I’ve always wanted to do Sydney for New Year so I decided my fourth trip back to Australia would coincide with the New Year celebrations. I forgot how amazing the landing into Sydney is - if you are lucky enough to fly over the city, you have a great view of the harbour and the landing into the international airport where the runway sticks into Botany Bay is pretty cool too. It feels like you are about to land on water until you touchdown at the last minute!
The public transport system in Sydney is pretty slick, air conditioned and the trains are double deckers. Many of the central Sydney underground stations have a real Victorian London feel about them in terms of how they look even down to the tiles! We got the ferry from Circular Quay over to Manly where we were staying on the Northern Beaches. Again, I forgot how amazing it is to see the Harbour Bridge on one side and the Opera House on the other, with the traditional fairground, Luna Park, under the arches of the bridge.
Although i caught the Red Eye from Bali, I stayed up and caught the bus to North Bondi and did the short walk to the beach. I did the Bondi to Coogee walk which would actually take you a few hours but we stopped in Tamarama (the next beach around the cliff) before we got to Bronte beach and grabbed a drink as it was so hot! The ocean walk is a great thing to do with amazing scenery along the way. Back into town it was a quick stop in Darling Harbour for dinner before we caught the ferry back to Manly.
Then came the big day, New Years Eve. I’m generally not a massive fan of NY as the queues are huge, prices are hiked up etc but as I said above, I had always wanted to do Sydney so I was prepared to queue. However, leaving for the city for 11am I thought I was well ahead of time. How wrong I was!! My initial plan was to head to the Botanical Gardens and go to Mrs Macquaries Chair on the headland as most of the rest of the gardens were ticketed areas for the night, the same as a lot of other key viewing spots and I was too late for tickets. I could see from the ferry that the crowds were already huge there so that was a no! I also looked at Kirribilli which is on the Northern shore just by the bridge and again that was heaving by this point. I got off at Circular Quay and walked around to the Opera House and this was already very full….I couldn’t believe it!! So, we parked ourselves on the concrete in Circular Quay at about 12 noon a few people deep from the railings but with a good view of the bridge. There are firework barges along the river so we wouldn’t get to see them all but never mind. Some of these people had been queuing since 8am!!
We bought a brolly to shield us from the sun, got a picnic and sat down for what felt like a very long 9 hours before the first lot of fireworks at 9pm which is tailored more for the families and kids but still very impressive. Then the biggy at midnight….well…..WOW!! At around 11.30pm people were twitching and already moving forward to try and get the best view. Then the 90 second counter came on and the buzz was amazing! Holograms and projections were blasted onto the bridge and then the fireworks came! Sydney certainly knows how to put on a show! After about 14 minutes it was all over and the mad dash to trains, ferries etc started.
Despite the long 11 hour wait it was definitely worth it and an experience I won’t forget. Just maybe being more prepared next time may help!
