Back to the future

We decided before we came away that it would be a great experience to spend New Year's Eve in Sydney, or to be more specific, in Sydney Harbour. Urban myth has it that there are more sharks inside Sydney Harbour than outside. Now I'm not a marine biologist, but I am aware that outside the harbour is the whole of the Pacific Ocean, so I have my doubts that this is accurate. Despite this we decided that we wouldn't take any risks and booked ourselves onto the plushest looking boat that we could find doing the rounds of the harbour on New Year's Eve.

First we had to get there, so it was up early on the 30th to catch a flight back to Sydney, which was an hour ahead, so we lost a little bit of 2006. When we were booking the whole trip to Sydney, the only place that we could get to stay in Sydney was a hotel in Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney, it didn't look very far on the pop-out map of Sydney, but turned out to be half an hour by train. (Our friend Lee Ann had told Sarah that staying in Parramatta is a bit like staying in Reading for a night out in London - there were certainly similarities.)

As it turned out this wasn't much of a problem as you can get a ferry down the Parramatta River to Circular Quay (next to the Opera House), so that's exactly what we did. (More public transport for Sarah.)

The ferry wasn't the only plus for Sarah. On the way down the river we spotted that there was a funfair in the shadow of the Harbour Bridge, and there's nothing that Sarah likes more in the world than funfairs (well, maybe tails). So that was Saturday night sorted out, they had quite a few entertaining rides, but only one that I will remember for the rest of my life....

We had just come off a strange spinning ride that made me feel a little queasy, when Diane spotted a ride on the map called Rotor. As you went up the steps you were given the option of going into the ride or going to the viewing platform first, well obviously we weren't going to do the sensible thing and we headed straight in to have a go.

Rotor consists of a cylinder where the riders stand against the outside wall as it is spun around at about 70km/h (so I was told), so that you stick to the wall, then the floor drops away and you just hang there. I remember doing the whole centrifugal force thing in GCSE Science and I know why this works, but I'm still not happy about it. The force holding you against the wall was so strong that you couldn't move a muscle and it actually made it quite difficult to breathe, so I was very glad when it stopped, although for some strange reason as they slowed the ride down, they allowed us to slide down the wall, rather than bringing the floor back up to meet us! If anybody has ever seen the film 'Spies Like Us' with Chevy Chase and Dan Ackroyd, then we looked very similar to them after going through astronaut training, with faces contorted from the G forces.

Geddit?

This was quite enough excitement for one night, so after a leisurely ride on the ferris wheel we hopped back over to the other side of the harbour to find someting to eat. Unfortunately it was now 10.30pm and most places were shut, so we headed to the one place we knew would be open....an Indian restaurant!

After a hard night's work we had a lay in the following day, followed by a very nice lunch by the river in Parramatta, where Dai managed to polish off a giant bowl of wedges as well as a fillet steak. Then it was off into Sydney for New Year's Eve.

We expected it to be quite busy getting into Sydney, but it wasn't actually too bad, there were very regular trains and we got in in no time. On our way to the wharf to catch the boat there was a bit of excitement as sirens were going off all over the place - it turned out that a flat above the Wagamama restaurant on Darling Harbour was on fire, so obviously Dai had to get in the way and start taking pictures. Anyone who didn't know him would think he was a paparazzi photographer.

Thankfully our boat wasn't on fire, but it was very full - considering how much we'd paid for the trip we had expected something with a little more space, although as a bonus they did have a DJ who looked like Freddie Starr, thankfully his language was a little cleaner!

Happy New Year!

There were two firework displays that night and the first one was at nine o'clock. This was better than any other firework display that I have ever seen, and that was just the warm up! There was non-stop tail food being dished out, so we didn't go hungry, or thirsty for that matter. Everybody onboard was getting rapidly more drunk ready for the big moment and it came rather suddenly. We were standing on the bow looking at the Harbour Bridge when suddenly they started counting down from ten. As the new year came in a mass of fireworks exploded in every direction and continued for what seemed an age. Apparently the cost of the fireworks was AU$4m.

The next thing we knew they were heading back to Darling Harbour to boot us off and that was New Year's Eve for us. As the authorities in Sydney had called it 'A diamond night in the emerald city'.

As you would expect, we weren't awake too early the following day and weren't really in the mood for anything too energetic, so we had lunch in a pub down the road and then decided to watch a film in the hotel. Dai and Di had decided that they would like to watch 'Snakes on a Plane'. If anybody reading this is considering watching this monstrosity then please take my advice and don't bother, I would normally explain the plot at this point, but there wasn't really one, the title tells you all you need to know!

We decided that as we had made the effort to come to Sydney, we should really try to go and have something to eat somewhere nice around the harbour and we found a lovely place right on the the water near the Opera House. Sarah, Diane and I all decided to go for the king prawns and we were presented with a giant bucket of them.

Seefood diet!

The food was great, but unfortunately we were seated outside when the heavens opened and we had to try to fit under the tiniest umbrella to keep ourselves and our dinner dry.

On our last day we had decided that it would be fun to climb Sydney Harbour Bridge, so we pitched up at the Bridgeclimb office to be kitted out in grey overalls and shown how to use our harnesses, then we were off onto the bridge. It wasn't as scary as you might expect, the paths that you climb up are quite wide most of the way, but the views are spectacular. The whole thing takes about three hours, which would be quicker if they didn't keep stopping to take photos of everybody, but it's definitely worthwhile and I would recommend it to anybody visiting Sydney.

Don't look down!

We learnt quite a lot about the bridge during the climb - it weighs 38,000 tonnes and is actually held up by the metal framework. The stone pylons on either side serve no structural purpose, they just look nice! The metalwork transfers all of the weight of the bridge onto 8 metal pins, 4 on either side of the bridge, which are known as King Pins. The King Pins are capable of holding up to 80,000 tonnes in weight. I don't know if there is supposed to be an apostrophe at the start of King Pin or not.....

So that was it for our return trip to Sydney, a short but very enjoyable few days.