Daryl and Franz arrived at my house at about 8.30am on New Year's Eve, said they had dropped the girls off already at the Botanic Gardens with all their stuff, so we got on the bus ourselves to meet them there. We got off at Circular Quay and made our way down to Mrs Macquerie's Point, one of 2 free viewing sites in the Gardens. Could not believe our eyes when we got down there, it was just a little past 9am and the queue was already miles and miles long. Every time we went to what we thought was the back of the queue there was another line of people snaking off in a different direction! The girls were right at the front of the line as they'd been there since before 8.00am. Made the decision to go and sneak in with them, as we wouldn't have got into the same bit as them if we hadn't.

Finally got let into the Gardens at about 10.30am after abit of waiting, and tried to find the best spot we could, we managed to get into a really good vantage spot right at the front of the Harbour which they were only letting 3,000 people into. We got a really fantastic spot, and spread out a big massive sheet which Daryl and Manda had brought. Filled up quite quickly, and Chinese people kept trying to squidge into the tiniest of spots, sitting in the dirt and underneath trees, stupid people. The weather was absolutely glorious that day and we had shade under the trees, was a great, chilled out day and didn't even mind the 13 hour wait, went very quickly.

There were some fireworks at 9pm for the kiddies, which were great. They didn't do any of them off of the Bridge, but there were some by the Quay and in Darling Harbour like in the picture. Was really awed by them, and thought that if these fireworks were that good, then God knows what the midnight ones would be like! After 9pm it seemed to go really quickly, we got a couple of VB beers to celebrate, and soon enough midnight came around. The atmosphere was great, everyone was in such a good mood.

At about 11.55pm, the security people spotted a guy who was sitting on the top of this cliff edge, they were shining their flash lights on him and radioing for people to come get him down, he kind of slunk off after a bit and tried walking the other way, but the guards caught him and escorted him out. Was quite amusing as he must have been rubbing his hands with glee thinking he'd got the best spot of all, and then he missed the fireworks so close to them! Gutted!

The fireworks at midnight were absolutely immense, can't quite describe it. It went on for 12 minutes, and I've never seen so many beautiful, colourful, imaginative displays of them. Not your average Woolcab 9.99 box that's for sure!!

On New Year's Day me, Fiona, our housemates Leeann, Steven, Jacqui and Fiona's friends Lyndsey, Ben and John went to Bondi beach for a BBQ, we took our own make shift one, made out of the grill from the oven and a tinfoil container. Was abit dangerous at first, the flames were massive! Was a good day though, very hot again. At the night time we all just went back to our house and chilled, we ended up playing who am I, and I couldn't get who I was for the life of me, just had complete brain block. The best moment had to be when Leeann (who was Mary Poppins) had the clues that she was a fictional female character, who helped children, and she guessed it as being Mother Teresa. Was absolutely hilarious. We also played charades, which were going well until we had a power cut at about midnight. Everyone was screaming and yelling, was abit creepy. We all turned the flash lights on on our phones (not candles!) and managed to light up the room enough to still play. Was so funny playing charades in the dark.\

On the Saturday, me and a few of our friends we've made went to Home in Darling Harbour for a night out, was very good, and had a great time, will be the last time I get to see a few people so was very sad too!

Last few days have just been sorting out our accommodation, travel and activities for Melbourne. It's our last couple of days in Sydney, we travel to Melbourne overnight on Wednesday, doing the Neighbours tour on the Saturday and got a few other exciting things planned before we go to Colbinabbin on the Sunday. Very exciting to be doing something different, but sad to be leaving the place I've stayed for 3 months and all the friends I've made. Will do me good to be out in the middle of nowhere without the temptation of spending money!!

Will update when I get to Melbourne.

Love, and a Happy New Year to all!!

xxxx