New Years eve – We’d heard that the Botanical Gardens are a
great spot to watch the New Years fireworks from (thanks Angharad!). After speaking to people at the hostel we
found out they limit the capacity to 20,000 people so you have to get there
early. We arrived at 9am and queued with
a few thousand other people.
Eventually
got into the site at about 1pm and headed down to the far end of the site
nearest the water where the media area is. We managed to blag wrist bands to
the non alchohol section and then proceeded straight to the bar. Cunning hiding
of the wristbands with our watches worked a treat!
Sat and enjoyed the festival vibe and the
sunshine with a few beers throughout the day.
There was an aerobatic display and also a smaller set of fireworks at
9pm to keep us entertained. Strange bit of sky writing by a plane, ‘jesus lives’, hmm not really relevant to new
years . It got close to midnight so we
grabbed our spot and stood and watched the midnight fireworks. I’ve never seen anything on that scale before;
there were 4 sets of fireworks off of floated barges, fireworks off three of
the skyscrapers, and fireworks off of the Sydney Harbour Bridge; definitely
worth coming to see if you ever get the chance and was a great way to start off
our trip. And of course midnight brought
around Matt’s 27th birthday.
Happy Birthday again mate!
Matt’s Birthday – Treated ourseleves to a really good fryup
in the Wake Up cafe over the road from our hostel then took a walk to the
Sydney Opera House. Matt geeked off
about building processes and the like so he was content. (I stand
by the great concrete comments - matt).
Did you know the guy who designed the Sydney Opera House also designed
the Labworth Cafe on Canvey Island?! Shot
some pool in the Side Bar that evening and had a few more beers to round off
Matt’s birthday.
