Started off today at Bondi bus stop as we wanted to see as much as Sydney on our hop on hop off tour! We managed to blag our way on with student IDs (again!) which reduced the tickets by about 10 bucks! We done the Bondi loop bringing us high over Sydney with great view of the city. It was difficult enough to get any decent pics without nearly falling over due to a moving bus or nearly getting your head taken clean off by a low hanging branch! We swapped buses and tours at circular quay (big train, bus and ferry area) and got on the city loop. We saw the cool sights of the city - the bridge, opera house, museums, parks, lots of cool harbours etc! It was well worth it for our smash and grab tour of Sydney.
We jumped off bus on Macquarie street to get over to Lady Macquarie's chair which is one of the few places we can get a view of both the opera house and bridge - what an amazing sight. The pathway was full of runners, walkers and tourists, all going towards the chair for their postcard pic!
Next it was the main event of the day! We made our way across the Botanic gardens to the Sydney harbour bridge which we were going to climb today! We paid 200 dollars each for it - was really looking forward to this!
We had a group of about 14 climbers, mostly English and a good mix! After getting kitted out in our sexy jump suits, done an alcohol breath test (!!!), we were armed with different belts, straps etc before doing a trial climb up a few stair cases!
Before we knew it, we were on the bridge about 50 meters up and that was before we begun our actual ascent!
We proceeded up 1,438 steps, about 150 Meters or 450 feet to magnificent views of the harbour, opera house and Sydney itself. We couldn't bring a camera or safety reasons (plus they want to sell you photos!!) and it was such a shame. You would not get these pics on anything else but a postcard.
At the top, we posed for some pics before beginning our descent. This was definitely worth every cent!
Once we paid for some pics and receives our official climbing cert, we hit the hotel across the road, the glenmore, for some well deserved beverages and also where we'd arranged to meet Patrick and Lou. After the drinks, it was feeding time!
We had an amazing Dinner at an Italian on waterfront with views of bridge and opera house! There was a shared pizza to start and even a pizza for desert which had apple crumble on it! I'm not going to see who had it but it wasn't me or Carol or Lou!!
Once dinner and drink were done with we took a short stroll on waterfront for some really nice pics!!
Perfect to finish off a class day!!