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Published: January 11th 2011
Tuesday 28th December
Ah.....Sunny Sydney..sun sun sun!! We couldn't get out the airport quick enough and headed for the Skytrain into town.
We quickly made our way to Kent Road which is near Darling harbour by using two trains via the underground and shortly arrived at our appartment which will be our home for the next five days!
The Napoleon on Kent are serviced appartments which are perfectly located near the harbour and also the town centre which is great for us as we can plan our new years celebrations and sightseeing tours without worrying about travelling great distances.
Our friends John and Kat from Glasgow are coming to stay with us on Thrusday for a few days so we are looking forward to seeing them again as it seems like ages ago we met in Fiji.
We bought some groceries for the next few days and had a nice evening in chilling out in our living room on the sofa! We both wished we had our dressing gowns and slippers with us we were that much at home!
Wednesday 29th December
I woke up to gloirous sunshine coming in through our patio windows. Jills just
got back from her morning jog and we sat and had breakfast and arranged via facebook to meet up with some friends at Bondi Beach.
We hopped on the 30 minute bus to Bondi Beach and its starting to get really busy on the bus as we pick up people on the way passing through the city and past Kings Cross.
We came out of the last corner before and there it was....The famous Bondi Beach!
It was hoaching with people. We struggled to find our friends anywhere and almost gave up before we luckily spotted them out the corner of our eyes next to the Lifeguard station. We spent a good couple of hours on the beach chatting and admiring the views and I'm glad I'm wearing sunglasses as the scenery and waves are not the only beautiful things to look at around Bondi Beach! 😊
We left Bondi along the coastal walks and walked all the way around to the view point areas for some decent photo shots of the area. Theres lots of nice rock features and wind cut stone all along the pathways towards the viewpoint which is situated on top of a cliff
overlooking Bondi.
Just around the corner from here you can find Tamarama Beach and Bronte Beach which are popular with the expert surfers as theres less chance of you hitting someone else on your board here as its much quieter.
We did ponder heading for Manley Beach but its a hike and a ferry away from here and we dont have time today.
Its getting near dinner time so we hop on our bus and used our return tickets to get all the way back to George Street which is about a ten minute walk from Kent street and our appartment. I made a fine Chicken Risotto for tea and we before settling down for the night we went online and booked our Ayers rock tour for next month just in case it got booked out.
Our firends Kat and John arrive in the morning and its going to be great having some great company for new year.
Thursday 30th December
Jill has sussed out a good spot for us for the new year celebrations as she has been running along the waterfront in the mornings. I will check it out later as we will pass by there
on the opentop bus tour this afternoon.
John and Kat arrived in the morning and they looked tired from the over night bus so we let them get settled in while we went off on the city sightseeing tour.
We caught the open top Sydney Explorer bus at the Circular Quay and made our way past Wynyard which houses the Queen Victoria building. The Queen Victoria Building, or QVB, is a late nineteenth century building by the Scottish architect George McRae in the central business district of Sydney. Designed as a shopping centre, it was later used for a variety of other purposes until its restoration and return to its original use in the late twentieth century.
Next stop was the Sydney Town hall further up George Street which was built in 1880 from limestone.
The building houses the Sydney City Council Chamber, reception rooms, the Centennial Hall and offices for the Lord Mayor and elected councillors. The Centennial Hall (main hall) contains the world's largest entirely mechanical pipe organ, built from 1886 to 1889 and installed in 1890.
We drove past St Mary's cathedral and Hyde Park which originally was a horse race course. As we turned
off from here we headed down the impressive William Street which takes us all the way to Kings Cross.
Kings Cross is Famous for its Red light district and for its 80 metre coca cola sign which passed us quickly and I could get a photo but you get the general idea of it.
We passed Cowper Wharf and the Botanical Gardens and we were almost at our eagerly awaited jump off point. The Sydney Opera house.
Its a truely awesome building. The Sydney Opera house stands proudly in front of us so we go and explore it by walking around the shell like structures and stood up close to it admiring the views back towards the CBD. (central business district)
The Sydney Opera house project was built in three stages. Stage I (1959–1963) consisted of building the upper podium. Stage II (1963–1967) saw the construction of the outer shells. Stage III (1967–1973) consisted of the interior design and construction.
It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, who, in 2003, received the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honour.
The Opera House was formally opened by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on 20 October 1973.
The Sydney Opera House was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007.
It is one of the 20th century's most distinctive buildings and one of the most famous performing arts centres in the world.
Contrary to its name, the building houses multiple performance venues. As one of the busiest performing arts centres in the world, hosting over 1,500 performances each year attended by some 1.2 million people, the Sydney Opera House provides a venue for many performing arts companies including the four key resident companies Opera Australia, The Australian Ballet, the Sydney Theatre Company and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and presents a wide range of productions on its own account.
It is also one of the most popular visitor attractions in Australia, with more than seven million people visiting the site each year, 300,000 of whom take a guided tour
The building also houses a recording studio, cafes, restaurants and bars and retail outlets.
To the left of the Opera house you can see the equally awesome Syndey harbour Bridge in its full splendour. I didnt realise the bridge and opera house were so close together until i stood staring between them. I cant wait to
get over to the bridge later on for a right good look.
We hop on the bus again and headed back past the Botanical gardens and through the CBD until we reached the Hyde Park stop where we jumped off and made our way to another bus tour which takes us out to North Bondi and Dover heights. Our 24 hour bus pass allows to do both tours so we will do half this tour and hop back on the other one later as its the best way to do the whole city without overlapping the two tours. Another reason being if we do it this way we would havecovered everything and jump off at the Dawes point stop not far from our pad.
So we are headed back down William Street, through Kings Cross and this time heading down Oxford Street towards Bondi beach again. We have great seats on top of the bus and as we travel around the North side of Bondi we get different views of the beach and surroundings.
We drive through the plush area of Dover heights which has some space aged houses dotted in amoungst mansions and you can tell by
the cars in the driveways that this is where the money is!
The average price of a house here is $2.6 million which is about £1.8 million pounds. The suburb is considered to be amongst the most affluent suburbs in Sydney. They get fed up with tourists passing through and taking photos of their houses from the bus tops! I wouldnt pay all that money for a house here to be sat watching tv in my pants when a bus load of tourists flash their zoom lense cameras through the window! Saying that i got some cracking photos as you can see. 😊
Dover Heights is believed to have been named for its cliffs along the Pacific Ocean which resembled those found at Dover in England.
Dover Heights road eventually takes us too an area called Vaucluse which is another very nice area with outstanding views back towards the city. The people that live here actually wave at you from their gardens and paths as we drove by.
This would be a great place to take in the new year celebration as you can see both bridge and opera house aswell as the CDB in the distance. No wonder
they are a cheery bunch!
Moving along at a brisk pace the bus takes us down and past Rose Bay which is also nice and clean and there's Ferraris and Mercedes cluttering up the streets! Harley Davidson's seem to be the order of the day today as men in their late forties zoom past us with their loud roaring engines and equally loud Hawaiian shirts!
We are almost back where we started as we pass Double Bay before heading back into the CBD. We hopped off our bus at Central Station and waited for the other bus to pick us up again. The buses run every 30 minutes so its not long before one arrives and whisks us off again. Its burning hot weather which helps to keep us interested in the historical lessons from the bus conductor.
Our last leg of the tour takes us through Harris Street which is popular for its Fish Markets and believe it or not the Star City Casino which is huge. Nearby are the Maritime museum and Power house museums which are free to visit but we opt to stay on the bus. This area also is popular with students
as some of Sydneys universities are found up the side streets from Harris Street.
We are almost at harbourside as we pass over Pirrama Road and around the Darling harbour point and back down Darling Drive. The Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre are all on Darling Drive and we pass under the overhead motorways before cruising along Hickson road which is two streets down from Kent Road where we are staying. All along the coast here you can observe many luxury boats anchored in Darling harbour and theres some really nice boats getting ready for the celebrations tomorrow.
We jumped off the bus at Dawes point which is directly below the Sydney Harbour Bridge and its only now you get the sense of the sheer size of the thing!
The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge across Sydney Harbour that carries rail, vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic between the Sydney central business district (CBD) and the North Shore.
Construction began in 28 July 1923 and it was formally opened on Saturday 19 March 1932.
According to the Guinness World Records, it is the world's widest long-span bridge. It is also the fifth longest
spanning-arch bridge in the world at 503 m (1,650 ft) and it is the tallest steel arch bridge, measuring 134 metres (440 ft) from top to water level.
Since 1998, BridgeClimb has made it possible for tourists to climb the southern half of the bridge. Its not cheap though as its around $240 per person as we did enquire hoping it would cost around half that.
Standing down below the bridge we agreed that this is where we are going to come tomorrow for the new year celebrations as you can see the opera house to the right and Darling harbour to the left.
We eventually made it home and its been a good day. John and Kat are up and about and they've even got dinner ready for us which was nice to come home too. We sat and planned our big day tomorrow and agreed that we would get stocked up and head down early doors.
Friday 31st December
We got up quite early and got our stuff together for the long day ahead. Our plan is to head over to Dawes point at around 1pm and sit it out for 11 hours until the
bells and fireworks.
Dawes point is directly below the Sydney Harbour Bridge and when we arrived there were around forty or so people already perched on the hill looking out towards the Sydney Bridge. There's a few people who have camped the night and have very good spots but there's still ample space for a good vantage point.
As we made our little spot comfortable the sun was shining directly on us which was fine as we sat and enjoyed the atmosphere as it slowly built up through the afternoon. We played cards and mucked about for a few hours and then ate our pack lunch of sandwiches and Vodka filled Oranges!
John and I went for a wander down to the local bottle shop for more drink around about teatime by which point we were almost joined by about two to three hundred more people than we had started with.
At around 6pm we watched an airshow in which a single stunt plane was doing fantastic stunts above us and around the Sydney opera House areas. The single propped aircraft was doing loops, flips, corkscrews and all sorts of high speed tricks and it was amazing to
watch and it certainly got the crowd whipped up a little.
The darkness fell apon us and you could sense something was going to kick off soon and at that point there was a loud crack of noise and a mass of red flares were falling from under the bridge for around 2 minutes. This is the smoke ceremony in which they hold every year to burn all bad spirits away for the coming celebrations of a new year. The cheers are deafening for the whole two minutes the flame like fireworks fall from the bridge as there must be at least two or three thousand people standing in Dawes point by now.
All around and up and down the banks of the river you can see masses of people gathering for the celebrations and theres estimated to be around one point two million people watching from the designated areas aswell as the high rise buildings that tower over the city.
We are now approaching the family set of fireworks which consisted of a 15 minute firework show at 9pm and its amazing to watch just the size of the large clusters of colours and sparks that were flying
in alll directions no matter where you looked.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge, nine city buildings and seven barges are going to be used in the firework show tonight.. Theres at least one hundred boats sailing up and down the river, some small private boats and mostly passenger boats hosting parties. Most of the boats have lovely neon lights lighting up the masts and bows which makes the river awash with lights and colour. Its truely spectacular indeed and we havent really kicked off fully yet.
This has certainly got the crowds buzzing and you cansee any space on the roads or viewpoints as its rammed with people. We are still in the same point we have been in for nearly 9 hours now and we've only got another 3 hours to wait until the main event.
Ten, Eleven, half eleven and then eleven forty five ticked by and its almost bursting at the seems as people are anticipating the countdown. Theres are large countdown clock on the side of the bridge which flashes up at 11.59.
The noise is unreal as we get our cameras ready and the last ten seconds seem like a blur now because after
the 3,...2,...1... it was utter pandemonium.
Happy new year!!!
Bangs and loud screamers followed by fantastic fireworks were what followed for the next twenty minutes and you didnt really know where to look.
The show consisted of 7000kg of fireworks with effects never seen before such as, falling angels, double hearts, crescent moons and lightning bolts.
To the right of us at the Opera House there were brilliant large fireworks, in front of us the there were fireworks going off from the bridge and to our left the Darling Harbour fireworks were equally immense! In our area alone the capacity is five thousand so you could imagine the noise of thousands of people cheering on the new year and fireworks.
Boom! Boom! Bang!...its relentless! The air was filled with that phosphorous smell and the fireworks kept coming and coming!
We chose this spot to watch the fireworks as the grand finale of the fireworks is the Sydney bridge Fireworks. This display was mindblowing. The coordination and timing of the fireworks were amazing as we were gobsmacked at the way the rockets took off in various sequences and to top it off as large golden shower of sparks started to
literally pour from under the bridge. This shower lit up the whole bridge and the reds, greens and blues were firing off in all directions to the point you felt spolit!
Then there was one last allmighty flurry of rockets and flares and then silence!!! It was all a bit much for some people and even Jill cried after it all finished as it was that emotionally charged. Wow.....and Wow again....What the hell just happened? haha!
We cant believe we've just experienced the Syndey New Year Celebrations just yards away from the bridge. It left us breathless to be fair.
How lucky are we? We walked home and wished about a thousand people 'happy new year' on the short walk home and were home within fifteen minutes through the manic busy streets of Sydney!
It was well worth the eleven hours sitting around at Dawes Point we all agreed as we had a blether over a bedtime cup of tea!! Happy New year everyone!
Saturday 1st January 2011
We're all up bright and early as we're getting ready to head for the Space festival which is being held at Moore Park. Its going to feature some of the
best dj's in the world and to makes things even better its blistering hot outside!
We phone home as the Uk is just staring their countdown to the new year and its weird as we're already well into our first day of the year.
A quick ten minute taxi to Moore Park and we got comfortable on a nice patch near the main stage where we drank and had a real good time until things started to get busy. We moved around a abit and I met a afriend from Aberdeen who was playing on the main stage which was good as I hadnt spoke to him for about 4 years.
The night wore on and the drink was flowing fast as its cheaper than water and we're making the most of our last night in Sydney as the atmoshpere was electric due to the superb music that was being bashed out of the large p.a systems around us.
We were all pretty pooped by the finishing acts which wound things up at 10pm and not a moment too soon.
We met anolder scottish guy and his girlfriend trying to sell tickets for a afterclub but we werent interested but
the guy was from Glasgow was a good crack and we waled out the park together. Then a utterly brilliant thing happened and I still dont know to this day why.....
The six of us started mincing our way through the thick crowds of people singing 'the Bonnie banks of Loch Lomond' at full blast with proper scottish tones throughout.
We've got no idea who cranked it up and got it going. We were at the gates to the park and about to leave for the taxi rank when all of a sudden we all rounded in a circle with arms locked together and we belted out 'Auld Lang Syne'
We actually had people staring and taking photos and movies of us as we cranked it up on the last verse, as you do!
People had stopped and watched us in amazement, bear in mind we had just come out a Dance music festival and its not exactly etiquette to sing scottish folk songs but we pulled it off. Maybe it helped that it was new years day to be fair.
After all the lyrics 'we'll take a Cup of Kindness' relates to a drink shared by men and
women to symbolise friendship is it not?
We finished singing, stopped, looked at each other and then had a wee giggle at the realisation of what just happened. We carried on our way out the Park to the taxi rank with proud smiles and even prouder hearts! It may sound cheesy but we loved every minute of it.
The scottish couple that were selling the tickets said farewell and dissapeared into the night as we headed for the taxi rank and headed home, home being anywhere but the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond! 😊
Sunday 2nd January
We all checked out the appartment and headed for Central station where we said our dreaded goodbyes to one another as John and Kat have another two nights left in Sydney whereas Jill and I are heading for Canberra.
We waved them off in the taxi, gingerly walked to our bus stop and waited for two hours for our bus to come and take us away. We're only 4 hours away from Canberra so it shouldnt be too bad a ride.
While i was waiting for the bus I came apon a chinese cafe called Leons Hot Food so it
was out with the camera and Jill snapped away. A nice ending to our Sydney experience.
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Sam & Fred
non-member comment
Gone with the Wind is short in comparison
Was that a blog or a full length novel, very interesting and riveting Sam said he can't wait for the film to come out, me I'm going to wait for the musical version! No kidding Santa Ponsa put on a very credible show which we watched from the comfort of our glass conservatory.But I think Sydney might just have beat us, 4 post cards all arrived at once today.