Happy New Year, Mate!

Celebrating a New Year in Sydney is EPIC! I mean, there was that wait of 3 hours to just get in the Royal Botanic Gardens, but that was nothing really. 

 Just look at all those people.

We were at the Domain at 9 a.m., an hour earlier than we thought we were going to be. The gates to the Botanic Gardens opened at 10 a.m. We did not walk through the gates until 12:30 p.m. The amazing thing is, that we were only the 5000th people through and they were still letting people in at 5:00 p.m. There were about 7 lines like these above, twisting and turning through the Domain.  We had fun people watching and doing the wave.  I think it took about 3 minutes for the wave to make it through the entire crowd waiting.

Once through the gates it was a race to get the best spots. We didn't think we had ended up at the most ideal position as trees took out most of the Opera House and half of the Bridge, but it at least had both. By the end of the night, it seemed like half of the 20, 000 people on Mrs. Macquarie's Point (chair) had crammed into our area to watch the fireworks. The best spot was absolutely crammed with people.  There wasn't even any space to spread out, where we had tonnes of space to spread out. We were even between the two food areas and right in front of the toilets. Prime seating if I do say so myself!

The crowd right at the point

Our view

The best view

Then, there was the 8 hours of waiting until the evening got kicked off with a bang. First, there was a stunt pilot doing some tricks, we didn't really see him as there were trees in the way.  They there was a skywriter (though he wasn't part of the show). Apparently to get to heaven all I have to do is trust Christ.

At 9 p.m., it was the children's fireworks.  This was 9 minutes of spectacularness (I know this is not a word, but it works). Fireworks from the tops of highrises to our left. Behind the Opera House right in front of us. To the right of us, there were sky high fireworks.  And we could spy some through the trees behind us.  We didn't know where to point our cameras.

After the children's fireworks was the Boat Parade. They are all decorated with lights and have won a contest for best lit to get to watch the fireworks from the Harbour. They are the only ones allowed in the Harbour at this time.

Then it was time to wait 3 hours for the real show to begin.  I cannot adequately describe it other than to say amazing, fantabulous, awe-inspiring, once in a lifetime. You'd think it was done, and then BOOM! there would go another firework. Sydneysiders have said that it is the best they have ever seen. 15 minutes of Awesomeness. And we didn't even see a third of it really. All of my pictures are of the bridge because the Gorilla Tripod (yes, this is fantastic Ian and Mel) was set up for that. If you want to see the true epicness of New Years Eve in Sydney, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_crNUYe3q8g to see it with soundtrack. Here are some pictures that just give a taste of what it is really like.




3,2,1.... Happy New Year!



To end the night, we walked with 20, 000 other people out of the park and down to the trains, crammed on.  Mom seriously had to squeeze her butt cheeks so they didn't get caught in the door. I've never seen so many people on a train, not even after Oilers games. And it was packed until we got off 50 minutes later. A great end to a fantastic night.

Put this on your bucket list folks (the fireworks not the train). You will not regret it.