Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Sydney Trip: Day 3
The original plan for the day was to visit the Sydney Tower first thing in the morning, squeeze in the Powerhouse musuem before lunch with ch's friend, then visit the zoo in the afternoon. Well, sometimes things don't go according to plan, so we didn't get to visit the zoo.
The first thing we did at the tower was to go for the Oztrek show. There are two parts to the show. The first introduced some parts of Australia in 3D displays. The props are all there, then the characters are projected into the set. They showed a river system, Sydney city, the Australian Outback and the Great Barrier reef. Between each set, the seats we were sitting on will rotate so we can view the next one.
Next, it was on to the part of the show with motion seating. 3 large screens made it an immersive experience, and they showcased many activities in Australia, such as cattle herding by helicopter and white water rafting. After the Oztrek show, we joined the queue to go up to the top of the tower. Unfortunately, a large tour group was in front of us, and there were only 2 lifts, so we had to wait for quite some time before it was our turn.
The view at the top was magnificent. It was a clear day and we could see very far. High powered binoculars allowed us to view distant objects in great detail. There was also a guide who went around explaining the more significant buildings we could see from the tower. This picture shows Darling Harbour as seen from the tower.
Here's an idea of how powerful the binoculars provided are. The picture on the left shows the view as taken with my camera. The bit circled in red is a stadium.
Through the binoculars, the stadium now looks like this.
By the time we finished, it was too late to squeeze in the Powerhouse Musuem before lunch, so we took a slow stroll through Tumbalong Park near Darling Harbour. There was a finale to Education Week going on there, and it was a very lively place, with many people and quite a few live performances.
Lunch was with CH's friend. He brought us to a Vietnamese restaurant, which served pretty large portions for the relatively low price of $8.50.
After lunch, we went to the Powerhouse Musuem and wandered through it slowly until closing time. The interactive games were quite fun, but there was no time to slowly read through all the descriptions. There was a robotic arm exhibit which was very popular with kids, we didn't get a chance to try it out.
Here's a picture of that arm, I grabbed the frame from my video camera so the quality isn't too good.
Dinner was at Macs again, beside Darling Harbour. After that we went to Woolworths to buy groceries before heading back to the hostel. This is where we discovered large tanks of drinking water, which is much cheaper than the little bottles.
The first thing we did at the tower was to go for the Oztrek show. There are two parts to the show. The first introduced some parts of Australia in 3D displays. The props are all there, then the characters are projected into the set. They showed a river system, Sydney city, the Australian Outback and the Great Barrier reef. Between each set, the seats we were sitting on will rotate so we can view the next one.
Next, it was on to the part of the show with motion seating. 3 large screens made it an immersive experience, and they showcased many activities in Australia, such as cattle herding by helicopter and white water rafting. After the Oztrek show, we joined the queue to go up to the top of the tower. Unfortunately, a large tour group was in front of us, and there were only 2 lifts, so we had to wait for quite some time before it was our turn.
The view at the top was magnificent. It was a clear day and we could see very far. High powered binoculars allowed us to view distant objects in great detail. There was also a guide who went around explaining the more significant buildings we could see from the tower. This picture shows Darling Harbour as seen from the tower.
Here's an idea of how powerful the binoculars provided are. The picture on the left shows the view as taken with my camera. The bit circled in red is a stadium.
Through the binoculars, the stadium now looks like this.
By the time we finished, it was too late to squeeze in the Powerhouse Musuem before lunch, so we took a slow stroll through Tumbalong Park near Darling Harbour. There was a finale to Education Week going on there, and it was a very lively place, with many people and quite a few live performances.
Lunch was with CH's friend. He brought us to a Vietnamese restaurant, which served pretty large portions for the relatively low price of $8.50.
After lunch, we went to the Powerhouse Musuem and wandered through it slowly until closing time. The interactive games were quite fun, but there was no time to slowly read through all the descriptions. There was a robotic arm exhibit which was very popular with kids, we didn't get a chance to try it out.
Here's a picture of that arm, I grabbed the frame from my video camera so the quality isn't too good.
Dinner was at Macs again, beside Darling Harbour. After that we went to Woolworths to buy groceries before heading back to the hostel. This is where we discovered large tanks of drinking water, which is much cheaper than the little bottles.
posted by cosine @ 9:37 AM 
