Day 76, 77 -New Year's Eve 2011 and New Year's Day 2012 -Saturday 31st December 2011, Sunday 1st January 2012

Today was New Year's Eve but for me and Danny it was the big test… The alcohol challenge. We were off to Mrs Macquarie's point to see in the New Year and as this is right opposite the Harbour Bridge and opera house, it's a good spot for the fireworks. The problem is it only allows in 20,000 people and you can't bring your own drink, you have to purchase on site so it's a strict no alcohol policy! after hiding booze in kids pop drink bottles, pringles packets and bottles of sunscreen we had passed the trial runs with the girls but now we had to face Sydney's finest security guards!!! We got up around 7.30am and after a quick shower me, Soph, Scott and Rhona walked to meet Danny and Nikki at Hype Park. Once we were all together we walked to Mrs Macquarie's point which is in the Botanical Gardens and smack bang opposite the Harbour Bridge. We got to the park at 9am and the queue was already 8,000 people deep and the gates didn't even open for another hour! We started to queue and then it started to rain, but surprisingly the queue seemed to go quick even with the splattering's of rain. 4 hours later we finally made it to the front. Security was everywhere, helicopters were hovering ahead and police were looming. I had the rose wine hidden in a re-sealed berry juice bottle, Nikki had the vodka in the sunscreen bottle and "Dangerous Danny" was packing the vodka / apple juice pots and the pringles tin full of vodka. Soph on the other hand carried the bread rolls and olives… some of us just aren't cut out for bootlegging!! I was first, he checked my bag, looked at the seals and asked if I had any alcohol as I quote "booze is a strict buy on site only no BYO!!" No booze here came my answer! I was in with 2 litres of wine ha ha ha! Next, was Nikki - she also breezed straight in. However "Dangerous Danny" had the majority of the booze hidden in his bag and he'd been stopped by "Super-Security-man!" He went through all the bags; he pulled out the apple juice pops that we had filled with vodka and the apple juice cartoons! He looked Danny up and down and said "G'day fella, wow you're fond of apple juice aren't ya mate?!" We all thought he'd been rumbled but Danny turned the tables, used a bit of misdirection, and boom he was in and all our booze was in too - mission complete, now all we had to do was drink it all!!

As the park holds 20,000 for New Year's Eve as soon as they reach that number they close the park so if you want to leave you can't get back in. We tried to get the best spot which we'd seen earlier in the week but that was gone so we settled for a spot where we could see most of the bridge. We got out the cheese, bread, crackers and all of the food and got down to some serious eating. The bar inside opened at 2pm and it was $7 for a stubby, Scott got the first couple of rounds in and by 3pm we'd all had a few beers and the vodka was already out. We played the usual games - Goggles on, spoof and a new one on me called scabby queen! It was a really good day and we all had a right laugh - especially at Sophie's red nose!! Like I said earlier, it rained at the start but by 1pm it was sun and blue sky till 8pm! The sun here is so so so hot, that sounds strange but when the sun is out you can actually feel it burning you! Later in the day we were joined by Nick and Sophie who were sitting beside us and got chatting - they were a fun couple from Bournemouth.

Come 6pm there was an aerial plane display and at 9pm there was some pre-new year's fireworks which were very good. More drinking and a bottle of champagne later it was 11.50pm and so we decided to pack up and hustle a spot near the front. We managed to squeeze down by the front of the harbour to see the midnight firework display… They were awesome so we settled in with our warm champagne in our shorts and flip flops and saw in the New Year!

New Year's Day we woke up with a pretty bad hangover so we thought the only way to get rid of was with some good old fashioned British tucker!! We met up with Danny, Nikki & Emma and headed to the rocks area of Sydney to a pub called The Harbour View which had some nice views of the bridge. We all ordered roast dinner and a glass of red wine - it was amazing! Each meal was about $15 so after our dinner we headed down to the harbour and had some cake! Soph had the Oreo cookie cake and I had a moose, chocolate thing. We took our cakes to the roof top of Danny & Nicki's hostel and scoffed them over a nice view of the opera house and a cuppa! Exhausted we hit the sack early!