After work one afternoon we drove up to Palm Beach to walk along the beach & watch the sunset. Being mid week & winter we had the beach to ourselves. Walking up to the light house which sits on the most northern tip of Palmy we sat looking out for passing whales which you can apparently see from there. We of course weren't that lucky! Walking down we look a slight detour from the path, clambering through the undergrowth to come out here, on the cliff edge where we watched this incredible sunset.

Some amazing graffiti we came across in Bondi by Australian street artist Mr G.

Keeping ourselves amused waiting for the trains. The metro in Sydney is nothing like London or New York, stations are few & far between (there's not even a train to Bondi Beach) & not particularly frequent. But because inner city Sydney is pretty small it's easy to walk to most places, saving you that $3.50 fare to spend on.... umm not sure what you can get for $3.50 here...pint of milk or a chocolate bar maybe?

On a sunny autumn day we took the ferry over to Manly & walked the coastal path to Shelley Beach Park, then went around the shoreline climbing the boulders, looking out to sea, completely alone it didn’t feel like we were in Sydney. Manly beach is beautiful, really chilled out, lined with pine trees, great for surfing & Shelley Beach around the cove on the south end of Manly is absolutely stunning. Food wise we’ve fallen in love with Mex&Co for amazing Mexican & Belgium Waffle Café.

The ferry from the city to Manly is an absolutely beautiful way to see Sydney as you sail past the Opera House, Wooloomooloo wharf, Nielsen Park & all the little bays. Apparently there are quite a few sharks in the harbour at any time so we are always on fin spotting patrol when aboard. On our way back here we managed to time the trip perfectly, leaving Manly at dusk so we came into the harbour with all the buildings lit up. It's an incredible view with the Bridge, Opera House... read more.

With 330 shops over 7 floors, Westfield shopping centre is pretty massive to say the least & we've spend a few afternoons window shopping here. The food court is probably the most impressive, if you're looking for gourmet hot dogs, health foods you didn't even know existed, a patisserie stand that makes you want to cry & everything in between, go here just to be wowed. It also has the Tower Eye where you can have dinner overlooking the whole city, another activity we've yet to experience so far.

Maybe we've lived in a small, conservative town like Bath for too long, but this vending machine for Havaianas flip flops, aka thongs here in Australia, stunned me. I'm torn between delight at the idea and confusion. Why would you go to a vending machine for shoes? But then again getting thongs from a box that usually gives you chocolate is just so cool! Whatever I think it's a pretty novel idea and good marketing for the brand. Kudos Havaianas!

Although it may look like all fun & games, unfortunately we have to fund our jumping lifestyle. Tip to anyone looking to work in Sydney, get a bar job in the CBD. We've both managed to get jobs where you don’t have to work wkends. Yep its true, our bars close over the weekend leaving us the best 2days to enjoy living here. Moon works in Bar Luca & I work a block away in The Flynn. Both attract a lovely crowd of office workers/regulars, the foods really good & of course the service's 2nd to none!

In every Sydney travel guide, the Coogee to Bondi walk always seems to make it into the top 10. And after 3 months here, we finally did it. On one of the last days of summer we walked the 5km with all the other tourists and runners along the cliffs, past hidden coves and busy beaches. It is a really beautiful walk with amazing views and some great places to swim in calmer waters. It is a great thing to do and would totally recommend it to anyone visiting Sydney.

Here we are leaping along the pier in Husskinson. The town is really cute, very small, little bit hill billy- the pub serves Bundaberg rum from a soda gun! We slept in the car park over looking the pier and this beautiful view, and spent a night here drinking Goon, jumping into the (really cold) water with the stingrays. If you go to Huskisson make sure you have a pancake breakfast or cake at Fresh at the Bay, it's amazing! I also want to visit again in November for a whale watching trip.

Parking in an empty car park and walking down a forest track we came out here... Long Beach, stretching white sand, beautifully wild and completely deserted. The water is so flat here and stays shallow for ages, perfect for snorkelling (although having just seen a massive shark an hour earlier we were a little reserved about swimming too far from the safety of the shore!).

A morning jump outside the juice bar, Vejuiceria, right by our apartment in Potts Point. It's a pretty hard decision choosing which one to have from the list of 70, all named and whisked up by Mark, the funny little Italian owner.

Walking down some dirt tracks in the national park we came across these amazing cliffs, a sheer drop into the Bay. Looking for adventure, we weaved our way down coming out at the water where a group of extreme fisherman were camped. Having already caught a 2.5m Marlin that lay on the rocks, within 5mins of being there we saw a 350kg shark eat the line & buoy. We chatted to the guys that live on the cliffs for up to 6wks at a time, catching just for fun! Robson Green needs to check this out!

One of the greatest feelings when traveling... you're driving along with friends, music's playing, windows open, roads empty and you feel like you've discovered somewhere completely new. I hope everyone gets to feel this at some time.

Possibly my favourite beach that we went to, Orion’s Beach was so beautiful and basically deserted every time. Actually quite small, the forest comes right down onto the sand and the waters really shallow, calm and the snorkelling is supposed to be pretty good. We stayed the night here, parking up so we over looked the water. It was amazing waking up to this.

We have yet to formally introduce our camper van…Meet Moonbat. Hired from Spaceships for our road trip, the (just about) trusty, obnoxiously orange van came equipped with fridge, cooker, DVD and bed that wasn’t really big enough for the 3 of us to sleep comfortably in. In this photo Moonbat is parked up by Blenheim Beach. The eucalyptus forests around Jervis Bay are really beautiful, filled with kookaburras, parrots and foxes, which we managed to makes friends with one night using left overs.

Currarong is a funny little town in the north of Jervis Bay where we stopped for some food when driving around. Sitting on the grass by the water eating our 'medium' fries, that were no jokes the size of a small child, we tempted in the seagulls and watched the sun set over the bay. It was pretty amazing that with all the birds flying around only one of us got pooed on - some good luck for me!

On our last day in Jervis Bay we rented a kayak & canoe and paddled up stream from Huskisson into the creek. We went in and out of the mangroves (attempting to find a snake whilst not getting wedged), followed pelicans and spotted some pretty big stingrays in the shallows. The creek is so beautiful and peaceful, even though it was Easter weekend we had the river to ourselves.

The one overcast day of our road trip we swapped our bikinis for sneakers and hit the National Park. We drove down dirt roads to explore some of the beaches. Honeymoon Bay was our first stop and was actually quite a let down, being far from deserted and nothing like the beautiful post cards we'd seen. However around the corner (where this was taken) we felt more impressed, with the cool rock formations and we even spotted pelicans.