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Published: January 1st 2008
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Euphoria...New Year 2008
The fireworks were non-stop, the excitement was uncontainable. How do you start a blog about one of the most surreal nights we've ever had? Eight in the morning start, a sixteen hour stake-out to find the ultimate spot, sat on what seemed like a vertical cliff, now thats dedication to the cause. The cause being how we wanted to see in the new year of 2008 in Sydney, Australia.
Wow what a day. Having gotten up at only God knows what hour, we arrived around 8.00am to a queue of at least 400 people already waiting to get into Mrs MacQuaries Point (The Royal Botanic Gardens), the most coveted place in all of Sydney. The gates opened at 10am and the chase was on the find that ultimate spot, the picture perfect Sydney Opera House placed so brilliantly just to the left of the Harbour Bridge. After sprinting and overtaking about 60 people we had our place with the amazing view we had picked out only days earlier. The only downside was that the hill was so steep that we kept sliding down, a very uncomfortable 16hr wait began. Fortunately we were not alone and had the company of 4 other people we had met on our travels.
Bring on 2008
Even with the long wait, spirits remained high Reading books, devouring the pack-up we had brought, conversation, writing journals and defending out prize spot every few minutes passed the time away. It was incredible to see so many packed into the park with the excitement mounting. As the clock slowly ticked away and the sun began to set, a ship light parade cruised by which looked great. At 9pm we had the family fireworks, they where fantastic and a good warm up for what was yet to come. As the countdown grew closer so did the drunkeds. After camping out for 16hrs no one was in any mood for those who thought they could just muscle in at the last moments and steal the best spots, so a few heated discussions were had and of course we won and off they trotted. The giant lit up egg timer on the harbour bridge dropped its last ball and before we knew it we were counting down....3,2,1...the euphoria of 22,000 people errupted!! The fireworks lit the sky, the harbour was brilliantly bright and the voices of thousands welcomed in the new year. It was the most amazing time for us, probably the thing we had most looked forward to on
this trip and it only exceeded out expectations. Simply awesome.
After Bondi we moved to the centre of Sydney and stayed in the YHA hostel which was fab. The facilities were like a hotel with a sauna and swimming pool on the roof top. We absolutely loved Sydney, there just seems to be a buzz about the place and such a variety of characters. We did the whole tourist thing of looking around the architecturally awesome Opera House, walked along the Harbour Bridge and around Circular Quay. The Royal Botanic Gardens were really pretty. We couldn't believe it when we stumbled across some wild cockatoo parrots in the park. It was so strange to see, they seemed like such inquisitive little fellows and just wandered around the grass and even allowed us to laze around with them. Although they didn't allow us to get to close and this prompted Bec C to practically chase them.
Another dream of Becs S was to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge and we're pleased to say mission accomplished. We chose a night climb where the whole experience took around 3 hours. After donning our equipment and head lights we began our accent.
Sydney Opera House
We love our sun pictures First we had to climb some really steep steps to actually get onto the top of the bridge. This was the scariest part especially with Becs S increasing fear of heights. As we climbed we were rewarded with stunning views of the city all lit up. It looked beautiful especially the Opera House. Reaching the summit of 134m was fantastic as we saw Sydney in all its glory. The Bridge was built in 1932 with the loss of 16 workers. Even Crocodile Dundee (Paul Hogan) worked on the Bridge although it is said that he liked drinking more than working. The bridge is built entirely out of steel and the granite towers at either end are just for decoration but cost $750,000 and this was in the thirties!
We did a day trip to see the Blue Mountains just outside of Sydney. They were incredibly beautiful with soaring views. They are called the Blue mountains due to the suns reflection off the vapour from the Eucalyptus trees giving the blueish colour. We visited the Wentworth falls which were absolutely breathtaking. It was huge, the biggest we have seen. Although it was a tough climb getting back up the steep
The city gets ready for a big night
The sun going down behind the cities skyscrapers steps, it was well worth it. The Katoomba Waterfall was amazing too. On the walk down a miniture waterfall showed the face of a man which was quite eerie, the Katooma falls however were massive in comparison but were only viewed from a distance. The main drawcard for Katoomba was the Three Sisters. Basically the Three Sisters are three rock formations coming out from the lush green mountains. The aboriginal story behind the rocks goes...back in the day a man and his three daughters went for a walk in the mountains, the mountains were a bad place to go as the evil people eating monster always lurked. On seeing the three women the monster made his way towards them, the father who was magical tried to save his daughters by casting a spell on the monster. The monster himself was magical and therefore magic was useless. The father could not bear to see his daughters eaten by the monster and therefore turned them into rocks. The monster then headed towards the father, the father turned himself into a Lyer Bird and flew away. The monster ate the fathers magical bone, when the monster had gone the father came out looking
for his bone to turn everyone back to normal. As he could not find the bone they all remained as they were. It is said that when you see a Lyer Bird they are scratching the ground as if looking for something, the aborignal people see this as the father searching for his magical bone. Once at the bottom of the walk we then had the joy of heading back to the top via the steepest incline railway in the world with the length of the incline at 450m and a vertical drop of 250m. Bec S was rather sacred at this prospect, however Bec C was imagining it to be quite like the tram up the Victoria Peak in Hong Kong so wasnt that worried, how wrong she was. To put it frankly, it has to be one of the scariest moments of our lives. We went up the track backwards with the drop increasingly more evident as we went, it did not help that Bec S kept repeating 'if the rope snaps were done for'...what a thought!! Lets just say a huge sigh of relief was felt as we reached the top and pushed our way back onto
solid ground...scary!
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mum
non-member comment
holiday ozland
hi becky and becs once again happy new year photos are great especialy the onces were you are at the top of the bridge, fireworks diplayand very patriot with your flag of st george. we had a good night here in england, wether is lousy at the morment, may have snow soon hope not take care love mum