New Year

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Happy New Year to one and all. You join me in my new online diary adventure, which I thought would be easier to write than group emails and more importantly, more fun to read than said emails. And so, here goes with the first installment...

After spending a fun and alcohol fuelled christmas at McMahon's in Melbourne, Gaz and I left for Sydney on the 30th december. Joining us in the Fremantle bus were Jess and Julie (our roomies from McMahon's) Joel (Julie's boyfriend and all round top fella) and Ashley (Jess' brother and also all round nice guy). A couple of things to bare in mind at this point - 1. Virtually every backpacker on the continent was going to Sydney for new year. 2. Leaving it to last minute, we didn't actually have any accomodation.

Having spent time in Sydney already, Jess and Julie were confident that some friends of theirs would be able to put us up for a few days. Other than that, me and Gaz had the van to sleep in so we were okay. After a good 12+ hours drive we finally arrived in Sydney around 9pm with the excitement building. Anxious to park the bus up, dump our stuff and hit the town, it was only then we discovered that neither Jess or Julie had actually called their friend to okay our stay. Well you can guess the rest...

And so, with under 3 hours to go before my birthday, we trapsed around central Sydney with the impossible task of trying to find a hostel with vacancies. After half a dozen 'you must be joking's, it soon became clear that accomodation was not to be found in the city. Just as the guy's were contemplating sleeping in the park, Jess mentioned that the house her and Julie used to rent, and which we had passed by on the way, had a sign in the window saying the lease was up. Also, the girls knew of a dodgy window out the back that didn't lock. All of a sudden a little glimmer of hope appeared. Sure enough when we got to the house, the window opened and we were able to make our way into the empty house.

Whatever joy we had from getting into the house was quickly errased when we switched the lights on. The scurrying noises should have given them away but as soon as light filled the room it was plain to see that the house was pretty much infested with cockroaches. Gaz and I quickly decided that it would be the comfort of the van for us!

Apart from the 'roaches, the house was empty - no furniture, no beds, no nothing. What with arriving so late, all the stores were shut and so the guys couldn't even buy some bedding to kip on at the very least. And so, with the realisation that they were going to be sharing the wooden floor with their hosts, we all decided to go out and get drunk! We were in the pub in no time and with a pint in my hand before midnight, I was able to see in my birthday in proper fashion.

A good night's sleep was had by some (me and gary) and the next day we spent most of the morning trying to find a good spot to park the van. All the streets in Sydney are metered or have parking restrictions, so the problem was finding somewhere we could leave it for a few days. After much deliberating it was decided that the best place would be the exhibition centre's multi-storey carpark in darling harbour. At a rate of $24 a day at least it was cheaper than a hostel for the both of us.

Once our temporary accomodation was sorted it was time for us all to hit the pub. After a couple of drinks in the Broadway, we headed to the offy and then circular quay to catch some firework action. It was around 8pm by this time and all day, people had been gathering around the harbourside to get themselves a good spot. By the time we got there the place was absolutley rammed, with all of the official observation areas closed off. With sheer determination we managed to get ourselves through the crowds, and down by wharf 3 where the manly ferry departs. Jess had with her a carrier bag full of water bombs and had burst a few on the way due to crowd conditions. This she countered by lobbing bombs into the heaving crowd, taking out a bald guy with glasses, and other unfortunates to our amusement.

Once settled, we broke out the wine beer and spirits and concentrated on heavy partying. Drinking and laughter were punctuated by random water bombs as Jess continued her assault on the crowd. Before long a security guard made his way over in our direction as we frantically tried to hide our booze. Spying the ill-concealed carrier bags of alcohol/bombs, he gave us orders to loose the booze or take it else where. Then turning to Jess he made it clear that if she threw any more bombs (the last one of which had actually missed HIM by a foot!) she was going home with a police escort. Happy new year!

Things quieted down some after that and we managed to be more discreet with our drinking. Shortly before midnight a news chopper circled the harbour and then came to a hover just above our heads. Switching its searchlamp on it traced the high power beam over the crowd along the harbourside. This had a mexican wave effect as people raised their arms and cheered as they were bathed in the floodlight. Great fun! After about twenty minutes, it circled around again before disappearing just as the countdown to midnight began. As 2005 started, fireworks filled the sky and the harbour bridge looked amazing as it was illuminated with strobe lights. The shiny disco ball thingy at the centre of the bridge was lowered on a hoist and it too was quite spectacular. The whole scene was set off with two tall ships all decked out with lighting along the masts and rigging. I managed to get zero photos of the whole event but it was an image that will stay in my mind for years to come. At about 1am we joined around 700,000 people as they all tried to make their way home. The harbourside lights were still shining brightly, but the lights in my head were going out as the day's activities caught up with me.

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