Remember Sydney 2000 Olympics? Well we went to see where it was all held on Monday 29th Dec!

Our tour started at 11:45am and around 12 of us got onto a small bus. We circled the area in front of the ANZ stadium entrance. There were some speakers on the bus and a male Australian voice could be heard. It was quite amusing really, rather dramatic, a voice you would expect to hear when a movie at the cinema is being advertised. The bus was squeaking too! Quite rickety! LOL!

Anyway, some important information was being said regarding the Olympic Park. There were pillars grouped together with names of people who had been involved with organising Sydney 2000 Olympics writen all over them. Also World and Olympic records were broken down and accurately measured to the distance or hight that they were and marked on the pillars, e.g Pole vault, or ground e.g Triple jump.

We approached some large doors, some powerful music began to play and they were opened by remote control. We entered a dark tunnel which lead down into the stadium and the doors shut behind us. We were now stationary, some green lazers appeared on the wall to our left. The bus began to move us down the tunnel and at the same time the lasers followed, creating images on the wall, telling us a short description of the history of the Olympic park. It was a little bit cheesy, but effective and made it more entertaining, but in all honesty I had to stop myself from laughing a couple of times.

We eventually entered the underground ring road, this is where everything was stored and operated. It also has 7 seperate entrances into the arena (It looked a lot like a car park).

We all got out of the bus and were lead by our tour guide into the VIP area. Believe it or not, all 12 of us were put inside a lift! I'm glad neither of us are claustrophobic! :)

All of us got out of the lift and sat down in a small cinema room to watch a short film. This was about the history of the ANZ stadium, learning that it is still used today for Aussie Rules, Rugby League, Rugby Union, soccer, cricket and music concerts. After the Olympics it had been amended to adapt to suit all these purposes, by being able to change shape, from oval to a rectangular performing area. This was enabled by the movement of seats going back and forth, which was achieved by using hydraulics.

Next we walked into the stadium seating area and took some pictures. They were preparing the field for the 20/20 cricket being played the next day.

We moved into the Platinum lounge, where members are only allowed to go during performances/games, we were told there is a waiting list of 120 people! I had to take notice of the interior decor, it had aboriginal designed carpet and pillars made from gum trees! This room had a fantastic view of the stadium, a bar and comfortable seating areas everywhere.

Then we entered the Coca Cola suite. This is a corporate entertainment box, that they use for conferences. They had even covered the room in Coca Cola logo decorations on the walls!

Afterwards we walked to the media area and took a look inside the commentator boxes. They were tiny, the size of maybe a large cupboard!!! With only the equipment they require in there.

We strolled down a corridor filled with autographs on the walls inside frames. They were by people who have played or performed there. One autograph we noticed was David Beckham's!! :)

This corridor lead to the players changing and warm up rooms. The warm up room had tables and chairs dressed up in table cloths and layed out cutlery. We were told that this was for a pre-match meal for the cricket players the next day. Above us was a net hanging from the ceiling, this was because every light was smashed when it was used as a warm up room the first time a rugby team had ever played there!!

We finally walked through the tunnel out into the stadium, that the players would walk through to begin a game. They added to the atmosphere by playing the sounds that can be heard through speakers, as though we were in their shoes.

After our tour was complete, we wandered about the whole Olympic Park. It was very strange, not much was in use that day, only the swimming pool, tennis centre and of course the ANZ stadium. Everywhere else seemed diserted, there was nobody else about, kind of earie! Apart from one man hanging around the tennis centre, who at first thought we were tennis players competing at the Sydney Open, which will be held there next week! What a complement :) But anyway, the Olympic Park was kept clean and still used occasionally throughout the year.

We went for a walk just outside of the Olympic Park grounds. It was call 'Brickpit ring walk', a circular type bridge, over what is left of the brickpit and now remains a tourist attraction, winning the 2006 National Trust Heritage Awards. While also preserving the habitat of the endangered Green and Golden Bell frog.

We walked around the structure, which is 550 metres in circumference, looking 18.5 metres beneath us, hearing the sounds of the wildlife around us. We saw a few birds washing themselves and a snake like lizard on the way out, that came out from some dry bushes, watching us as we took photos and getting ready to run away.

We went inside the Aquatic centre, to see what a real life olympic swimming pool looked like. It is still in good use, squads were training and one lane was left free for casual swimmers. To our suprise it wasn't as big as it appears on T.V.

Opposite the pool was another, smaller in size. It was a diving area! People were practicing tricky dives from all hights! Diving off backwards, rolling in the air and making an elegant entrance in to the water with no splash, or a painful crash landing, still attempting to try the dive again. I had never seen this in real life before, it was fun to watch, I got really fixated by it and would love to watch a competition.

So that was the end of our day out, we have since been to watch the New Years Eve celebrations in Sydney and visited the Blue Mountains. I have not been able to get to computers as often as usual recently and will be updating the previously unfinished blogs as soon as possible and adding new ones.

We are off to Tasmania on Tues next week, so not long left here now.

Hope all is well at home x