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Ok, so these are some of the pic that I took on NYE. People starting queuing up in early in the morning to get the best spots to watch the fireworks. I know people in the hostel that left at 8 am to go to a bar across the Harbour and they were going to wait and sit there all day. The most coveted spot in the city is the botanical gardens where you can see the opera house, bridge and the whole Harbour. But people started comping out the night before just to be let into the gardens. The Harbour area was just madness that day.

I resigned myself not to have the best seat in the house because I refused to waist a whole day for the half an hour fireworks show. So I went to one of my favorite spots, Hyde park, and enjoyed a nice picnic with other rebels. I ended up going back to the hostel and getting changed to go out around 8 pm. Then I walked down to the Harbour. The whole downtown perimeter have been closed to traffic since noon, and thousands and thousands of people were walking, like me, down to the Harbour to see if there were any decent spots. I got to the Harbour as the earlier, family oriented, firework show had just ended. Luckily for me, I ended up at one of the wharf's entrances and just waited until the people leaving the earlier show had come out and then rushed right into the Harbour.

I managed to get a good spot right next to wharf # 5 though I could not see the opera house. But I figure if I get a good view of the bridge that will be nice. It was 10:30 pm. I had to stay put on that spot for the next 1 and a half hour. It was not fun because I was surrounded by thousands of people all staking out their places. I did not take many pics because the night lens required a tripod, so I have a few very good clips that when I manage to figure out how to upload them I will post.

In the end, the fireworks were simply amazing. Without a doubt, the best show I have ever seen and well worth the wait. Afterwards, the streets were absolutely taken over by the party goers and it was wild. There was a lot of police presence but everyone was well behaved.

I ended my night at the Three Wise Monkeys bar on George St. and danced until 4 am (I think it was 4 am (?)). Happy New Year!!

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