My friend Claire works at the Sydney Sky Tower and after a
dismal start to my day (I missed my flight to Melbourne) she suggested that I
come up for a complete Sydney Tower experience. If I couldn’t be a tourist in
Melbourne, I might as well be one in Sydney!
The package began with a 4D movie experience. I have done
these before and no matter how lame I might think it will be going in, I
couldn’t help but grin when the floor shook in time with the shuddering of the
yacht and we were sprayed with water when the dolphins jumped (quickly dried by
the wind created from the lorikeet’s wings). We were taken all over Sydney, which even for
a local like me was fun to see.
After the movie we were taken up in the wedge shaped
elevator to the viewing deck at about 260 meters above the ground. This
circular viewing deck allows you to see all the way to the Blue Mountains in
the west and to the sea in the east and is especially great for viewing the
sunrise or sunset (check out the awesome pictures on their Facebook page).
The complete package includes the sky walk, a walk around
the outside of the tower. I am not a fan of heights, I feel woozy even looking
out the window of a 30 storey building, but Claire talked me into it and soon I
was getting kitted up. The kit involves a blue jumpsuit and a safety harness
just like a rock climbing belt. Once my sunglasses had a safety chain on them
and I was attached to the trolley run by my safety belt we were ready to go.
We were in a group of about 10 and Martina was guiding us. As
we stepped out onto the balcony I told myself that I just wouldn’t look down
and it would all be fine, but of course down was where my gaze was pulled and
strangely, I felt ok. There was so much solid building around me that although
I could see through my feet down between the metal grill to Pitt St, it didn’t
worry me. Awesome.
Martina pointed out some sights, shouting over the wind that
was whipping my hair everywhere and making me thankful for my warm jumpsuit.
The next challenge for me was when we got to the glass platform. I took a deep
breath, stepped on, and thankfully didn’t find it any more alarming than the
rest of the walk. However Martina asking all 10 of us to jump up and down on it
did stretch my nerves a little.
We all had our photos taken on this glass platform and were
given plenty of time to look around the rest of the deck. Martina knew lots of
interesting facts about the tower and Sydney, I really didn’t expect her to be
able to surprise me with any of them, being a local, but she did. The walk
itself also had one more surprise left which actually did make my heart stop,
but I will leave it as surprise. Don’t want to spoil all of the fun!
Once inside we were stripped of our safety gear, shown our
photos for purchase and left to wander the observation deck again. I sat on a
window ledge and tried to find my house whilst I waited for Claire to finish
her shift. I was also marvelling at how much more awesome your city becomes
when you act the tourist in it.
No comments:
Post a Comment