Sydney, Australia

We landed in Sydney on a cloudy Wednesday lunchtime and were extremely excited to arrive at our hotel (yes hotel not hostel!!!) Ok it was only a travelodge, but compared to our huts in Fiji it may as well have been the Ritz!! We went for a walk around the city, visiting a few shopping malls along the way and determind NOT to see the opera house or harbour bridge (we wanted to wait til it was sunny so it would be like we imagined it!!!) Very tired we went back to our palace and ordered room service!! The following day we took the very touristy open top double decked bus around the city to see all the sights. Fortunately we did not have to go around keeping our eyes closed to aviod the opera house and bridge because it was a beautiful sunny day! Sydney is a stunning city - the harbour is just beautiful, and the bridge and opera house did not disappoint either. Later in the day we went to the top of the sky tower to look at the incredible views across the city which go straight out to Bondi and the ocean. As we walked throught the streets we noticed that Wicked the Musical was playing. We went to investigate ticket prices and found out that they do something called the wicked lottery everyday, which means that if you write your name on a piece of paper and they draw it (they pick 15), you get front row tickets for A$30! So off Sam went to flirt with the staff and sure enough we won the tickets for that night! The following day was a very special day for us-we collected our baby! Baby juicy that is - http://www.jucy.com.au/jucy/jucy-choppa.asp?keepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=400&width=430 After speaking to a number of ppl we decided (much to everyones amusement at home) to rent a camper van! In Australia this is very much the done thing and the campsites are really holiday resorts with pools, tennis courts, bbqs the whole works! After collecting our baby (we were a little nervous) we took her on her first outing to Bondi Beach and had a walk around trying to spot great whites!!! That evening as Rosh Hashana came in we went to Emma's cousin Taryn for dinner and enjoyed our first home cooked meal in months! We left at about 10.30pm and off we went to our first campsite - or so we thought!!! Naively we thought you could just show up to these places unannounced at anytime you like - this is not the case!!! All the campsites were closed for the night in a panic at about 12.30 we asked the sat nav to take us to the nearest hotel - a marriott (great!!) They were asking $300 a night so off we drove and eventually found a travelodge. Sam flirted again and they let us stay in their secure car park and use their facilities for $5!!! The following day, after wandering through the hotel in our pjs we set off for the first part of our road trip - the Blue Mountains!