have stayed there alot longer if we had the time.

We arrived in Byron Bay this morning, it's only a 20 min bus journey from lennox to Byron so that was ok. I think we're just going to be here for couple of nights, it's very expensive here, a bit of a tourist trap really. I'm not sure what the plan is after here at the moment, possibly Brisbane.

Anyway best be off.

love lucy
xxx

Tuesday 6 March 2007

Back in Sydney

I'm back in Sydney now. We had a really good time in Melbourne, I really liked it there, i thought it was quite similar to Brighton which is maybe why i liked it so much. I've already written about our Neighbours tour, there's not much else to say about that than what i've already written. It was good but of course the highlight was meeting janelle. After the Neighbours tour we did a bit of shopping in St. Kilda which is where we were staying. We bought a few things and then spent the rest of the day on the beach. We met a couple of girls in our hostel who we spent most of our time with. They went to University in Brighton so straight off we had alot in common with them and of course we played the "do you know..."game and we did find a few people from brighton that we all knew. Basically we spent out time in Melbourne just on the beach and wondering around the city.

We flew back to Sydney on the 27th where Hannah went to stay with Mike (her boyfriend) who was also in Sydney for a few days and me and Ellie stayed in a hostel in Kings Cross. Our hostel wasn't really that nice and the Kings Cross area was a bit skanky but it was ok and quite central. Our hostel was also opposite to Nicks hostel. Nick is a guy i worked with at American Express. So we've met up with him a few times. We all had one big night out with everyone which was just like going out at home really cos there was mike and all his friends and then nick and us so it was a bit like we were back in Brighton. Our friend James who we met in NZ was there too so he came along. It was a really fun night out.

On Saturday night it was Mardi Gras which puts the Pride parade to shame. It was a huge parade that went on for hours. the costumes were amazing. We managed to get a really good spot to watch it from as well, outside a pub! It was good though cos the pub had a fenced off area to watch from so we saw much more than we would have done if we were just lining the streets like everyone else. I'm so glad we went. It was soooooo busy, apparently there were 500,000 people there! we also saw quite a few famous people. We walked past Michael Barrymore in the crowd and then in the parade we saw Rupert Everett and Boy George. The boy George float was really funny, it was loads of people dressed as Boy George dressed in community service costumes and Boy George was just walking in the middle of them, he was really hard to see if you weren't looking. It was a really good evening, after the parade we didn't go out because all the bars and clubs were charging a fortune to get in so we just went for one more drink then home.

The next day Mike and co. flew to China so it was just the three of us. Hannah has a friend from home living in Sydney so we went to stay with her for a couple of nights. When we got there she took us for a swim at Narabeen beach, right next to where she lives and then we went to play lawn bowls! And yes we are under the age of 85. It was really fun and of course i won, i think i've found my calling. I really liked it. It was all young people drinking a playing bowls and betting, everyong put a $1 in the pot and the winner takes all. So that was good. Then we went back to the flat and had a BBQ.

We stayed at Jo and Chris' for the night and then the next day they took us out to Palm Beach where Home and Away if filmed and they were filming when we got there! We got to watch them filming for a while really close up and we also met Kim from the show and had out photo taken with him, we're such tourists! After that Hannah went to do her Harbour Bridge climb. Me and Ellie met up with our friend that we met in NZ for a while. After being in the city for a while we just fancied having a quiet night and watched a film.

Since then we havn't been up to a great deal. Just hanging around Sydney and seeing the sights. We're planning on making our way up the coast on Monday so looking forward to that.

love lucy

xxx