Happy new year from Sydney!
New years eve started in a similar manner to Christmas, with a fire alarm in the early hours! This time it was because someone was smoking inside, but we still had to get up and take the stairs 12 floors down and stand on the street!
The alarm went off at 5.30am so we got up and went out to start queuing for the free vantage viewing area at Mrs Macqueries point in the botanical gardens. When we arrived the queue was huge, I think there were already a couple of thousand people there! By 8am it was packed and boiling hot! After a little hiccup trying to rearrange the queue, we were finally allowed through the gate at 10am. Once we got to the gate, all your bags were searched and unopened bottles were put in the bin to ensure no one brought alcohol in. However, we weren't checked to well as the previous night we carefully opened and drank a lot of sprite to the empty wine boxes into the sprite bottles. When I got checked they looked as if they hadn't been opened, so at least we can save some money with that!
We were in the first 3000 people so got a wristband to a VIP area. After much deliberation we decided on our spot. The park was already so busy and most of the good spaces were packed with people but we eventually got lucky as a press photographer was moving and let us have his spot! It was behind some bins, but on the plus side, they didn't smell and meant no one was on front of us! We had a good view if the opera house and bridge so were quite happy! we opened out our sleeping bags and settled down for a nap! Between getting through the gate and siting in our spot, it took around 2hours as there were so many people and the park is so big! It kept spitting with rain in the morning so the cagoules and umbrellas were out but the afternoon was so hot! Ruth and me has to head up on the park to get some shade!
The day wasn't too slow and at 6 they put on an aeroplane show which was good and flew really close to the river and bridge. There were fireworks at 9pm which were a good warm up! They then set off fireworks at 15 minute intervals leading up to midnight. The countdown and main firework show at 12 were absolutely amazing, words are difficult to describe but if anyone gets the chance they should definitely see it! We were allowed to go right up to the barriers at the waters edge for this show so we had a totally unobstructed view. It was a great start to the new year and made the 18 hour wait worthwhile! After setting our new year resolutions we headed to bed!
Happy new year everyone, we hope it's a healthy and happy one.
Love Amy, jade, Ruth and Sally. X