Vast, Vibrant and Vivid

Not usually one for selfies, we couldn’t pass the opportunity to commemorate the start of our Big Bali Adventure.

Christine had booked us into the Orlov hotel, in Woolloomooloo, this is an old wharf that has had a makeover … really nice.

Dinner at Kingsley’s – the squid ink linguini was to do for.

The wharf alongside the old warehouse with untold millions of boats moored. Apparently, Russel Crowe has an apartment in this complex.

I couldn’t go past this floral decoration, hydrangeas that were dried and then dyed (floral decorations at the hotel).

We set off from the hotel at just on dark and then Christine navigated our way over to Circular Quay … she took me up this very dodgy set of stairs, I didn’t realise she was so adventurous.

My first taste of Vivid, the State Library lit up, the colours changed through the rainbow, but I liked this hot pink.

Eventually we found ourselves at Circular Quay, Sooooo many people. We decided to head towards the Rocks first and then backtrack to the Botanical Gardens for the special light show that we had tickets for.

This building is across the road from the Quay and there was an animated light show Gumscape with Road and Creatures, across the front of Customs House, with loads of people watching the whole show.

The scenes changed every few minutes, it was fascinating.

We’re now entering the rocks area (but walking along the sea-wall), and this building kept changing colour, very vibrant.

Not sure what this was all about, but apparently you could have your photo taken at one of the cut-outs.

This is the Museum of Contemporary Art, not sure what the story was here, but it featured all sorts of scenes.

Then it changed to a stary night with what looks like an astronaut in space.

Followed by a big fish wandering across the facade of the building.

Next thing you know there were these big blue balls.

And then bird-like creatures. It was fascinating, the creativeness of some people is mind-blowing.

I really liked this sculpture further along the promenade.

Trees beautifully lit.

And the piece de resistance, the Opera House, animated light show.

Another selfie!

Here we are at the end of the wharf, looking at the Harbour Bridge, the lights changed colour regularly, through all the colours of the rainbow.

Walking back, the AMP building, the one in the middle, changed colours regularly, and the railway station (below it) also changed at the same time.  We then walked around to the Opera House to get into the Botanical Gardens.

When we entered the Gardens the crowds thinned out substantially. I wasn’t sure what to expect, first there were all these small lights, and music in the background.

Then the trees were lit up, that was impressive.

How good is this, a boab tree lit up.

I liked this palm tree too. Made me want to light up some of the palms at the back of my house.

This installation was pretty cool!

Christine’s camera took much better photos than mine which couldn’t handle so much light.

The aerial roots of a Morten Bay fig.

The roots up close.

I loved this tree.

So much colour.

And more.

I liked this installation – fog machine creating mist through the banboo.

Stunning view across one of the ponds.

More bamboo.

20m of rainbow ribbons to walk through, really cool.

I liked the fact that they chose white for one of the displays.

I loved this installation; it was sort of a cross between dandelion seeds in the wind and Avatar.

This was pretty cool.

This was poppies floating in the air, sort of Anzac Day-ish.

And this looked a bit like Nessie (Scotland) until Christine pointed out that it was a whale. The colours changed regularly, was very cool.