The weekend of the 25th May saw the start of Vivid Sydney, a 2 week festival of light with amazing light projections taking place on buildings around the waterside areas of the city between 6-12pm every night (headed up by the Opera House, of course), as well as various light installations. In addition this year, the show has been extended to Darling Harbour with Vivid Aquatic - a water, light and music show.
Unfortunately the weather had changed mid-week and the first rain of May had started falling in dramatic, torrential fashion! What a shame for Vivid! The opening night was Friday and I headed down to Circular Quay to see the start. There was a big P&O cruise ship docked in the Quay and projections showing right along the side of it, then the Opera House on the other side of the Quay, counterbalancing it. Customs House had some funky graphics happening, linked to people dancing on a small dance floor in front of the building... the projection was defined by the people dancing, presumably via pressure pads under the dance floor! Sydney really is great at innovative entertainment!
The weather held for the early part of the evening, but then the tropical monsoons started and even sat under cover at the Opera Kitchen & Bar along the quayside by the Opera House we got wet from the wind and just the splashing of the rain on the floor! I eventually gave up and braved the wet to dash between undercover areas back to the bus stop and home!
Saturday dawned with bright blue clear skies which boded well for the evening. I joined another friend on one of Jamie's Manly meet-ups to explore Vivid and we spent the evening taking in all of the Circular Quay shows and installations... this time in beautiful weather! We were lucky that the evening wasn't even particularly chilly either! Afterwards we met up with Becky and Mark and had an indulgent evening in the Guylain restaurant in The Rocks, trying out their range of beautiful chocolate desserts, followed buy a beer at the Bavarian bar!
Sunday had me joining another of Sean's walking meet-ups... this time we were exploring central city around Walsh Bay, The Rocks, the Botanic Gardens, across to Woolloomooloo, then back through the Domain and town to Darling Harbour. Once again, it was a beautiful day and we sauntered over the headland and down into Barangaroo where there is lots of work going on, apparently building a new casino... just across Darling Harbour from where the Star Casino is situated! Further around the headland in Walsh Bay, I was amazed by the amount of work that has been done on the old wharves which were now full of beautiful waterside apartments, much like Finger Wharf at Woolloomoloo. Also situated along one of the wharves was Sydney Theatre Company and various other dance and theatre groups. I haven't been to this area for 10 years and it's become a really vibrant suburb with a great vibe... I shall definitely have to come back and explore in more detail... and maybe take a look at the property prices!! The rest of the walk was through areas I know fairly well anyway, but I had a lovely time chatting away to Marie and Patrick as we sauntered. It was noticeable as we wandered up through the Botanic Gardens that all the bats (flying foxes) have been removed. They were apparently destroying the trees and so have been moved and re-homed somewhere else, but it's really sad not to be able to look up and see these cat-like creatures hanging from the trees everywhere. It was our stomachs rumbling which made us realise how long we'd been out for and I think I walking pace got progressively faster as we headed towards Darling Harbour and FOOD!!
Our end point was Margaritaville, a lovely big bar and restaurant overlooking Darling Harbour with sofas on the terrace to make the most of the waterside location. We got a large table inside to accommodate the 20-odd people in the group, all of whom were ravenous! We had a lovely meal (they do a mean blue cheese burger!) and chilled for a while before the party broke up and we headed our separate ways. I later returned to Margaritaville to meet Hannah for another night of Vivd exploration. We both enjoyed a drink sat on the terrace in the comfy sofas enjoying the aqua display from a distance before heading up the harbour to see it close to. Vivid Aqua is a water and light display to music, each session lasting approx. 15 mins with a session every hour and each session being different. Some of them are choreographed to popular music, whilst others to classical. We saw the 7pm show up close - a classical one and absolutely mesmerising - and it was hard not to run out my phone battery by videoing absolutely all of it!!
After enjoying the show at Darling Harbour, we decided to take the free ferry that was running across the harbour to Kirribilli as it would give us an unrivalled view of the lit side of the harbour bridge and as we went underneath it, the Opera House with the projections on it! We arrived at the wharf just as a ferry was coming in. It was the usual Balmain Ferry, not the free one, but loads of people pushed their way on... I think they'll be having a bit of a shock when they get off the other end and have to pay for their trip. 5 minutes later the MV Venture funboat turned up. This is normally a party boat that has a disco onboard whilst you cruise round the harbour! Obviously their party had finished for the evening and as they'd seen so many people waiting at the wharf as they were about to head round to Circular Quay, they decided to stop by and offer anyone who wanted to join them a free lift! Only in Australia & NZ will you find people willing to do something like that, rather than thinking of it as an opportunity to make a fast buck! We hopped aboard and enjoyed a great 20 min trip, getting some fantastic pictures en route. It felt great landing at The Rocks with everyone on the quayside looking on wishing they'd been out on the harbour to see the light show!
Despite having a fantastic evening, it was time to head home and try to get some sleep before my early morning (5am) start to get to Tassie for the first week of my new job!
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