New Years Eve in Sydney - Grand!!
Trip Start
Jun 11, 2008
1
214
349
Trip End
May 14, 2009
Sydney,
New South Wales,
Australia
Thursday, January 1, 2009
8 months ago we were expecting to spend the whole day queuing in the hot sun for 4 hours and then sitting in the sun for another 13 hours, just to see 12 minutes of fireworks. With the ban on taking your own alcohol in as well, it was also going to be expensive.
However, we have been invited to watch the fireworks from Balmain near Tommy & Lyndsey's apartment. This meant we didn't even have to leave our place until 5.30pm - more on this later.
As we had the whole day free now, we used our weekly tickets and jumped on the ferry to Sydney Olympic Park. This is a 50 minute ferry ride right through Sydney Harbour - you would pay a fortune to do this as a proper tour, but we do it as part of our ticket. It was a fantastic day for weather as well. Clear blue skies and hot sun - brill.
We spent an hour or so walking round the stadiums and sights. It was so quiet - looks like a ghost town since the Olympics finished. Still a magnificent complex though, and it's huge.
We then had lunch overlooking the wharf before getting the ferry back to the city.
The ferry dropped us off at Circular Quay which is right next to Sydney Harbour Bridge. There were loads of people all camped up already and it was only 2.30pm. They had already been there hours by the looks of them.
Lorna then went to get her haircut before we headed out.
We got the bus to Rozelle to meet up with Duncan & Kathy at Tommy & Lyndsey's. They had a lovely apartment overlooking another part of Sydney Harbour. They had a really big veranda and we had a BBQ out there. We had lamb, chicken, kebabs, all washed down with beer, wine & Sambuca. Beats the soggy burgers we were expecting to get at the botanical gardens!
We watched the family fireworks at about 9pm from the edge of the harbour in front of their apartment - fantastic location. We then headed off for a few bars on our way to where we were going to watch the main event from.
We had some good fun in the bars and didn't leave to go to our vantage point until 11.30pm!! Sure better than sitting around from 11am! This gave us great time to have fun in a few bars first.
We then walked down towards Balmain Wharf but turned down a side street on the way. Most people carried on down to the Wharf, but only the locals take this side street. We had an awesome view if the Sydney Harbour Bridge from here as you can tell by the photos. It was fantastic!!
We celebrated the incoming New Year with some bubbly & more Sambuca shots. It was brilliant fun. After the fireworks, we went back to the bar for some more liquid refreshment.
This was an absolutely perfect New Years Eve and we certainly have to thank Duncan, Kathy, Tommy & Lyndsey for a lot of it. We couldn't have expected it to be any better and we have to say that the firework display was awesome!!
There were buses all night long so we got back to the apartment easy enough, for about 3am. We then sat and had a few beers back at the apartment, made a few drunken phone calls and watched a bit of TV. It was after 6am before we finally made it to bed - it was light outside!!
I don't expect an rising tomorrow morning!!
Comments
Happy new year
Love ya loads.
LOve usxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Fuzzy Heads
Guys,
Great New Year had by all. Have to say took a while to get going the next day and Tommy spent the morning chatting on the big white telephone but came back strong to take us out on the boat in the afternoon.
Memories after the fireworks are sketchy at this end but Tommy and Lynsey have made up after Lynsey promised him a kebab on the way home. Kathy is claiming full memory loss so thanks for the photos, not quite sure what happened to her head and shoulders though!
Hope the rest of your tour goes well and great to meet up with you again. One tip from us, lay off the Sambuca's!!!!!
All the best
Kathy, Tommy, Lynsey and Duncs