On boxing day we planned to watch the Sydney Hobart boat race, but we woke up late again so instead spent the day looking around the harbour, including taking one of two photos of us with the Sydney Opera House and picking a spot for New Years Eve. After walking around the botanic gardens seeing many different types of flower, trees and bats we chose Mrs Macquaries Point, an area with an overview of the harbour with a perfect view of the bridge and opera house all in the same shot.

We spent one afternoon walking across the harbour bridge, but the weather was overcast, so we stopped halfway and headed back to walk around darlington harbour after that we met up with Kev in Chinatown at place we had been recommended, Sizzling Pot. Wow, the portions were absolutely huge, the dishes were served still sizzling on a metal tray with a bowl of rice on the side. There was enough food on the table to probably feed us twice over.

Our guide book recommended a walk between Coogee and Bondi beach that follows the coast providing views along the route, at the time we did some parts were being maintained so we were diverted via a graveyard. After walking just over half way we were all really hot and fancied a dip in the sea, so we stopped at Nelson bay and went into the sea. Unfortunately, we didn’t move from the beach and didn’t make it Bondi. The weather took a turn for the worse and the sky began looking like it was going to rain so we headed back to Coogee.

As well as all the sightseeing we began hunting for a van to take Mike, John and I from Sydney up to Cairns, it seemed to be quite hard at first as most of the vans we wanted to buy were over our initial $1500 budget or already sold. So we realised we had to be more realistic with what we wanted to spend and upped our budget to $4500. Once we had done that we started contacting some potentials, one prospect, “Boris” was a real bargain only $2000 but once we had seen it we realised why. The van had certainly had backpacker marked on it. It was a real mess inside and to start required a pair of pliers and 15 attempts at getting it going, it really didn’t like cold starts. On the outside it was very colourful and would certainly help us find it in a busy car park. The search continues….

We began getting all our food/snacks and drinks in order to leave early the following day including our “special orange juice”. The area we wanted to go to was strictly no alcohol and we didn’t want to be paying for the overpriced food and drinks once inside so we took some 1.5 litre fruit juice bottles and über cheap vodka to mix with it. It turned all turned our pretty well and was tasty too. We even took extra measures to ensure the seals weren’t broken on the bottles if they were inspected by the security guards. Next up, New Years Eve.