NSW - Arriving in Sydney

We dropped the car off at the airport in the evening and were met by Scott & Sally. It was so good to see them again as it feels like such a long time since we saw them in South Africa.

We went for dinner (nice Vietnamese meal) in Kings Cross in the city – this is the epicentre of nightlife in Sydney and has loads of clubs, bars and restaurants as well as being the red light district! After dinner we drove to Manly where Scott took us on a walking tour, this inevitably lasted about 3 minutes as we headed to a pub, The Steyn, which has no less than 4 bars and has everything from pool tables, restaurant room, and TAB bar. We went to the bar overlooking the main beach, which was pretty cool. Scott was telling us about Manly Backpackers which he owns with his friend Pete, and that it’s a real party place. It was really busy with the New Years, so we went to check it out, and when Pete went to show Ev & Sally one of the rooms, he didn’t wait long enough between knocking and entering, and walked in on a couple who were romanticising ;) He paused a bit longer before entering the next room ;)

At the apartment we got introduced to Squawk, Scott & Sally’s cockatoo. She is learning new whistling tunes and can’t really speak as yet. However, she does like to practice her tunes, especially early in the morning when she wants breakfast!! She’s quite cute and you can take her out of the cage and she climbs up your arm onto your shoulder - normally to poop. She then tries to fly, but because her wings have been clipped so she never gets very far ;)

Next morning is the Eve of New Years Ev and as the New Years party has a theme – 007 – we went to the local mall to find some outfits. Ev managed to get a real bargain at a Chinese outlet for her Bond dress and Marc bought some (toy) guns and gold spray paint.

With this out the way we went down to the pub on the wharf to meet up with some of Scott & Sally’s friends before dinner. Tonight we went to a Mexican restaurant (with their Mexican friend ;) and soon enough the champers was flowing in celebration of the backpackers being full – the first time this has happened since they took it over 6 months ago. We had to be quite disciplined though, as we wanted to save ourselves for tomorrow night, so whilst we wanted to go out partying we went home at a reasonable hour…