Sydney

  Sydney, Australia
Monday, March 24, 2008

We arrived in Sydney on Easter Monday.  We headed over to Bondi Beach as Neil had kindly offered us his spare room as our base for the next few days. After a quick catch up on each others news we headed off for a short walk along the coastal path and met up with Karin on the way.  After a stroll along to the next cove and watching some surfers cruise precariously close to some rocks we headed to Neil's local The Bondi Icebergs Club.  This club had a great vantage point at the end of Bondi Beach with fabulous views.

Bondi Beach (Icebergs club i the centre)

It's called the Icebergs Club as the members seem to leap into the sea clutching massive blocks of ice - not sure why - obviously an Aussie hard man thing.  A bit surprised that Neil would carry on with such antics he quickly revealed that he was a social member so no ice swimming required just a small fee and you got a membership card that got you cheap drinks at the bar !!
 
The next day we headed for the city centre and decided to take the bus up to Watson's Bay then we could get the ferry into the city and see the famous skyline.  The ferry was surprisingly quick and in no time we found ourselves looking at the opera house and harbour bridge.  Unfortunately the weather was a bit overcast so our pictures don't really do it justice as it's a stunning sight.

Opera House

Don't worry- Maud got her pictures later in the week!
 
After a wander around the outside of the opera house and a spot of lunch we tried to get some tickets for a show in the main auditorium to see what the acoustics were like with the funny roof but all that was on was the opera Carmen and neither of us like opera so we gave that a miss.

At the Opera House

At the Opera House

Had we been there a few days earlier we could have caught Harry Connick Jr. and is Big Band Swing but that still wasn't really us so we headed off to see what else the city had to offer.
 
Right next to the opera house are the botanical gardens so we headed there en-route to the city centre. What we were soon to discover was that this was more like being in a zoo.

Big Spider !

Firstly we spotted some giant spider webs and of course with a giant web comes a massive spider - no idea what they were but they looked huge.  Then we headed past the Government House and saw cockatoos randomly landing on peoples' shoulders.  The biggest surprise we had though was when we got through the Japanese Garden and looked up into the trees and saw what at first we thought were giant seed pods. These seed pods turned out to have great big wings and were fruit bats also called flying foxes.  There were thousands of them making a lot of noise and they were huge - average wingspan of 1.5m.

Bats

This was really a freaky sight - like something out of the birds or a  vampire film.  They all take off at sunset and head for another park where they find their fruit - we're not sure why they don't stay there but they seem to like to roost in the Botanical Gardens.
 
We continued our wander around the city then met Neil after he'd finished work at headed for an area called the Rocks for a few beers before dinner.  At our second pub (The Argyle) I thought I recognized someone over in the corner who turned out to be Jen Clow a friend from home who was in Sydney on her honeymoon - it's a small world.

Meeting Jen & her new hubby

We had a few drinks with them and then headed off for a bite to eat.  Dinner was pizza Aussie style - Kangaroo Pizza and Crocodile Pizza both were very tasty - tasted like beef and chicken !   A couple more beers and as Neil was working the next day we called it a night.
 
The next day we went to Bondi Junction for a spot of shopping and spent the afternoon on the beach.  We headed into the city again for dinner with Neil & Karin at a great Chinese in Woollamoloo (where Russell Crowe lives).  After dinner we walked up to Kings Cross area which has some great bars and also plenty of "adult" entertainment and amusingly watched Karin head into an adult shop and purchase a fancy dress outfit to take with her to the Hong King Sevens at the weekend - it was a saucy pirate outfit if you were wondering complete with hat !  We headed back to Bondi and had a few beers in the Bondi Hotel on the waterfront where Neil discovered the "Who wants to be a millionaire?" quiz machine and after making a tidy profit we headed off with him discussing whether he could jack in his job and make enough from quiz machines....
 

Body surfing

We spent our penultimate day on Bondi Beach and I discovered how fierce the waves were even though they didn't look that big and that evening we went to a great tapas restaurant in Bondi called the Flying Squirrel.
 
On our last day in Sydney we had booked to do the bridge climb which was the other part of our leaving present from our friends in Bermuda.  As we got into the city centre it was quite overcast but as we registered at the bridge climb centre the sun had started to come out.  By the time we were kitted out in all our gear which included a lovely grey and blue jump suit and a headset, and had then been checked to make sure we didn't have anything we could drop and kill people with, the sun had come out.  Once we were all fastened onto the safety wire the climb firstly took us under part of the road of the bridge.

Bridge climbers

We then climbed a set of vertical ladders and we popped out between lanes 3 & 4 of the traffic.  The climb up the outside of the bridge then started and after about half an hour we were at the top.  Unfortunately you aren't allowed to take your own cameras up there which is a real shame as the views were fantastic - obviously there's a major profit to be made by selling you your pictures at the end ! 

Opera House

 
 
As part of our climb package we did get free entry to the pylon lookout -which is at the top of one of the granite towers on the city side of the bridge so we (meaning Maud) had 15 minutes to run back to the bridge up the 250 steps and get the photos before it closed at 4.45pm.
 
Next stop was the pub down the road from the bridge to meet Neil and Catherine and head off to watch a Super 14s rugby game (part of the same tournament that we watched in Wellington).  

Rugby

This time it was the Warratahs (Sydney) vs the Cheetahs (S. Africa somewhere).  It was a close match but the Warratahs took the victory in the closing minutes.
 
Several post match beers in the city then it was back to Bondi as we had to pack in the morning and pick up our next camper van - hopefully less offensively painted than the last one ! 

Opera House