The long trip down under part 10

[Cannavar]

Sydney, New Years and leaving

With the last day of our holiday approaching we popped in to Sydney to meet up with a friend from home who was also out visiting family in the country. We drove to Darling Harbour which is kind of like the entertainment and "cafe" area of the city all situated around the water. They even have a monorail!

We met up outside the aquarium and sat down for a drink in the Lindt Cafe (again! ). Its a lovely part of the city and with the blue skys we were lucky enough to have, it was a lovely day.





After this we headed back to my sisters for a trip to the beach where we did some kayaking and a bit of surfing all rolled in to one. It was a lovely afternoon. That night was our last evening staying in my sisters house so we all went out for a meal at the RSL club which as before was great value.

The next day was New Years eve and it was time to pack up and head to our hotel in Sydney. Well, when I say Sydney I mean Sydney airport. Despite trying 11 months in advance I couldn't get a hotel room for love nor money in Sydney that night for obvious reasons. Most required at least 4 nights worth of bookings to get a new years rooms. In the end I managed to get the Holiday Inn at the airport which did mean we were right on the spot for the flight out the next day. I dropped the hire car back and we got onto the double decker tube train and headed into the city to get a good spot for the fireworks.

We got to Circle quay about 14:00 and was surprised to find a few patches of grass still available so we stretched out and awaited the arrival of my sister. Turns out we probably could have left it a few hours but when you are doing this as a one off you have to make sure you get a good spot!



As the afternoon wore on and my sister finally arrived we all tried to get a bit of shut eye as we had a long evening ahead and a 15 flight the next day!



As you can see from this picture...we had a great spot to see everything..



This is pretty much where the scenic pictures of the night end. The compact I took, while a good camera, really doesn't take good night images and as I had the HD camcorder I used that to record the fireworks. Although I did get DS2's best impression of a Jedi!



As the evening moved towards midnight tensions really began to fray. All of us who had sat all day were having to defend our ground against groups just trying to push us out the way. With kids asleep on the floor it was all getting out of hand and when the police arrived they said there was nothing they could really do. In the end it was a group effort by all of the families who'd waited all day to defend the borders of our new land and go to the aid of anyone who was having trouble with hostile forces!

The fireworks themselves were as good as you would expect for £5 million! but we thought that they could have put on music or entertainment before that as there was not a thing until the stroke of 12. With all the speaker systems they didn't even feed a radio feed through.

We wouldn't do it again but we couldn't have been all the way over there for new years and not gone. The "fight" back to the tube stations and the trip back to the airport was actually better than I thought and we made it back to the hotel around 01:45.

We obviously got up late the next morning and had a really nice breakfast in the hotel. Then while preparing to head to our flight we watched the European new years celebrations, especially the German ones which were ridiculously cold! The Australian media actually admitted the London celebrations where the best after theirs. High praise indeed lol.

We met up with my sister in Krispy Kremes at the airport and said our last goodbyes and then it was on to the bizarre flight to San Fran. Bizarre because it was the longest flight of our trip and yet we would actually be arriving in San Fransisco BEFORE we'd left Sydney.

As we took off from the airport and turned towards the north east there was chance for one last photo of the gorgeous country we'd enjoyed so much...

[Fairy+4]

How busy was Sydney on New Years Eve

I have to admit though if you travel all that way it's defiantely a must, i've really enjoyed reading your trip report

[shirley]

sounds like a great day apart from the interlopers lol

[Tartan Tigger]

Sounds like you had a fantastic time in Oz.

[Guest]

Your trip sounds fantastic and you seemed to have a great time. Enjoyed reading your reports and seeing your lovely photos.

[Guest]

Anotehr great report with lovely photos.

[Strommie]

Glad you enjoyed your New Year's Eve and well done on successfully stopping people pushing in.

[cartoonp]

loved the reports from sydney and loved the pics many thanks

[roonlou]

Freaky time zones, arriving at San Fran before you left Oz - how weird! Enjoying your trippies!

[DIBBadmin]

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