Sydney...

So ou plane landed in Sydney at 10am and we were all ready to go through immigration when they told us that whoever had done our aus visas hadnt put our middle names and thats why we couldnt get through the express lane. So another thing i must make STA aware of....

Anyway, once bagagge was collected we went to declare our stuff nnd queued around twenty minutes and they werent even interested, they told us to go straight through.

We went to book our return hotel shuttle once we were through and the cashcard wouldnt work so Luke had to pull the money out at the ATM which made us latw to miss the first bus. By the time we got sorted at the hotel and ready to explore it was 2pm.

The hotel was already paid for and the shuttle bus was $32 pp return and we never found anything cheaper. We stayed at the Macleay lodge and again , nothing like the pictures on the internet !! It was cramped and very dusty !! There was builders doing work next door 9am - 3pm which didnt really effect us but was annoying when we arrived.

We knew we wanted to do a zoo and the sydney sky tower and reception had an offer of a 10% discount so we bought them there. They are valid for 30 days too. It was $60 extra to do the skywalk so we didntbother with that. We later found out at Manly tourist office that youcan get on the day tickets very cheap there.

We went straight out to get the 311 bus outside woolworths to Circular Quay it was $2.30 pp and took around 15-20 mins. At circular Quay there are many piers to get the boats. We bought our ticket to Manly at pier 5 and boarded at pier 3 , well tried to, we had a ticket for any ither boat but Manly so he lets us through anyway but our ticket hadnt been swiped.

The boat was meant to be $7 pp return to Manly and takes 20-30 mins , it has charging devices and free wifi , there is a cafe on board too. We sat at the front outside and got great views but it was very windy and cold for us coming from Thailand. I was wearing a dress and it was difficult to hold in the wind so we had to go inside after a while. It is spring in Sydney so it is 18-21 degrees so we were very cold. We got to Manly ok and only had to walk accross the beach to get to the Sanctuary , they even had a nandos here but it did different but better stuff than the UK. We paid $24.50 for the sanctuary but didnt mind as the animals have been saved to live there. They even had a wing gor sick animals they are currently looking after. It was great to see all the animals but especially the Sea turtles as a lot of them were the same as we had seen in Dubai.

We had gotten to the sanctuary at four as we had just missed the 3pm boat , they close 5 mins before so bear that in mind!!! Becausr we had gotten there late, we only had an hour to do the sanctuary, which was plenty of time but we may have done the shark scuba diving if we had more time.

Obce we had finished at the sanctuary , we got the 5.25pm boat bacj to Sydney which meant that we got great pictures of the sunset at the harbour. Try to get to the boat early as the outdoor fills up fast fir the sunset pics, yoy can sit inside on the window seat as the windows open for viewing but the aus seem to like to sit here and not look out of the window once !!

Once we got off the boat , we took a walk to the Sydney opera house and took a few photos and walked right up to it so we could touch it !!

It was great and very pish inside, you could see through the glass areas. You can then walk underground through the parade of shops and the bar and restaurant of sydney harbour which actually isnt too badly priced. We looked at the ugg shops and then returned to Mcdonalds as we had earlier in the day as its the only place affordable , even the 7-11 works out the same price. We got some sundaes and returned home.

Earlier at Mcdonalds, we had won an attraction pass on their monopoly instant win cards. So we decided to use it for the Sydney wildlife zoo. So basically it was buy one get one free !! So we had tomorrows plans sorted along with the sky tower !!!