Labour Day weekend in Sydney

We arrived in Sydney on the Saturday afternoon of Australia’s Labour Day weekend. The city was incredibly busy, and we were very lucky to arrive just in time to get the last spot at our chosen campsite. As we checked in at reception, we overheard phone conversations from the woman behind the counter turning various potential customers away; telling them that, to the best of her knowledge, all campsites in the city had been fully booked. Before we left, we heard her ask the receiver: “Do you absolutely have to stay in Sydney tonight?”

After counting our lucky stars and getting set up at the campsite, we headed out and got the tube to Milsons Point. It bears mentioning that the tubes in Sydney are absolutely incredible! They’re so smooth, clean and, most exciting of all, they’re double deckers!

As Sydney is one of the most famous cities in Australia, it's one of the places that I have been the most eager to visit on our journey. As the tube pulled towards the city centre, it was such a surreal experience to finally get our first glimpse at the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge. We walked across the bridge, excitedly pointing out the Opera House as soon as we could see it; taking in the impressive city landscape that sat upon the most beautiful blue waters and pinching ourselves to make sure it was all real.

We spent the rest of the day walking around and taking in the city, visiting the Opera House and a market on The Rocks.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

The next day, we headed to Bondi Beach. It was a cool day, which was both a good and a bad thing. A bad thing as it meant that our optimistically packed swimming clothes and towels went unused at the bottom of our bags, but a good thing as it meant that the notoriously busy beach didn’t have nearly as many tourists on it as it otherwise would have done. We were able to find a spot to settle ourselves on its soft, white sands and read our books before heading to a restaurant on its esplanade to (very Britishly) have fish and chips by the sea.

Me on Bondi Beach

We headed from the beach back to Sydney Opera House, where we did the Tour and Dine package. The tour was really interesting and we learned about the history and building of the Opera House, although we didn’t get to see as much of it as we would have liked. 

Me and Nick before setting off on our tour of the Sydney Opera House

However, if you are ever in Sydney and considering doing a similar thing, I would really recommend buying just the tour rather than the Tour and Dine package. This package costs $31 more each than doing just the tour (The Sydney Opera House Tour costs $40 per person, whereas the Tour and Dine package costs $71 per person). This extra cost claims to give you seats for dinner at the Opera Bar, where you can choose your meal from a menu consisting of three choices. However, when we got to the Opera Bar after the tour, it was very busy and, after being told to queue at the bar and waiting there for a long time, we were told to find our own seats amongst the already heaving crowds. We were lucky to even find a tiny spare table vacated amongst the hustle. On top of this, the prices for the majority of the food on the actual menu were cheaper than the $31 extra we had paid per person for the package! We would have been better off not paying for the package, and we still could have gone to the Opera Bar, found a table and ordered directly off the menu with more choice – purchasing the package afforded us no benefit or special treatment and we were very disappointed with it.

Despite this, we still had a really lovely time eating our steak dinners outside the Opera House with a glass of wine and a beautiful view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge as the sun set in the distance.

Having dinner outside the Opera Bar after our tour of the Sydney Opera House

After our meal and drinks, we went to watch Badu Gili (which translates to “water light”). This is an aboriginal light show that takes place every day, illuminating the Opera House’s eastern Bennelong sail.

On Labour Day, we boarded the ferry to Manly to see the Manly Jazz Festival.

Manly Jazz Festival

After spending a couple of hours at the jazz festival, we got the ferry back to Circular Quays and walked back up towards the Harbour Bridge. There, we did something that was one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life and allowed me to tick one of the biggest things off my bucket list… we climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge!

Climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge!

Climbing the bridge has been one of the main things I have wanted to do whilst travelling for a very long time, so it was amazing to finally get to experience it. Our tour guide gave us information about the bridge and Sydney in general as we climbed and took in the awe inspiring views of the city beneath us.

We chose to do the Twilight package, which was perfect because it meant that we got to climb up the bridge in daylight; watch the sunset over the city whilst standing at the very top, and then come back down in the dark. The Twilight package is slightly more expensive than the other packages, but I would really recommend paying that little bit more to get a lot more out of your experience. There is also a Dawn package where you can experience the same in reverse if getting up early is your thing (which, as Nick can attest, it’s definitely not for me!)

I don’t suffer from a fear of heights and so I can’t speak to that end, but if you’re feeling as though you’d like to climb the bridge but think you would be too nervous to do so, let me just tell you that it is honestly not a scary experience at all. Before climbing, you have to go through about an hour’s worth of safety procedures where they breathalyse you (make sure not to drink beforehand!); put you in special clothing and safety equipment, and then let you have a practice go at climbing replicas of the ladders, which are the most difficult part of the climb. Once you’re actually on the bridge, you’re strapped on by a metal contraption that couldn’t possibly come undone; you have railings either side of you, and the pathway you walk up is very wide and not at all steep. It’s definitely in no way a nerve wracking or scary experience. You finish the climb with an amazing feeling of accomplishment, which Nick and I celebrated by having a drink at a roof terrace on The Rocks, illuminated by fairy lights. If you are scared of heights, the tour guide lets you climb at the front next to them and makes sure you’re okay. From what I have heard, the Bridge Climb has never encountered any serious injuries in all the twenty years it has been running. I would really recommend the experience to anyone who visits Sydney. You even get to keep your hat!

Climbing down the Sydney Harbour Bridge after watching the sunset

The next day, with Labour Day weekend finished, we drove the Great Western Highway up to a campsite near the Blue Mountains. Once there, we visited the Three Sisters.

The Three Sisters and Blue Mountains

After exploring the tracks around the Three Sisters, we drove to Wentworth Falls where we completed the Princes Rock-Undercliff-Wentworth Falls Circuit. At the end of this walk, we got to eat our lunch sat on rocks in front of a beautiful waterfall.

The waterfall at Wentworth Falls where we ate our lunch

That concluded our wonderful few days spent in Sydney. We climbed out of Wentworth Falls and into our campervan, driving on towards our next big adventure.