For those of you that enjoy warm weather year round, calm and relaxing beaches, a restaurant district buzzing in the wee hours of the morning where you can order your very late main course meal, breakfast at 12pm and a place where thongs, both the bikini and flip flop kind, are frequent then I am going to recommend Miami Beach. This place has a party atmosphere to it that is so far unrivalled on this trip and why not when the temperature is well into the twenties in Celsius when the clock ticks over into a new day in the middle of winter. It's the place of exotic cocktails, well maintained skin tans and the home of many, many, many, many, many beautiful women.

To be honest I wasn't the most enthused person in the world to be in Miami on New Year's. I had dreams on ringing it in at Times Square in the heart of New York City with about three billion others and the original plans actually were to do just that. But then the cruise happened and things fell this way and here we are, and I'm glad.

Conditions are fairly muggy in Miami this time of year. I liken it to a rainy summer's day in Melbourne that has just had the clouds cleared. But muggy or not it's nice to ditch the thermals and jacket and wear my thongs down to the beach. It's also nice to get up and go for a run along that beach in the morning knowing full well it will not be cold. I can tell you I don't think I've been side tracked so many times while running before. The scenery is what I would say 'fit'. Fit is also a term I'd use for the bank balance of your average South Beach resident over the age of 50. The expensive, convertible cars every 'senior' seems to own down this way come as a part of a package deal that involves bronze skin, white pants, finger and neck bling and of course, much to Maddi's myth, a beautiful young woman. It seems to be the place everybody with too much money comes to start their twilight years, in style.

The restaurant district on Ocean Drive is so competitive that a walk along it from top to bottom, along with the thousands of others, will involve being pitched about a half dozen or more menus from people desperate for your business. Something like that would make you think some of these places were struggling but most places seemed full and as vibrant as any restaurant back home. Cuisines from all over are offered here as well as a mix of so many different drinks. I ordered a wild berry cocktail that came out literally steaming and was as large as my head. It was nice but just try walking in a straight line when you next stand up.

Our hotel, despite not getting nearly as much bang for our buck as we got in places like D.C. and Phillie, was in a sort after location right on Espanola Way. This is where you can go to get a slice of Authentic South American cuisine. It's also a place, like most of Miami, where Spanish seems to be the dominant language.

We attended the Capitol One Orange Bowl at Sunlife Stadium on New Year's which was certainly a break from the South Beach experience. Like many big sporting complexes the stadium is in the middle of a less desirable area but the real difference was in the people. We went from the rich and snobby to the young and starving. And by that I mean college students. Our seats were literally right next to one of the competing teams', Georgia Tech, alumni section. Throughout most of the game we found ourselves mingling with college students who seemed to be making it their sole purpose to get drunk and make noise. The mature side of me would like to say they had no bearing on our night but in all honestly I came out of the game having consumed more beer than I bargained for. Although we never did find out how that past student went trying to seduce that handsy young blonde sitting in front of us who was flirting with everybody in sight. Georgia Tech beat Mississippi State too which made our section all the more happy as the hours remaining turned to minutes remaining for 2014.

It probably wasn't the most glamorous countdown for 2015 with me trying to find section West 10 in the stadium parking lot post game to catch our rally bus back to the beach but that was the only real blemish on what turned out to be an awesome night. We finished by splitting a Jack Daniels and frozen coke that was again about the size of my head whilst walking a stupidly busy and fun Ocean drive back at South Beach.

Happy New Years to all.