My First Week In Sydney

After the longest journey of my life I arrived in Sydney on the 15th of March, tired, anxious, and excited to start my year long trip in Australia. 

After a good nights sleep I was ready to start my first week with my Ultimate Oz group with the first day being a city walk past the Opera House, through the Botanical Gardens, Hyde Park and then lunch at Circular Quay. My first expectations of Sydney reminded me of New York crossed between London with an English feel. I was so far away from home but in some ways it felt like home already.

Later that evening we all met up and headed to Side Bar under Wake Up hostel for free food(a must for travellers on a budget).

After initially being quite anxious and unsure about coming to Sydney on my own after the first day of meeting the others on my group I realised I had nothing to worry about. I was taken aback by how much people talk to each other in hostels and how friendly everyone is. I initially went from worrying about being on my own to realising I was in the same boat as everyone else. 

Day two we all went out on a Catamaran boat trip around the harbour where we stopped on a private beach for a bbq and the chance to brave jumping off the boat into the water. I even got to drive the boat all the way back into harbour! 

Our next port of call was basecamp, a two and a half hours drive away from SYD to Port Stevens for two nights stay in a tent under the stars practically in the middle of no where(Golden Orb spiders EVERYWHERE!. 

Whilst we were here we partied on the beach late at night, went sand boarding, a Bush walk through Tomaree National Park, BBQ, Dolphin Cruise finished off with what claims to be the best Fish and Chips in the whole of Oz. Sorry England but it definitely was! For me Basecamp was the best part of the whole week and where we all started to bond and build friendship groups. 

Basecamp beach party

Dolphin Cruise - Port Stevens

On the Friday after two days at Basecamp we headed back to Sydney to finish off our Ultimate Oz week with a coastal walk from Coogee to Bondi. My first week had been packed full with different experiences and things I would never have imagined I'd have ever seen. My absolute highlight was the Dolphin cruise having never seen them before, to find our boat surrounded by them in the wild was quite something and made me realise how lucky I was to be living in Oz. I initially thought the week would go quickly but if anything it went slowly and was a perfect mixture of different activities and ways to get to know everyone in our travel group. 

Next stop Surf Camp!