Famous Fireworks

After a short flight we arrived in sydney and parted ways. Debs family were staying at a friends, whilst me, Tj and Jo were in a different hotel to the rest. It was a lovely little hotel in the middle of The Rocks, a very lively area of Sydney.

On our first day in Sydney we met up with Alex and toured the sights. We saw the amazing opera house, the botanic gardens, the harbour bridge and had a stroll through the city centre. Dad had booked for me, Tj and him to climb the harbour bridge in the afternoon. It was amazing and something that we would never be able to afford as travellers. The views were spectacular, and it was also really

interesting to learn about its design, building and structure. Dad had thought he had done it previously, until we reached the top when he realised this was in fact his first time as well. The weather was perfect and there was a lovely afternoon haze over the city.

We met up with the others for a delicious Italian before heading back to our hotel. On the 29th we took a ferry to check out Manly Beach. It was a great beach but was completely rammed due to the nice weather. A friend that Tj and Alex had met, Dan, came along as well. He was a good laugh and we got on well.
The 30th was a simlilar story. We took a bus to (forgotten the name) and walked 2 hours to Bondi beach. It was just as nice as manly and just as busy. We ate some fish and chips on the bank and chilled with some friends of Alex on the beach. That night we had Thai, but I was very upset to find out they didn't have chopsticks at a fucking Thai restaurant. I had become a pro in Asia and was very disappointed.

We still hadnt decided what to do for new years eve and stayed up until midnight deciding. Eventually we had a plan. We got up at 7am and got packed for the day. Met Alex and went to Coles to pick up our food. Headed to Mrs Mackerees point around 8.30am as we heard that had the best views of the fireworks. We thought we had made good time only to find we were 6000 back in the queue and the gates didn't open till 10. We got in around 1 and got an alright spot. We killed the day eating , chatting, watching films and listening to music. We moved to a better spot for the 9pm fireworks, but then nobody dispersed when they finished. Not wanting to stand for 3 hours we proceeded to sit on the floor, in the middle of the crowd and watched hot fuzz to a number of laughs and funny looks. At 10.30 it was too crowded to continue to sit so we got up and waited the rest out. To kill time we threw our remaining food at people in the crowd, after

offering it to some confused frechies behind us. The fireworks were extraordinary and we had the best seat in the house.

I was very glad we got the spot but I would never do it again. 16 hours of waiting for 10 minutes of fireworks is a long time. After they finished we went back to the hotel and fell straight to sleep as we were nackered. Our first sober new year in a while.

New years day we met everyone for a final lunch and to say our goodbyes before flying in different directions on the 2nd. I flew to Melbourne with Dad, Abi and Heather. It was very sad to say goodbye to Tj but I knew she would be having a great time in Asia.