Experiencing The Sydney Tower Eye & Sky Walk (Sydney’s tallest building)

I have a lot more about sydney to post about, so bear with me! I’m only stuck at the 3rd day for now, so there are 7 more days’ worth of blog entries coming and I hope I could pen down all the wonderful memories that i have had. It was really a lovely trip, especially sans kids and doing all the exciting activities and fun things in sydney, together with friends. mainly touristy things, because i am after all, a tourist!

For some weird reason, I kept craving for vietnamese pho the moment I arrived in sydney and I was so excited when I came across one shop selling vietnamese food (Madame Nhu) in The Galeries Victoria while Cindy & I were on our way to the Sky Walk. Andy had to return to his 9-5 work week and couldn’t join us.

Madame Nhu in town hall.and I made cindy eat vietnamese pho with me. am very thankful that she was accommodating! Hee, you know.. you could never quite take other’s easy-goingness for granted, you know?

delicious, yummy pho that’s pretty authentic. i like to drizzle mine with loads of hoisin sauce and chilli, with an extra serving of lime.We were in some sort of food court style setting, with various restaurants housed in the same place. Pretty interesting and i had wanted to try out chat thai which a friend recommended but I, unfortunately didn’t have the chance nor stomach to try.

there’s something about food presentation in australia that makes the food a whole lot appealing. i want to eat and try everything!

We still had a bit of time in the morning so we walked through the queen victoria building. This is easily my favourite building in sydney because the place looks beautiful. Does not help that it houses a lot of my favourite brands like pandora, ferragamo, ralph lauren, nine west, kikki.k and more. Not that i’m really there for shopping but well, looking is always FREE!

isn’t the interior beautiful?I had to buy some Nespresso capsules for the husband so we popped into the Nespresso store in westfield and tried some coffee too! It was barely 10am in the morning. 🙂

I must ‘fess up about the Skywalk. I think cindy didn’t know what she was in for when I said I wanted to do the skywalk – go up to the highest building and check out the view. She thought it was some sort of viewing gallery (which is the sydney tower eye) but the one that I was really keen in is the walk out there in the open space, bracing the strong winds and the freaking cold weather.

When I did my research, the skywalk, the tower eye and the aquarium were amongst the few things that  was really really keen in. I didn’t mind going to the wild life zoo and cindy wanted to check out the Madame Tussaurds because she has never been to one before. As such, we got ourselves the ultimate sydney pass to save ourselves some moolah. I thought it was a pretty good deal, considering that there is a 30 days grace period to check out the other 3 attractions (sydney tower eye/skywalk needs to be used up on the day of ticket purchase). There are a lot of other tickets combination that you could purchase and save some money based on the different attractions you are keen in, just bear in mind not to purchase individual tickets if you are planning to visit 2 or more attractions. Besides, the individual attraction tickets is really expensive and I feel its so much cheaper to visit them all!

Back to the tower eye and skywalk!

us, with our fuchsia pink 4D glasses to watch the introductory video of the tower eye.

panoramic shot of the city from the tower eye.

The tower eye reminds me a lot of other similar “tallest building in the city” that i have been to with observation decks – seattle space needle, eiffel tower, shanghai oriental pearl tower, taipei 101 etc. They are all pretty similar with great view to boot!

Before we could see much, we were scheduled to go for our skywalk!

taking pictures at the gathering point

us, getting all suited up.

I was given a rather over sized suit if you noticed and i kept stepping on the legs of my suit during the walk. I didn’t know beforehand and thought it would be ok since the seams are elastic rubbers that holds onto my ankles, but i kept stepping on my suit and almost fell a couple of times. It’s kinda dangerous so if you ever try and find the suit too large, please ask to change. There was another girl that’s about my size but her suit was so much smaller!

There are lockers for you to put everything in, cameras, handphones, bags, bulky jackets, scarves etc. All possible loose items cannot be brought up for the walk. The only thing that is allowed are your sunglasses (together with a strap given to secure it) and the locker key.

Oh, if you are intending to go on the walk, your shoes are very important. I was wearing ballerina flats that day and although ok, I felt it could have been better if i was wearing proper, secured shoes like track shoes or covered shoes that wouldn’t fall off. The winds are very strong and I almost lost my shoes once or twice during the walk since they are comfortably loose on me. The platform that you are walking on will also be hole-y so it’s easy to kick and fall with a pointy toe (that’s what i was wearing).

Tip: Everyone wears a safety harness belt and lines up to a straight line before heading out there. The best positions are the first people in the line or the last, so be sure to put yourself in that position if you are really in for some excitement. everyone moves in a line out there and do make sure you are totally comfortable with the folks beside you. I was first and it was a very exciting position to be in.

first picture up there!
The winds were so strong, and my hair is a mess. This was the best pic after like 6-7 attempts. The rest of the pictures shows all my hair flying and cannot see my face. I recommend tying up your hair if you have long hair like me. -_-”

A much better shot. If you notice, we are standing on a see-through glass platform. it’s a little daunting and cindy was freaked out cos she has acrophobia. She kept holding onto the railings. I was ok and feel it was definitely more secure than some of the buildings that I have been too where I can feel vibrations when people jump or walk on. The fact that I have a safety harness somehow makes me feel a little invincible too.

sydney bridge and opera house behind us.

doing a jump high up there. t’was fun! i actually jumped quite a number of times up there!

We were extremely lucky to be up there on a very clear day so we could see all the way to the horizons in clear skies. Very very fortunate according to our guide. We could even see as far as the blue mountains and all!

Feeling ‘big’ as the strong winds were filling up my suit, making me feel like a superhero of some sort.

parting shot!

If you remember the following picture from my previous entry, the skywalk is actually on the needle looking building right in the center of the picture with the red wordings. it so high up there, and the best part? you get to climb up the railing a little and touch the Westfields signage that’s in red if u have the balls to do so.

I banged on the sign rather loudly!And then, the walk is over. It’s only a small circle and the walk is over when you complete it.

I had friends asking me if this was good and worth it, and i’ll give you a resounding YES!!! The winds were really really strong, It was cold (i.e winter) and hard to walk (it felt like i was being blown away) and it takes a bit of challenge at some angles where you had to chug against the wind and forge on. The view is breath-taking, and everyone is allowed a few minutes to take everything in while the different groups are having their picture taken… and most importantly, it is quite affordable. I have had fun, even though my ear drums hurt a lot from the strong winds and the cold and I spent the rest of the day with a terrible ear ache, it’s really worth it! So much better than the Sydney Bridge Climb in terms of adrenaline factor.

We walked around a little in the tower eye but didn’t really pay much attention to the viewing gallery after that. I found this vintage looking post box that’s the highest working post box in the southern hemisphere. So cool right?

Promptly bought a post card for my girlfriend, Sally so that i can post it right there and then. 🙂

That’s all for now. More of my sydney adventures in another post. Do read some of my earlier sydney posts or check out the rest of my travelling posts!

Till I blog again, have a good weekend people.