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Published: January 5th 2009
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Entry by Rich
Wednesday 31/12/08 New Year’s Eve in Sydney is a very big event for residents, visitors and tourists alike. Throughout the day people flock to vantage points all round the harbour in order to secure their view of the evening’s fireworks.
We were up bright and early as I wanted to make use of the outdoor Olympic size swimming pool at Milson’s Point, just down the hill from our hotel. We were so early that the sun was still rising over the harbour and the bridge cast a massive shadow over the pool. This of course meant that the water was absolutely freezing. It is also surprising how long a 50 metre pool seems when you are swimming lengths. It was a great start to the day and it felt good to burn off some of the calories we have been amassing.
The area near to the hotel consists of a sizeable business district with modern skyscrapers and some older town houses, shops and restaurants lining the streets and steps rising up from the harbour. It is a pleasant and affluent area with many of the buildings having harbour views. There are some excellent deli
shops and we made use of these to gather some food for our New Year’s Eve dinner. We were undecided about where to spend the evening. There are two major fireworks displays - one at 9pm for families and then the bigger display at midnight. We had considered watching the 9 pm display from our room and then heading down to the harbour side for midnight. The more we thought about it the more we were inclined to stay in the room for the whole evening as it would be very difficult to find a better view anywhere else. It was also apparent that space was filling up fast. Even in the early afternoon when we sat in a small park on the North Shore, there were large areas of grass already covered with blankets, marquees and tents.
After a quick shower and change we headed to a bar over the road from the hotel to have an early evening drink and play some pool. The crowds coming out of the metro station were getting very large and the atmosphere was building very nicely. Estimates put the total crowd around the harbour at over a million people.
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at the hotel the sun was setting over the Western Suburbs and the harbour itself was filling with hundreds of tiny boats. A plane flew overhead writing words in the sky. As darkness fell, camera flashes went off all round the harbour adding to the lights of the buildings and boats.
The 9 pm display was excellent, with four barges in the centre of the harbour launching fireworks along with the pyrotechnics on the harbour bridge itself. I won’t try and describe the displays as we have plenty of photos to attach to the blog.
After 9 pm there was a parade of boats around the harbour, each boat lit up with a different design, some had lights in the shape of fish, some jellyfish and some of the tall sailing ships had lights all over their masts. There was a bonus for one New Year’s Eve only as the International Space Station’s orbit took it right over the harbour. It was a clear evening so even with the naked eye it was possible to see.
Our evening meal and beer kept us occupied until midnight and the spectacular display to bring in 2009. The fireworks cost
5 million Australian dollars (over 2 million pounds) and lasted for twelve minutes culminating in a final burst in the last minute which was focused around the bridge. A great start to 2009!
Thursday 01/01/09 We ordered a cooked breakfast on New Year’s Day and looked out over the city as we ate. After the huge crowds of the previous evening it wasn’t surprising that all of the streets and parks were littered with debris. Impressively the city was almost back to normal by lunchtime with over 200 people working to collect 80 tonnes of litter.
Our morning was spent at Luna Park, at Milson’s Point next to the Olympic pool. This Luna Park was a big improvement on the one at St Kilda with lots more rides and a spectacular setting. Despite a slight hangover we headed straight for the log flume and got absolutely soaked. We followed this up with a deceptively tame looking roller-coaster. The next ride was a real stomach churner and maybe not the best idea after a night drinking and a big cooked breakfast!
After Luna Park we needed to take some bags on to our next Sydney Hotel for
them to store whilst we headed up to Queensland. This hotel is in the city centre close to Darling Harbour, the Spanish Quarter and Chinatown so we headed into a specialist Chinese Seafood restaurant. It was very busy with lots of families celebrating New Year’s Day.
We were very tired but still had time for a stop at Circular Quay to give Jules her first close up view of the Opera House. We also got some tickets for the opera ready for our return to Sydney. The sun had just set over the harbour and the flying foxes (giant bats) from the Botanic Gardens were flying out over the city. This gave us some great photo opportunities especially on the ferry back to North Sydney. This short stay in Sydney was over with some unforgettable memories of New Year, but we would be back for a longer stay soon.
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