Adventures Down Under - Part 3 - BridgeClimb and Great Barrier Reef

After we hopped off the train, we had a car take us and our bags to the BridgeClimb for our 2.5 hour BridgeClimb Express tour where we climbed to the top of the Sydney Harbor Bridge.  Our tour was originally scheduled at 2:30p, but they managed to accommodate us on the 12:20p tour and store our bags.

Scott was our guide and he was great.  You are given super fashionable outfits to wear and cannot have anything like a watch or a camera (risk of stuff falling).  They connected our sunglasses to the outfits.  The guide took a couple photos and a video of us once we reached the pinnacle.  Such a lovely view of the Opera House and Sydney skyline from the bridge.  One poor lady got vertigo once we reached the top, so we had to stop for a bit until she got her bearings again.  Don't worry, we were connected to the bridge at all times.  One very special thing for us was that we could see some of the fireworks being prepped on the bridge ready for the NYE celebration which we would see in a few days time.

video from the pinnacle

After the tour we had lunch overlooking the harbor and then as we walked across the bridge and back, stopping at the pylon view point, which was included with our climb ticket.

people starting their BridgeClimb adventure 

we made it up to the flags on our tour

Sydney Opera House!

Then we grabbed our bags to catch a train to the domestic airport.  There was a very long line to purchase a subway ticket at the Rocks station!  We finally made it to the airport for our 2.5 hour flight to Cairns.  After landing, we hailed a taxi to Hotel Pacific then woke up the next morning for our GBR (Great Barrier Reef) adventure!  We picked the hotel because it was basically across the street from the check in location.

The check in area was PACKED with all the tour company's passengers checking in!  The long line took us probably over half an hour to get through and we made it to the boat a hair after 8:30am.  We used Silverswift as our outfitter and we really enjoyed the day.  Met some girls from Texas and one had just graduated with a bio degree from UT!!

Silverswift boat

 

The boat took us to Flynn Reef where we stopped at three different locations throughout the day to snorkel/dive.  My snorkel buddy was from Barcelona and we had the same Nikon underwater camera so will be exchanging photos.  S dove at all three sites and got to swim with a turtle and shark!  At the last stop, there was a snorkel tour with one of the guides and he let us touch two different types of sea cucumbers.

giant clam

 

sea cucumber

my new friend from Barcelona

pointing to Flynn Reef

As we headed back to land, I took a nap out on the deck as I was drying off - bring a towel as they do not have any onboard.  It started to rain right as we got back to Cairns.

Once we got back, we cleaned up and went in search of food.  We watched the sunset along the boardwalk area and ended up eating dinner at the Italian restaurant in the Hilton.

holding Kiah the koala

The next morning we slept in since our flight was not until late afternoon.  After we checked out, the hotel was kind to let us store our bags as we explored a tad before the flight.

Totally did a super touristy thing by paying 20 bucks to hold a koala!!  With that price, you hold the cute little guy for all of 10 seconds to smile for a photo.  Their fur is wiry, not soft like I was expecting, and their little hands are super grippy.

We found a delicious family run Italian restaurant called Piccollo Cucina for lunch.  I enjoyed fresh made ravioli and S had a tasty pizza.  After a taxi to the airport, we flew back to Sydney.  I will admit I got tired of that airport....  We took 10 different flights this trip and my ears were not happy.

Next up, New Years in Sydney!