People often say that New Year's Eve is always an anti-climax. These people have clearly never done Hogmanay Sydney style- it's totally awsome (see, picking up the lingo already).

We partied on board a boat with Andy T, Pip and their chum Rick, boarding in Darling Harbour at 7pm while the city warmed up for the night ahead. Darling Harbour is a modern development of bars and restaurants, all of which were already full, while on the harbourside hundreds of peole waited to board their party boats. Ours was the fabulously named 'Good Time' and provided a free bar, hot buffet and glowsticks on arrival. Fab. The boat, the harbour and indeed the city were all full of good vibes that night, the whole place geared up for a good time- and what an impact that good atmosphere had in helping us have fun.

Our boat went out into the main harbour, settling by the harbour bridge for the 9pm fireworks (laid on for the kids) before the very exciting light parade. For this, all the boats in the harbour (including ours) lit up neon fish (and sealife) patterns on their sides before parading in a long line to be viewed by all the folk lining the banks. We were a tuna (well, apparently the crew tried to make us a shark but messed it up and decided it looked more like a tuna!). We were also very chuffed that we seemed to have the bloke coordinating the boats standing next to us, shouting into a radio to tell which boat to go where ("No! I said the shark is number 7 and the swordfish is number 4!")

After a lot of parading (which is really cool, checking out the whole harbourside area and all the people partying) we settled at the Opera House side of the bridge for the main fireworks-simply the best firework display either of us has ever seen. In amongst this excitement, we got on with 'normal' Hogmanay activities of enjoying the free bar and dancing like idiots to Livin' On A Prayer and Summer of '69 (Andy airdrumming to the latter, of course). Only difference was that this year, in the middle of crazy dancing, Andrew looked out the window, saw the Opera House, remembered where he was and started grabbing everyone and excaliming "We're in Sydney!!!" All helpful, like. The whole thing was so good it didn't quite feel real - just what the doctor ordered. Wonderful to spend it with Andy & Pip too.

So what else did we do in our five nights in Sydney? Well, we stayed just south of Hyde Park - a great location for exploring the whole city on foot. And we enjoyed doing that in Surrey Hills (nice bars and restaurants), Chinatown (yum), Paddington (boutiquey shops) and Darling Harbour. The last one is a lovely place for an evening promenade - the Lonely Planet said it was commercial and soulless but we disagree - there are loads of fountains with kids running through them, decent bars and, above all, a great friendly atmosphere. It is also the home of the Chinese Friendship Garden which as brill - it was designed to reflect the friendship between Australia and China and is an oasis of calm in a lively city. You can pay $6 to get in... or $11 to get in and then have cream teas! Guess which one we did! Highly, highly recommended.

Also recommended (thanks Nigel for this tip) is a walk through The Domain (the bit to the east of the Botanics) to Mrs Macquarie's Chair from which you get a wonderful view of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. This is why you must do this first so you are slapped full in the face with this spectacular sight. The Botanics are also good, with loads of bats in the trees (!) and skywriting (okay, maybe that's not every day).

Did day trips to Bondi Beach (New Year's Day recovery on the beach in the sun... and briefly the rain too, but we did as the Aussies do and stuck it out), to Manly Beach, walked through the Rocks eating strawberry laces from a stall and went to the Zoo. The Zoo is excellent - you get a ferry across the bay, a cable car up the hill (right over the zoo) and then wander back down through it, checking out koalas, kangaroos, etc. That day featured some amazing weather, switching between sunshine and brutal storms - we got on the ferry in the sun, took a ten minute journey and when we tried to look back at the city it had disappeared, replaced by black clouds. We began to queue up to buy our Taronga Zoo ponchos but just as we did so, Suzie spotted blue sky again and we walked on... sure enough, it cleared completely and we celebrated saving a whole $18!

Recommended cafe for breakfast - Flo near central station. Recommended trendy bar (but with nice people in) for drinks and dinner - The Winery by Gazebo in Surrey Hills. Recommended Chinatown place - the Regal. Acommodation - we stayed in Travelodge which was perfectly fine but if going outside the NYE price hike period you may find better.