We arrive into Sydney after leaving the airport in Tahiti at 2am. We had already planned to stay in Sydney for two weeks so we thought we would chill out in the Blue Mountains for a few days.

We were very hungry by the time we reached our hostel in the Blue Mountains, so we went out for a fish and chip lunch and for our first tasting of chicken salt that a lot of aussies we have met on the way have been raving about. To be honest, it didn’t taste that much different from normal salt. We decided to have an easy first day in Australia, so we hit the cinema to watch the new James Bond film, The Quantum of Solace and then headed had an early night.

The next day we got straight into the hiking and started on the Prince Henry Cliff walk which headed towards Echo Point. Along the way we saw some great views of the Three Sisters Mountains.

We went on from there to tackle the Giant staircase which has over 900 steps. Further on, we walked past the Katoomba falls and finally made it to Scenic world which has built its enterprise on an old mining area.

As we were still in relaxing mode we did pretty much nothing but reading books, sleeping or playing games in the hostel for a few days. It was quite nice not rushing to a tour to planning anything. Sometimes that stuff can be a big chore.

In between relaxing days, me and Mike decided to go see the waterfalls known as the Laura Cascades. We wished we never bothered in the end as it wasn’t that spectacular.

On the way back from the walk when we were practically at the door of our hostel, Mike realises that he has lost his wallet and thinks he may have lost it on the trail. So the first thing we do is report it to the police in case someone may have handed it in and also because the police station as right next door to the hostel. The next thing we do is grab Chris to help us have a look for it. So we all head back towards the trails we went on and even had to drag ourselves down the giant staircase. We retrace our steps and use big sticks to poke and prod the bush that runs along side the trail to check if the missing wallet is there. After hours of searching, we finally give up and head back to the hostel. It is there where Mike checks in is backpack and finds that his wallet has miraculously appeared in there. Me and Chris were fairly annoyed as we told him to check there in the first place! But the main reason that we were annoyed was that we pretty much hike a few miles and went up and down the giant staircase for nothing!

Anyway, we move on from that needless stress and de-stress with a game of Monopoly which provided us with us over 2 hours of entertainment. And Mike won…

We spent 4 days in the Blue Mountains which provided us with some fantastic views and also our last moments of relaxation before we head off to the big city of Sydney.