Cocka-two?
Last Saturday we took a trip to Cockatoo Island, a prison-cum-orphanage-cum-industrial ship building complex. At the moment it has an art exhibition. Very modern, lots of people angry at their dadas, and strange moaning sounds. Needless to say the art was unimpressive, but the island itself is a registered World Heritage site. You can wander around to giant warehouses where the ships were built in WWII, skillfully dodging large lathes and cranes attempting not to spill the wine you bought at the cafe nor look at any of the mediocre art. There’s also several caves that cut through the mountains on the island, and it gets quite tiresome walking in them with speakers blaring odd panting noises at you. Their probably still better than when Aussies were hiding from the Japanese subs in Sydney harbor, or when the new Sydneysiders were hiding from their own government when they first showed up…
Getting to the island is an adventure in and of itself. There’s a free ferry that picks you up at two locations on Sydney harbor, and from there it’s a 20 minute ferry ride to the island. Quite pleasant, if a little queasy. Advice: try to get on the upper deck since the lower deck has holes that may surprise you with a wet splash. But you get a really cool view as you pass under the Harbour Bridge — almost the exact opposite of the bridge climb, both in perspective and cost.
We had a nice dinner at one of the local chains called wagamama.