Bridge Climb and Opera House!

G'day mates,

We are now officially certified Sydney Harbour Bridge climbers! Wahoo! We were even given certificate to prove it! The bridge is 503 metres long, 134 metres high and 49 metres wide. It is the crucial centerpiece of Sydney's transport network, and we climbed it!
Yesterday morning we got up early and rode the train into the city to find the bridge climb office which we found without any trouble. A staff member led us into a room and gave us an alcohol breath test and gave us waivers to sign saying that we wouldn't sue them if anything happened. After that we went into another room and got suited up. In order to climb the bridge, you have to wear a special suit that blends in with the bridge so you don't distract the drivers under the bridge. Yes, we felt a little goofy in the suits but everyone was wearing them so we quickly got over it. You had to make sure you weren't wearing any metal, including bobby pins and had to wear closed toe shoes for the climb which an instructor checked before leaving. Once we had our suits on, we walked through a metal detector and over to a station where we were allotted belts, hats, hankercheifs, and sunglasses chains. It was extremely hot, so our group leader suggested to us that we wet our handkerchiefs with water before leaving, which was a great suggestion because it was boiling! As we were gearing up we met our fellow climbers, 12 in total. We were with a couple from Montreal, Canada, and the rest of the group was from Melbourne. The next step was to climb up a simulation of the bridge to get a feel for what we would be experiencing on the climb. On the belt of our suits was a cable that clipped onto another cable on the railing of the bridge to keep us totally secure. Once that was finished, we were given our last piece of equipment which was a headset radio to keep us in touch with our instructor.
We were the last in the group, Sarah was very last in the whole line. We first climbed up the pylon and across a catwalk where you can see underneath you onto the road. That was a little scary, but really exciting at the same time. After the catwalk we started climbing up some ladders to the top. With every step, it got windier and windier. Finally, we surfaced at the bottom of the arch and began the climb up to the summit where the Australian flag waved. We took our time climbing up, getting photos taken and waiting for the groups in front of us to finish taking their photos. Our guide Doug explained some of the history of the city and bridge to us as we climbed up. The winds were so intense that you had to hold onto the railing for dear life so you didn't blow away down into the harbour! Just kidding, the climb felt extremely safe. We were hooked onto the cables the whole time and there was plenty of railing to hold onto also. At the very top the wind reading was 45 km an hour and increased as we made our descent. If the wind hadn't of been there though, we might have died in the heat so it was really a blessing.
Finishing the climb felt awesome! Our hair was a mess and we felt totally invigorated. We said goodbye to our fellow climbers and received a certificate from our instuctor. We were also given a group photo, so now we have an awesome picture of us with a bunch of people from Melbourne and Montreal, and then we bought an overpriced photo of both of us on the bridge. We are so glad that we did the climb. It was a great way to experience Sydney and we totally reccommend it to other Sydney visitors.
Doing some Christmas shopping along the way, we made our way around the harbour to the Opera House to take a tour. Unless you pay to take a tour inside the Opera House, you really can't see inside it so we booked ourselves in just in time and set off with our second guide of the day, Tom. We walked around the inside of the building and saw four of the five theatres. The first two were smallish and are used for comedy acts and children's productions. Then we proceeded to into the huge concert hall where they were setting up lights for a production that night. This hall is the largest of the theatres and the most spectacular. On the ceiling are huge plastic rings that rebound the sound back down to the audience and on the back wall is a huge pipe organ that took ten years to make. We were very impressed. Next, we went into the Opera stage where a crew was setting up scenery for the opera that night. It was large, but had an intimate feel to it and we could easily see how it was a great place to see a show. Our tour was finished in about an hour and after drinking some coffee along the water, we headed back home to Hurstville. By accident, we caught a train that was going nowhere near Hurstville, a bit of a problemo, which took us about half an hour to realize. Luckily, we navigated our way back to the right train and did make it home, just a bit later then we were planning on. No worries though.

Shoutouts:
#1 To all the tour guides of Sydney- you are doing a great job.
#2 To the builders of the bridge- without you we wouldn't have had "The Climb of our lives"

love,
Sarah and Carling