Our Holiday.... Darling Harbour

Friday 18th January, 2013

This was not a day I was looking forward to.  All week they had been predicting temperatures up around 40C and I think by the time we left the motel at around 9.00am the temperature was already touching 30C.  Sydney weather also has the high humidity and combined with the heat, made it unbearable.

We thought that today we would try and keep indoors as much as possible and so we thought we would take a trip to Darling Harbour and the Aquarium.

Once again onto the ferry for the trip around to Darling Harbour.  The ferry stopped quite a way away from the attractions and so we had to walk in the heat.  The first place we came across was Madame Tussauds Wax Works.  It was cool inside and so we thought we would start here.

We ended up buying the 3 Combo, which allowed us entry into the Wax Works, Australian Wildlife Centre and the Aquarium.  We spent ages in Madame Tussauds and Katie had a ball interacting with the "stars".  This place was my favourite out of the 3.

She got to interact with people such as.......Captain Cook, the Queen, Julia Gillard, Barack Obama, Olivia Newton John, Michael Jackson, Kylie, John Farnham, Oprah, Dame Edna Everage, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and a whole lot more.

She also wanted to have her hand waxed.  There was a 90 minute wait for this and so they took her name and phone number and said they would ring her when they were ready.  We decided to go and have some lunch while waiting for the phone call.

When we walked back outside I had never felt heat like it before in my life.  To say it was hot would be an understatement.  We walked around to the Aquarium to get something to eat and it was so hot in there you couldn't sit down and eat.  Apparently their air conditioning had broken down.

We took our sandwiches back to Madame Tussauds and ate them there where it was much cooler.  Katie got her phone call and so we went back inside for her to have her hand waxed.

After Madame Tussauds we went to the Australian Wildlife Centre.  Some of the animals were really feeling the heat and some exhibits had been closed due to the heat.  We were told that our tickets would be valid if we wanted to go back there on Saturday.

We stayed to listen to a talk on crocodiles. 

After the Wildlife Centre we made our way around to the Aquarium.  It was still hot in there.  We slowly walked around the exhibits looking at the different species of fish.  We came across the overhead pool and watched the sting rays, fish, sharks and dugong swimming above us.

We stopped to listen to a talk on the dugong.  As for trying to lose weight on a diet with lettuce leaves forget it.  These dugongs, in the wild eat the sea grasses, in captivity they are fed Cos lettuce (that's their preferred lettuce).  They eat over 100 kgs in a day and weigh up to 400 kilos.  They will reach up to 700kgs in weight.

We made our way down to the shark tanks and this was the coolest part of the Aquarium.  Maybe it was because we were in the bowels of the building.

When we left the Aquarium there had been some rain.  Outside it was still very hot and now it had turned steamy.  None of us wanted to walk back to the ferry, instead we thought we would catch the Monorail back into the city.  Guess what it wasn't working.  Apparently it had been hit by lightning and we were told some of the rail services weren't working as well.

So that left us with one option, walk back into the city.  We slowly made our way there and to a bus stop.  After several buses had come and gone it dawned on us that perhaps the free bus was no longer operating.  Thankfully a bus employee confirmed it for us and said we could catch any one of the buses and they would take us to Circular Quay.

We quickly got on the next bus that came along.  We caught the ferry and then the bus back to the motel.  We had dinner at the Manly Leagues Club, which is just across the road from the motel. 

When we got back to our room it was still relatively early and so we watched some television.  Sydney had just recorded their hottest day on record......45.8C  (114.4F).  We knew it was HOT!!!