New Years' Eve - Under The Stars

  Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Wednesday, December 31, 2014

To see the New Years' Eve fireworks at Sydney Harbour Bridge had been on Jody's bucket list and was a dream for Bryan, for many many years. So finding ourselves in Sydney for Christmas and New Year was just too good an opportunity to miss this spectacular event. We booked our tickets on line at a staggering cost of £200 each. And this was one of the cheaper options! For our money we got entry to an area right next to the Opera House and across from the bridge - an excellent spot, with a limited number of other spectators and unlimited food and drink.We did question the cost as there are plenty of free viewing points in the area but in order to get a good spot, people get there 24 hours before time and stay there to keep it. As we didn't want to do that we felt buying a ticket was our best option. We may never be here again and we like to live our dreams. We set off from home at 5pm and got the train into the city centre. We found our area and put down our rug where we were going to spend the evening. We had a fantastic spot as you can see from the photos. We noticed there were some people walking on top of the Opera House at one stage and wondered if they had just snuck up there to get the best views! The organisers had put a few things on as the crowds gathered, we suppose to stop us from getting too bored. There was a stunt plane which flew around the harbour for a bit before it got dark. Then at 9pm there was the first set of fireworks for the families who couldn't stay until midnight. They were good and were a little teaser of what was to come. At 10:40 they had another firework display. This one much smaller than the 9pm ones and again, just another little teaser to stop the crowds getting antsy. Then at one and a half minutes before midnight, the countdown began. The crowd starting chanting out the numbers and you could feel the excitement grow. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...... 0 Happy New Year..!!!! Then the fireworks started for real and it was brilliant. The crowd were ooohing and aaahing as fireworks shot off the bridge, the barges out on the water and from the Opera hOuse. Every time the Opera House release a batch of fireworks there was an extra big cheer from the crowd. They seemed to be going off all around us as there were barges in the river to the back of the Opera House too. We really were in the middle of it :-) Bryan has worked his magic again and here is a video of the highlights in case you missed it on the telly We both had a fantastic time and even though it was a very long walk to central station to get the train home, the atmosphere was good and we grabbed a coffee on the way too so it wasn't so bad. We finally arrived back home at 3:30am, tired but too excited to sleep Would we recommend it? In a heartbeat :-)   [gallery columns="4" ids="9613,9628,9639,9648,9658,9668,9686,9699,9706,9716,9728,9734,9744,9754,9762,9767,9776,9786,9795,9803,9811,9817,9830,9838,9844,9851,9857,9860,9863,9866,9873,9880,9886,9892,9899,9906,9908,9915,9922,9924,9926,9928,9930,9934,9939,9940,9944,9947,9952,9954,9959,9962,9966,9968,9971,9974,9977,9979,9982,9984"]