Eureka Skydeck and Eve's Makeover - March 14, 2014

On Friday March 14, ten and a half volunteers from The Couch went on a tour of the Eureka Skydeck.

This photo was taken on a hazy day from St Kilda Beach.
The reflection from the setting sun was remarkably clear, but possibly
not so surprising when you know the glass on the top 10 floors is 24 carat gold plated!

Eve's Makeover

But, before we start the story of the Eureka Skydeck trip, we should track backwards to the night before, when there was a different exciting experience: the first ever makeover at The Couch!

Eve is known to many as a sports-loving, hardworking and kindhearted volunteer. When she decided she wanted to try a new look, she turned to her friend Kate, to come to The Couch to help.

Eve seeing the work in progress

Kate worked away to give Eve an exciting new look, stopping at each step to explain the process. By the time she finished, we all wondered, where was the old Eve? We couldn't find her anymore; the transformation was so dramatic!

Kate and Eve's New Look

In one of the sad stories which can be all too common at The Couch, we have to say farewell to Kate who would be returning to Taiwan on the weekend. Meanwhile, the rest of us were excited to see if Eve would keep the new look the next day at the Eureka Skydeck!

(She didn't.)

Eureka Skydeck

Gary approached Peter one day, offering to take volunteers from The Couch up to the Eureka Skydeck. This was to enable them to share their experience with other students at The Couch. Ten volunteers, including Peter, who were interested and able to go, were soon signed up.

When Friday March 14 arrived, we planned to meet at Flinders St station at 10:45am. In typical fashion for The Couch, nearly everyone was a few minutes late. However, after a few minutes we had all assembled there, included some of the volunteers from AFIS which had held the successful Carnifest party a couple of weeks before.

Gary and the volunteers from The Couch and AFIS

As happy as we were to see our old friends from AFIS, there was no doubt the most popular guest that day was Peter's son.

So popular, everyone wanted to be in a photo with him

The lifts to the top of the Skydeck were incredibly fast; rushing up 300 meters in less than 40 seconds. The lifts, travelling at more than 9 metres per second, are the fastest in the southern hemisphere and were so quick that everyone's ears were popping due to the sudden change in air pressure.

Once we reached the top, we encountered a most spectacular view of Melbourne! Almost immediately we noticed some peculiar looking view finders. There were 30 of them dotted around the Skydeck and, when looked though, they each help to locate a particular landmark.

They are kind enough to provide view
finders for the vertically impaired as well!

When looked through, it was almost like looking through a kaleidoscope.

The look through the view finder of the Bolte bridge.

The Edge Experience (see top photos) was another exciting encounter there. Before you are allowed onto the Edge, you not only need to remove all bags and loose items, but also have to don rather fetching slips over your shoes. These are to prevent scratching the glass floor of the Edge, but we were also unreliably informed they double as parachutes in case the glass floor breaks.

Before the Edge extends, you find yourself in a small frosted glass room, with even the floor made of glass! After the Edge is extended, the windows all suddenly clear, and you find yourself with nothing between you and the ground 300 meters away but clear glass! After the initial shock, you have around 3 minutes to take in all the surrounds, and, if brave, look down. Before it was retracted, we posed for the group shot at top of this page, and were encouraged to lie or sit on the floor. As odd as it sounds, the difference between been 300 and 301.8 meters above the ground was noticeable! At least one volunteer mentioned feeling a bit dizzy after we were all back inside.

Check out Peter's cute little shoe covers!

After our Edge Experience, we out onto the terrace, to look out over the Grand Prix happening down at Albert Park. We then had yet another fortuitous experience, as Paula noticed the air acrobatics going on above. Five planes were maneuvering above Albert Park in a tight formation. As happy a chance as that was, yours truly was inwardly cursing the decision to leave all his telephoto lenses at home that morning!

With the lens on hand, you can almost see the planes!

We also all moved to the north point to take some more group and individual photos (which can be seen in the full album links). Finally, we headed back down to take the last group photo for the day, with, thanks to a wide angle lens, the enormous tower in full view behind us!

...still would have preferred the telephoto lens

It was a wonderful experience, and worthwhile for anyone wanting to see one of the most amazing views of beautiful Melbourne. Before our tour started, the guides told us how eager they are to see more international students come to the Eureka Skydeck - and that discounts could be arranged for large groups. So keep an eye out on the Facebook page, or talk to Peter at The Couch, if you are interested in registering your interest.

More photos in the photo album.