After a particularly stressful second school term, the term break rolled around and I was struck down with a nasty cold. After spending a week on the couch, I was pretty excited to head to Sydney for a few days of adventures and relaxation with my friend Mark.

We arrived in Sydney in the late afternoon, so we started our adventure by wandering the streets, soaking up the atmosphere. We ended up wandering around Circular Quay checking out the views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Stopping at the Opera Bar to enjoy a glass of pink bubbles before heading out for dinner.

Having oriented ourselves the day before we started our big adventure-ful day by heading down the The Rocks for breakfast and to look at the Bridge and Opera house in daylight. We had a good look at the bridge before we set off to climb it.

The Bridge Climb

With food in our bellies and a good idea of what was to come, we headed to the Bridge Climb. We spent some time getting kitted out and going over safety instructions before heading out onto the steel monster. We headed along the bridge, underneath the road before heading up some little ladders, past the road level and out onto the outer, upper arch of the bridge. Here we followed the arch to the very top (134 metres above ground level), before crossing the centre and heading back down the outer arch on the other side. The climb itself wasn’t hard at all and certainly not scary. Definitely worth doing, as the view of Sydney is AMAZING!!!!! We had spectacular weather, clear blue skies, sunny and warm. We could see all the way to the blue mountains!

The Bridge Climb was a spectacular way to spend a morning in Sydney, but by the time we were done, we had really worked up an appetite, so we headed over to a restaurant called Danks Street Depot to enjoy the DELICIOUS food made by an amazing chef, Simon. Simon is someone who I grew up with and who moved to Sydney to become a chef when I was still a teen. While I have seen him numerous times since he moved, I had never had the opportunity to taste test his creations. I have got to say..I was impressed! Super tasty food! I’d recommend you try it next time you are in Sydney. The atmosphere in the restaurant is very chilled out, and the service is great.

The SkyWalk

Ping-ponging all over Sydney, we finished up our lunch and headed back tot he city center to head up the Sydney SkyTower and do the SkyWalk. In the city centre is a tower called the Sydney Tower Eye, it is twice the height of the bridge (268 metres) and has an observation deck (enclosed) as well as the option for a ‘SkyWalk’ where you walk around outside of the top of the tower. While it didn’t have a view of the Opera House and the view of the Bridge was not amazing, it did have a great overall view of Sydney. If you have lots of time to spend then I would still recommend the Bridge climb, but if you were pressed for time and wanted to do something a bit more adventurous than simply wandering the streets, I’d say that the SkyWalk is pretty cool.

The only bummer about both the Bridge Climb and the SkyWalk is that you can’t take your own camera with you, so if you want the photographic evidence you have to pay crazy amounts of money for it. But my perspective on the matter is, that I only intend to do these things once in my life, so I may as well.

Coming down from the SkyWalk, a last wander around the observation deck gave us a stunning sunset…what a great way to start bringing an epic day to a close…

Ovo!!!

While that was it for the ‘action adventure’ aspect of the day, we wrapped up our amazing day with a trip to Cirque Du Soleil’s performance of Ovo. Cirque Du Soleil is a Canadian company that tour with productions that are kind of like a circus combined with street performance art. The productions are always made on such a grand scale, with the most amazing costumes, set design and overall performances. Ovo is the second Cirque Du Soleil performance I have seen and it really is one of the most spectacular performances I have ever been to, the theme of Ovo was bugs..starring in the performance were a number of grasshoppers, spiders, flies and an astonishingly quirky lady-beetle. The different talents on show were just fabulous!

A day to relax…

After cramming so much into the previous day, we spent our last day in Sydney soaking up the amazing weather. We had breakfast down at circular quay with a fantastic view of the Bridge,  wandered around the Opera House and then jumped on a ferry headed to Manly.

From Manly Wharf we wandered across to Manly beach, enjoyed some Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and continued to wander around the beach area. That part of Sydney is just beautiful, gorgeous green palms, crystal clear turquoise water and just the most relaxed atmosphere. It was a great way to wind down!

We finished up our relaxing day with a great company over dinner. Joel, my sister-in-law’s brother joined us for a tasty meal at The Meat and Wine Co. in Darling Harbour and then shared his local knowledge of an underground Whiskey Bar, where we spent the last of our Sydney adventure enjoying a chat over a glass of aged whiskey (well, I just had a wine, but the fella’s really enjoyed their whiskey!)