The constant December drizzle at Heathrow was leaving us with a cheeky reminder of the British winter, and as we checked in with Mr Bransons virgins, we sat down for the 24 hour long haul to Auckland. We planned to stop in Sydney for four days and watch the new years eve celebration.



Waiting for our bags at Sydney airport we bumped into the UK & Aussie's famous celebrity couple. Think Posh and Becks, but more chavy. A women, top heavy yet with a skinny figure shouts in a loud Essex drawl, 'Pete, if anyone's touched my pink suitcase I 'll go mad'. Turning to our right we realise we've been waiting right next to Peter Andre and Katie Price. Why is it when you see someone famous you just stare at them, like an animal in the zoo. We stood there staring with a face that said, you don't look like that on the telly, and they stared at us in a kind of, yes, yes thats right it is me, look but no touching.


On our first day in Sydney the sun was burning a hole in the blue sky as we walked through the botanical gardens. At the top of the gardens you can see the iconic landmarks of the city, the harbour bridge and opera house. To get the best view of the city's coastline, take a ferry over to the opposite side of the harbour. We took the ferry over to Manly on the North shore and spent the evening drinking Coopers Ale and watching the surfers.

On the eve of the new year we organised to meet up with friends. Alan, one of the teachers at Kat's school and his partner joined us in the afternoon. Then we walked over to the rocks and found Dan, a uni friend who was on my course, and his girlfriend. We then bumped into another couple from UWE and suddenly we were eight and it was looking like a good party. We all found a grass bank next to the harbour with the bridge on the left, the opera house on the right and the water stretching out to the north shore in-front of us.

The countdown to 2008 started at 1pm with the firing of the Pinchgut cannon aimed at New Zealand, (joking kiwi readers.) At 2pm a small airplane flew over the city center and wrote 'TIME FLIES' in smoke which looked really cool. Then some very old airplanes further illustrated that time really does fly when they took off and went up and down the harbour and over the bridge, Kat spotted two Tiger Moths, a Boeing Stearman, a Beechcraft Staggerwing, and a Pitt Special plane - cousins to the Tiger moths.



Tuboats then came down the harbour spraying 16,000 litres of harbour water high into the air, its meaning was a little lost on me. At 9pm the family fireworks started with a little taster of how large the fireworks would be. Then over 50 illuminated boats made a passage across the water while a light show on the harbour bridge started with a massive hourglass counting down till midnight. At midnight the fireworks started in gusto. It was so bright, it was like the sun had come up. Absolutely everyone around us stood staring up at the fireworks, holding their cameras above their head, like a weird camera worshiping cult.

On new years day we took a bus down to the stunning Bondi beach for a wake-up swim and a bit of an afternoon snooze. The camera crew were out filming 'Bondi rescue' a reality tv programe about the lifeguards. We also walked around the historic 'rocks' the first settlements in Sydney where the convicts and settlers started making contact with the Aborigines. Then all too soon it was time to fly back to NZ where Kat started here summer holiday break from school and I started a new job.

Cooper Out

Love Dan & Kat