New Year's Eve - Sydney - 31st December

So today was New year's Eve, Sydney style!

We'd agreed with Beth (and her friend Freya) that we would try to get to the entrance point to Mrs Macquarie's Chair so that we could get in the queue. By the time we arrived at 8:30 there was already a very long queue, although well organised with markings on the grass and people sitting down waiting for the gates to open at 10:00.

At around 9:45 though, we were asked to stand up and start moving. Perhaps predictably all senses of people queueing politely in their lanes went out of the window and it became a bit of a scrum. We took our chances and ended up in the roped off lanes. Sadly this didn't stop people just trying to jump the queue.

Eventually we moved forwards and continued queueing to get through the entrance gate, some 500m away. The queue was generally good-natured although there were still a couple of people who tried to jump the queue and a couple who were sent back, much to the amusement of the rest of the people.

We arrived at the security checkpoint at around 11 :00 where our bags were checked and we walked in to find a spot. The area was already quite busy although we did manage to find a spot with a partial view of the bridge.

We spent the afternoon and early evening sitting around on the (very hard) grass, having a few drinks, our food that we bought with us and playing cards and watching the world go by. At around dusk we started to see the local resident bats flying around, no doubt wondering what on earth was going on!

In early evening we had some food before the first lot of fireworks at 9:00 p.m. These were pretty spectacular themselves.

There was then a flotilla of boats which cruised around the harbour all lit up which was a pretty impressive site. At 11:00 p.m. there was a minute silence for the victims of the Bondi Beach shooting and then we settled in for the last hour. By now we were both pretty uncomfortable and achy having sat around on the ground for such a long time.

We persevered and were treated at midnight to an amazing firework display with fireworks being set off around the harbour and of course, from the Sydney harbour bridge. The number of people filming the 12-minute firework display on their mobile phones was huge. There was a sense of anticipation before the event and the atmosphere was great to be part of.

After the events we walked the long journey back to the centre of the CBD, said goodbye to Beth and Freya and then eventually caught the metro back to North Sydney where we then walked home arriving just after 1:00 a.m.

We had a couple of beers to celebrate New Year in comfort rather than on the hard ground and then went to bed for a good night's sleep.

What an event to be part of even if at times it felt like hard work sitting around waiting for the fireworks and for the new year.Leggi altro