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Published: November 21st 2006
Well we made it!!! We’ve finished work and hit the road again but not before a few final celebrations. Firstly Heathers work leaving do of drinks and dinner at a riverside Greek restaurant (and some belly dancing) followed a few days later by The Melbourne Cup. This is a horse race that stops the nation and H returned to her office (must be mad) for an Austin Powers themed fancy dress fashion parade followed by lunch whilst I hit the pub with Peter.
After saying our goodbyes the next day we’re off to Sydney where we’re met at the airport by JT (cousin Jonathan not Justin Timberlake) who whisked us off to his home suburb of Erskineville where we abandon our cases and head out exploring. It’s a lovely sunny evening so we sit outside the local pub for a while and then take a wander up to Newtown and its long street of shops, restaurants and bars where we enjoy some fine Indian food for dinner - 3 curries each for $10 (£4)!!
The following day we arrange to meet Heathers friend Rosemary so we head into the city on the train and are delighted when the train
pulls into Circular Quay station and we are treated to our first glimpse of the opera house and harbour bridge. It’s a fantastic sight - strangely familiar - but totally exciting to see it for real. Thankfully we bumped into Rosemary at Circular Quay before our allotted meeting time at the Australian Hotel in the Rocks - as otherwise we might never have met because the 3 of us had significant difficulties locating the (you can’t miss it) Australian hotel. It’s a bit overcast so we head for a coffee to catch up with Rosemary, get our bearings and plan our day.
After our coffee we follow Rosemary’s lead into the Rocks, the oldest part of Sydney where the first settlers arrived, which is all old buildings and cobbled streets and a great place to wander around. We went into the Ken Dome art gallery (an aussie artist) for a look around where the pick of the bunch was a painted cow and some other pieces inspired by the Sydney harbour and skyline. By now it’s time for refuelling and having eventually located the Australian hotel we are not disappointed, and as promised, can select from a range of
interesting pizza options, we opt for barbequed Emu - very tasty.
Suitably fed and watered we head back towards circular quay and round the harbour to get up close to the opera house which we are impressed to find that the sails are adorned with thousands of little diamond shaped tiles - hard hard work. No wonder the budget spiralled from the expected $7m to $102m and it took 14 years to finish! We then head into the adjacent botanic gardens (which used to be the Governors garden!) but having done a lot of walking we decide to take the load off and tour round the gardens (in the interest of orientation) on the little red train. We get off at Mrs Macquaries Chair (the governor’s wife who had a seat carved into the sandstone rocks) to take in take in one of the worlds most famous views of the opera house framed by the stunning and imposing Sydney harbour bridge!
After all the excitement there’s nothing else for it but to head back to the opera house to the opera bar for a celebratory glass of bubbly (we’re on holiday after all) with fantastic views of the
harbour bridge, this is the life! We bid Rosemary farewell and we head to Oxford street (lots of bars) to meet JT and Co (Pete, Michelle and Richard) for another few glasses of bubbly and a seafood dinner (for those who are wondering I, HMF, sampled the fishies but mostly stuck to non-seafood dishes!)
The next few days we spent wandering around the city, taking in the sights and also went to the night market at the Rocks, right under the shadow of the harbour bridge, where we enjoyed live music, stalls of local goodies and were spoiled for choice by the numerous stall selling internationally diverse nibbles - we opted for Singapore noodles, Turkish kebab and some caramalised macadamia nuts!
By way of research ahead of our bridge climb we head up one of the granite pillars to the pylon lookout and are treated to panoramic views of the city and interesting facts about the building of bridge. I was impressed at the forethought of the bridges architects who decided to make a bridge with the load bearing capacity they did and the width it is which accommodates; 7 car lanes, 1 bus lane, 1 train line,
1 cycle lane and 1 footpath as well as the effort and expense they went to with the pylons which serve only as an aesthetic feature (shipping in Scottish granite and stonemasons - you can’t beat quality!)
We decide that when in Sydney we should see not only the outside of the opera house and so book tickets for a play on Saturday night. We had the choice of ballet or a play called The Hospital - Simon wasn’t too keen on the ballet so ‘The Hospital’ it is. After pre-theatre drinks and nibbles at the opera bar we head off to see our show. We began to have concerns when we arrived and there were warning signs on the door saying that the play contained non-sensical language - we discovered that this meant the whole play was spoken in gobbledegook (ie not in any language!) coupled with some cryptic modern dance - we could have done with a translator. We did however have fun and it was very amusing but I fear we found it amusing for all the wrong reasons - ballet next time me thinks!
After brunch on Sunday we move to our hotel in
the city at Hyde Park on the corner of Oxford and Liverpool streets (are we in London or Sydney??). We head to Bondi beach late afternoon (which unfortunately reminded us of Blackpool) however we had a lovely evening catching up with Paula (friend from when we dived at GBR) over dinner at Nicks restaurant on the beach where we enjoyed a buffet of seafood and BBQ meats (for those of you who are wondering, I, HMF, enjoyed some Silver Dory - I am branching out!!!).
Finally the day of the bridge climb arrives and it’s a perfect day for it, clear blue skies and a nice cooling breeze. We booked in, passed our breathalyser test and signed our life away before being issued with the official bridge climb gear. We get suited up in very fetching blue and grey jumpsuits and belt harness. They’ve thought of everything here and make sure there’s no chance of anything falling off you onto the cars below so everything is clipped to us, rain jacket (!), glasses, hats, scrunchy, down to a hanky on a bit of elastic round our wrist. We then go through the pre-climb practice and finally are issued with
radios and headsets so that we can all hear the commentary during the climb - very hi-tec!
Let the climb commence! We go through a series of walkways and have to climb a few very steep and precarious ladders to reach the arch (think climbing steep ladder with cars whizzing overhead). The climb itself is leisurely and we have plenty of time to stop and soak up the view and get the obligatory tourist photos taken. After an hour or so we reach the top and the views are spectacular and it’s a great feeling to be standing at the top of Sydney harbour bridge. We then start our descent down the opposite arch and our guide points out features of the bridge such as the man holes used during the building of the bridge - some poor guy had to spent his day in these little spaces holding white hot rivets in place while his mate moulded them in place, apparently this job sent you deaf within 6 months (bit like being married SF).
If that wasn’t bad enough before he could hold the rivets in place he had to catch them in a bucket as
his mate heated them up on the arch and then threw them to him, it’s estimated that there are about 10,000 rivets in the harbour from bad throws! Amazingly only 16 people lost their lives building the bridge and only 2 of those fell from the bridge itself - the rest were in the building yards on the ground! Having completed the bridge climb we were obviously in the mood for walking because we then headed off to explore the botanic gardens (on foot this time) and then walked through the city back to our hotel.
The following day we walked through Chinatown to Darling Harbour which is a modern entertainment area with the IMAX cinema, restaurants, entertainment centre and Star City - the theatre district. We then enjoyed a leisurely ferry ride back to circular quay - a chance to see Sydney harbour from a different angle. We later meet up with JT, Michelle and Pete for drinks on Oxford St before going to ‘Betty’s soup kitchen’ (it’s a restaurant - honest!) for dinner where we were waited on by a very camp, slightly eccentric European chap and his equally camp, less eccentric colleague who made H a
flower from some napkins - welcome to the gay district!
After a day stuck in our hotel thanks to the freak weather (very cold and windy with occasional hailstones the size of golf balls) we meet up with Jonathon who (for our wedding present) is treating us to a night at the theatre - best seats in the house for Priscilla Queen of the Desert The Musical - discotastic! It was a great show and we (S&H) even got pulled up on stage at one point for a dance during a part of the show (thankfully no photographs allowed in the theatre, phew). The frivolity continued in the Priscilla Bar afterwards as we boogie woogied to the disco tunes and mingled with (scared) the cast. And no ISF before you ask the evening wasn’t a bit of a drag!
After the over-exertions of the previous night we unfortunately have to postpone our planned wine tasting tour to the Hunter Valley (leaving at 7.30am) due to family illness! We manage to drag (no pun intended) ourselves into the city later in the day however and take a trip up the Sydney Tower for great views before returning to the
hotel to watch Harry Potter (which thanks to the constant ad breaks lasted for about 4 hours!). After a good nights sleep it’s off to the harbour in the morning to catch the ferry to the lovely suburb of Manly for lunch and a few hours at the beautiful beach. The ferry trip must be one of the best in the world as you leave the harbour between the bridge and the Opera house before sailing for 30 mins out towards the coast with great views of the skyline- very nice.
In the evening we meet Rosemary, Alistair and Pam for dinner at the Rocks before wandering back to their apartment over-looking the harbour (very plush) for a nightcap. Next on the agenda is the highly recommended coastal walk from Bondi beach to Cudgee (although we do it in the opposite direction just to be different/awkward). This takes about 3 hours but is well worth the effort as the path meanders along the cliffs and past small beaches. As an added bonus there is a Sculptures by the Sea exhibition on at the moment which sees various sculptures and artwork dotted along the cliffs/beaches/pathways from Tamarama beach all the
way to Bondi for us to take in as well. Having headed back to the city we meet up with Hugh and Linda (H uncle and auntie on hols) for the evening and have a lovely meal in a restaurant at the Rocks with views of the Bridge and the Opera house!
Finally (almost) its off to the Blue Mountains for the day as we make the 2 hour train journey from Sydney into the hills (although they’re actually plateaus apparently). Onyhoo they were well worth the visit and we spent the day enjoying the views and doing some of the less strenuous bush walking trails (passed on Hells Steps - there’s a clue in the name we thought!). Rounded the day off with a Thai take-away at JT’s and watched the film version of Priscilla (which we’d never seen) to reminisce/fill in the blanks of our night at the theatre!
Last day we spent doing washing and packing for our early morning flight to New Zealand the following day. But before leaving Oz we have one more fun-filled activity to look forward to. Yes tonight folks we are off to Bingay (transvestite bingo) at the Imperial in
Erskinville!!! The Imperial is famous for it’s drag shows and to tie in nicely with the rest of the holiday the characters in the film Priscilla work there before they head into the outback (and the pub appears in the film!) It’s a theme - a bizarre one but a theme all the same!
Needless to say Bingay was awesome and we had lots of fun - HF won a prize and opted for the pink feather boa (how gay is she?!) It was the perfect end to a fun - filled 2 weeks in Sydney and as we gear up for New Zealand it's with half an eye on our return here in the New Year......Mardi Gras in March apparently!!!!!!
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Lyn Fraser
non-member comment
Busy!Busy!Busy!
Wow! Was thinking about you both and just thought I would check out your blog site to see if anything had been posted so what a brilliant surprise. Here was me thinking you were just partying on down while you were actually doing the culture trail/nature trail/gay trail/bridge trail/seafood trail/art trail etc, etc. You certainly have crammed a lot in and how great it was for you to meet up with Jonathan, Rosemary, Uncle Hugh and Aunt Linda. Can't begin to imagine what it must have been like up on the top of the bridge-AAAAARGH!!!!I'm off to look at all the photos which have been posted now. So happy for you both and wishing you a safe journey to NZ. Gird your loins for yet another sightseeing extravaganza. Love you, Mum xxx