Earlier this week I was in Sydney for two days taking location photos for my novel imbroglio.
John and I drove from Canberra—an easy three-hour stretch given it’s a dual highway all the way. Until you hit the city, that is. Then it’s bumper to bumper, stop start, gridlock. I didn’t take any shots while in traffic; I was too busy keeping an eagle eye on the GPS for instructions and feeding them non-stop to John who was driving.
He needed a lie-down and strong coffee before I could get him out of the hotel and going again.
The weather forecast for the two days was for thunderstorms and lightning. Which was just my luck as I’d been wanting to do this for ages and now I’d finally organised it the weather was going to screw it up for me.
I had a list of the locations I wanted to photograph:
Coogee (one of the suburban beaches where my heroine Noel Valentine grew up)
Elizabeth Bay (where she now lives)
Hyatt Hotel on Circular Quay (where she makes her play for her boss, William T Hall), and
Darling Harbour (where David Cameron first sets eyes on Noel).
We booked into a back-street hotel in Wooloomooloo because it’s an easy 30 minute walk to Circular Quay, and from there we could take harbour ferries everywhere but Elizabeth Bay, which we called in to after booking out of the hotel to drive home.
The walk was lovely. Past the navy ships at the Garden Island base and the historic Finger Wharf (the longest timber-piled wharf in the world), then through the Botanic Gardens.
The beaches are lovely too. Coogee is a favourite of mine, which is why Noel calls it home and why she continues her morning swims there.
The next day we were catching up over lunch at Circular Quay with girlfriend and fellow author Roz Baker of the Sooner or later series fame. Then it was onboard the ferries to Watson’s Bay so I could take water-side shots of Rose Bay where another character, Marion Davies, lives. And lastly Darling Harbour.
The weather held!!
That night the thunder and lightning hit and the rain poured. But … I had all my photos. How lucky was I!
As for Harrison Ford, it was on the evening news I learned he was in town to promote the new Star Wars movie and the backdrop for his photos was the Opera House. I’m staggered I didn’t see him because I there was too!
Cruise ship Diamond Princess and the Opera House
I might have hung around and tried the selfie with him in the background trick.
Walking Boots 