Send them to the tower – Eureka Skydeck 88

Q: How do you ensure Sydney-siders fully experience the joys of their former hometown?
A: Take them to the 88th floor of the world’s tallest residential tower and force them out onto the open-air terrace where it is blustering an icy gale. (A sure-fire way to blow away any Sin City cobwebs.)

Yesterday, we braved the arctic conditions to visit the Eureka Skydeck 88 – one of Melbourne’s newest tourist attractions (it only opened in May this year).

At 10 o’clock, when we set out for Southbank, the clock on the silo said 8 degrees (but The Weather Channel said ‘Feels like: 4 degrees’). Rainclouds were on the horizon, but we were determined to beat them to the CBD, so we could enjoy the city view uninterrupted by fog, drizzle or pelting rain.

After a 50 second journey in an air-pressurised lift to the 88th floor, we were rewarded with outstanding views over the whole city.

(Yes, the Yarra River IS brown.)

One section of the Skydeck is an outdoor (fully caged) area, inaptly named The Terrace. A ‘terrace’ to me implies balmy summer evenings, Pimms in hand…”Shall we take drinks on the terrace?”

There was nothing balmy about this terrace – it would be more appropriately named The Crag.

And then, as if exposing yourself to the full-force of the hypothermia-inducing Melbourne elements wasn’t challenging enough, there is an optional extra of “The Edge” experience – an experience several of our party lined up for.

The Edge is a glass (including the floor) cube which (once loaded up with about eight people) is closed up, then projected 3 metres out from the building where it is suspended almost 300 metres above the ground for several minutes. The glass is opaque at the beginning of the experience, and once the cube has fully projected out of the building, creaking noises are followed by the sound of shattering glass and the glass suddenly becomes clear.

IF I was ever to do this in the future (highly unlikely, but assuming it is a remote possibility) I’m glad I now know about the sound effects, as I think I would have freaked out totally by that stage.

This photo is of The Edge, beginning to project out of the building:

And this one (taken from the outdoor ‘terrace’) is of The Edge once fully extended:

(I have to credit my friend, M for the photo above – she was brave enough to stand out on the Terrace in the wind – and by that stage, drizzle – to take this shot, while I sheltered inside.)

(Visited 94 times, 1 visits today)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.