Monday 31st Dec

We forced ourselves to get up in good time (Good job that we brought our alarm clock with us!) We went ahead to finish off our picnic preparations for our long day in the city of Sydney. We had to catch a shuttle at 11.30am to take us to the spot for our new year eve celebrations.

The journey only took us 20 mins and once we reached to the spot, we were amazed at the views! We weren't expecting to be facing the famous harbour AND the opera house that well! We were pleased that we came with the hostel shuttle instead of getting there by ourselves cos if we did, we wouldn't be seeing everything in perfect views!

What we couldn't believe was the impact of the heat from the sun! It was very hot and we were afraid that we had to put up with the heat all day! We were pleased that we got the 11.30am shuttle cos the spaces in our area were filling up very fast! We managed to grab the spaces almost at the front of the area to get the good views for taking photos.

All we had to do was waiting around and having our picnic lunch. The heat was getting to us and wasn't very comfortable! So Daniel went off to search for a shop to see if he could buy something to shade us off and he also fancied having beers instead. We had plenty of wines left over from our Christmas BBQ but we both didn't feel like drinking wines during the day!

Within an hour, Daniel returned back with a umbrella and pack of beers and we both were happy bunnies again, beers to cool us down and the umbrella to ease the heat off us!

Eventually in the late afternoon, the area was getting very crowded and limited for spaces to move around! So it was a good job that we were almost at the front! We have seen few entertainments going on such as boats parade on the river, planes flying over and of course planes doing smoke writing in the sky.

We all were waiting for the sun to disappear so we can get to see the bright lights on the bridge and opera house. You may have noticed that we have taken many photos as they did look gorgeous!

More drinking, eating throughout the day, people getting drunk and pushing into our areas, we were getting concerned about our spaces cos we didn't want to be pushed down the cliffside!!

There were plenty of polices about, but they were very friendly, enough to give their hat to people in our area and have photos taken with them!

As the sun finally setted down, it was cooling down but we both were feeling as we wanted to have a shower to freshen up!!

When 9pm came, the kids firework displays started and it was amazing to see them from our distance. So many to see and we were very curious what the midnight's firework displays were going to be like if the kids displays were already good!!

We got to see the boat parade again with their lights showing with the theme of "The Time Of The Lives" going past us.

We also brought party poppers and sparklers with us. As we had too many sparklers to use up, we thought to have a couple of goes with it instead of waiting for the midnight which was fun!!

We were getting bored of waiting and we were getting tired. It had been a very long day and we wanted the time to speed up to the midnight!! More drinking of wines/beers, we were getting a bit merry but yet cos of our tiredness, we wanted to sleep!!

10mins before the midnight strikes, we all got up and got ready with party poppers, sparklers and champagne. Few people who were sitting in front of us gave us champagne to share and we also gave them sparklers and party poppers too. We all got in the mood and the countdown began on the harbour bridge.

Lisa had the camera ready and managed to get a good spot to take photos of everything before people in our area were rushing to the front and pushing each other! The fireworks began and it was certainly bigger than the kids' displays. We cheered, had sparklers going, throwing party poppers in the air.

The fireworks lasted for at least 15mins or so. You could say that it had been worth waiting for, putting up with the heat and sitting around all day!

We were then trying to push our way back to our area and it was a mess from other people trampling over and spilling their drinks everywhere!! We started to clear things up and made our way back to the shuttle which was meant to be picking us up at 1am. We waited for a while till the staff from the hostel directed us to the shuttle as they couldn't find the parking spot for the pick up. We had to walk at least 30mins to get to the shuttle!

The traffic was so bad and the shuttle wouldn't be able to return back in time for 2am slot!! We finally returned back to the hostel at 2.15am. We were pleased to book ourselves for 1am pickup as they did offer 1am, 2am or 3am time slot.

We obviously went straight to bed in the end, dumping our stuff on the floor!

So overall, it had been a great day for both of us, a memorable new year eve!