NEW YEARS EVE.....AND DAY!!

Emma and I went to catch a ferry in the morning, we just missed the 9.20 so had to wait for the 10.15..... Turned out ok as gave us time for breakfast. Had a cooked breaky which was quite good. After arriving in Sydney around 11am we dumped some stuff at Lorraine and Graham's hotel before heading to an internet cafe to do a couple of things and where Emma could put her pictures onto discs. It all took quite a while, until about 1.30.
We then decided to just head to the botanic gardens to get information on our tickets and where we have to go etc. We had Lawn with The View tickets and discovered that we had a great spot right next to the Opera house, great view of the bridge. We found out our entrance was the Government House gates and that they open at 7pm so we should arrive 30-45mins early to queue. Only 600 people in our bit though. We wandered to find the entrance so we were all set for later and then as it was about 3pm we headed back to the hotel. Lorraine and Graham were at Bondi so we decided to get ourselves ready at their hotel. We took baths, ironed our clothes and Emma did her make up. Lorraine and Graham arrived back and after Lorraine had been for a swim they got themselves ready as well. Decided to leave the hotel at 6 to walk down.
When we arrived at our entrance there was a bit of a queue and because it wasn't managed too well we ended up a little nearer to the from than we should've been, oh well. Well we queued for quite a while and then around 7.10 they opened the gates. We walked in, confirming our tickets on the way and being given our food vouchers. We were also given bright pink wrist bands, free glow sticks and a free calendar thing - from channel 10.
We wandered all the way down to our great area and picked the perfect spot to see the fireworks. We laid out our 2 picnic blankets which Lorraine and I sat on while Emma and Graham went off to get the food and some drink. They came back with a cardboard box each. Each box contained a menu, wooden knife and fork, rolls, bread sticks, crackers, fishy dip (really nice), leek quiche, chicken noodles and salad, walnut tart, fruit salad and cheese and biscuits - it was great, really tasty. We nibbled away at our food throughout the night along with drinking wine, it was all very relaxing!!We chatted and had a toilet break which included queuing obviously!!At 9pm we had the first set of fireworks, or the kiddies fireworks!! They were really impressive, just amazing. They went on for 5-10 minutes and gave us a taster of whats to come!!
We continued to chill out, listened to music, toilet again, had a possum run past, watched the boats - which were all lit up and just had a very enjoyable time.It started to get close to midnight, it was exciting!!We got our champagne ready, bucks fizz for me, and watched the bridge. Finally the countdown appeared and we all joined in 10,9,8,7.......1 and the bridge just lit up with fireworks, all amazingly timed, we then had fireworks going all over the place around us, including on hotel roofs. Then the bridge would go crazy again with more fireworks, it was fantastic and went on for about 15 minutes - incredible. We all wished eachother happy new year. The theme for this years fireworks and new years event was Diamonds (75 years of the Bridge) and Emeralds (as in Emerald City....Wizard of Oz). All of a sudden, at about 12.30 I looked around our area and there were hardly any people left....they'd all packed up and gone home!!! We had to be out by 1am.
So we all headed out, with Graham suddenly a little drunk!!! Funny. We walked back to Lorraine and Graham's hotel where Graham went straight to bed so Emma and I headed off to catch a bus back to Manly. When we got to the bus station we were told there had been a fire somewhere so buses were running a bit late. We had to wait about an hour but then we jumped on one and sat down. We got to Manly about 3am and started walking back to our castle, the taxi queue was a bit big, when my phone rang and it was Mum and Dad - so I chatted to them while walking with Emma and suddenly we don't know where we are. I asked Emma where we are and she said she was following me and because I was chatting on the phone I assumed she'd take us the right way. I worked out where we should go and we got back onto our road, found Manly beach though!! Got to bed around 4am!! It was a really enjoyable night!
We woke up around 10am when Emma's Dad rang. I got up and dressed and then went to phone home just before 11am as it would be their New Year then, chatted to them for a bit and brought in the new year over the phone which was nice. There were a few people waiting to call home so I cut the call a little short as felt bad, although I shouldn't just because I was organized!! Ha ha...
We jumped on a ferry and wandered a little around the harbour. Then Emma headed off to do her bridge climb and I walked round to Darling Harbour to go to the Sydney Wildlife World, which is quite new. It was quite enjoyable. All Australian wildlife. They had a butterfly section, insects, spiders, reptiles, kangaroos, wallabys, koalas, wombats, possums......was really nice and chilled and not too busy unlike the aquarium that had people queuing out onto the harbour!!
I than wandered the botanic gardens, there was some concert on. Was nice walking around.
I then popped into a shop, had some fruit and chilled.
By then it was 6ish so I decided to head to the bridge climb to see if Emma was finished yet. I found her in the giftshop, she said she had a really good time. We wandered to Lorraine and Grahams hotel and chilled there until heading to Manly where we all had dinner (was raining). The place we ate messed up the bill so worked out nice and cheap.
After dinner Lorraine and Graham caught a ferry back and Emma and I got a taxi to our castle!!
A nice relaxing New Years Day!

I do have a couple of videos which I will try to put up!!
xxxxxxx