The day started off like clockwork. After a 7am alarm call, we caught a bus to
circular quay in a repeat of yesterday’s activities.
We reached the end of the queue for the Opera House by 9am
as the predicted rain began to fall. We
donned our rain macs with the masses and took out the massive golf umbrella
we’d borrowed from the flat. When we got
through the security checks we kept on walking and managed to get into the cordoned
off area right at the very tip of the point in front of the Opera House!! People had already set themselves up for the
day in the equivalent area to their lounges at home it seemed, but we found a
space and took command of it with our newly purchased chairs. It was tipping down with rain for a while,
but this turned out to be in our favour as, with umbrellas open all around us,
everyone had taken up more space than usual.
The rain having passed and umbrellas stowed (hopefully for the rest of
the day) we then had plenty of space around us and it turned out that they had closed
off entry to our area early.
 |
| The chairs are in position... we are not moving come rain or shine! |
 |
| The weather improved rapidly.... that's a great view of the Harbour Bridge for later tonight |
 |
| How close to the SOH were we? This close...! |
This was it
for the rest of the day. They could’ve
fitted loads more people in, but thankfully they didn’t. We had our hands stamped so that we could
feel extra special as we waltzed in and out of the restricted area (though we
weren’t allowed to bring any alcohol in!).
What a result!
We met our neighbours, from Taiwan and Korea on one side and
China on the other. I thought that we had prepared well by bringing sandwiches
from home, but one family even brought lunch in a slow-cooker! We had charged all of our electrical items to
the max so we were able to watch some TV on Simon’s iPad with some of the 8GB of
extra data he’d been gifted to use today by Vodafone – so, Happy New Year to
them!
 |
| Yes, that's a slow cooker on the floor for lunch... and a portable changing room/tent! |
I was worried that it was going to feel like a drag, but the
day went relatively quickly. I managed
to get some images of the Opera House from the non-water side though you
weren’t allowed inside today. I even got
a couple of hours of blogging done when the weather allowed!
 |
| It began with a flypast... |
We’d only been waiting a mere eight hours when the events
started at 6pm. There was a fly past, then we
had all of the activity in the harbour itself to watch as they finished preparations, followed by the kids
fireworks at 9pm. There were many 'big kids' who also enjoyed these fireworks... they were pretty amazing already, how would the midnight ones compare?!
 |
| Back stage view of the party at the end of the point |
Then the ticketed events started around us, we
effectively had a back-stage pass to the live band on the point. Lights came on, on the bridge, as darkness
fell with messages playing on the surface of the pylons. The white lights on
all of the ships passing in the harbour was a beautiful sight and as midnight
approached, everyone started packing their belongings away and jostling for the
best vantage points facing the bridge.
 |
| Shame they couldn't even spell the name of their city right.... oh, I see what they've done there! |
 |
| Just one of many of the lit-up boats in the harbour |
 |
| Our spot secured for the NYE fireworks.... |
 |
| Just because I was impressed how well my camera zoomed in for this shot of the luna park on the other side of the harbour! |
We all did the countdown together which was followed, as is
the custom here, by an absolutely incredible firework display.
Just as we thought we’d seen the biggest and
best explosions of the night, they took it to an even higher level.
The ‘ooh’s and ‘aah’s were off the scale! Hopefully, here's some video:
The
display lasted for over ten minutes culminating in the harbour bridge being
left rainbow-coloured in a celebratory nod to the recent vote here to allow same sex
marriage.
 |
| The rainbow-coloured Harbour Bridge heralds in 2018 |
Everyone whooped and cheered
as the display ended. As soon as you could say 'Happy New Year', the mass exodus began!
We were happy to sit tight for at least half an hour and let
everyone else leave. After all, we were
right at the back of the exit queue having been at the front for the
display. But, understandably, the staff
wanted to start clearing up and finish working so we were ushered out with the
masses and walked into the City. The
majority of the roads near the harbour were closed to traffic, so we just had
to keep walking until we started seeing buses and found the relevant queue for
the ones heading in our direction.
I
have to say the organisation and security for the whole event was very well
done. We had so much space today and
considering the volume of people attending we really haven’t been kept waiting
for anything for very long. We managed to get
back to the flat shortly after 130am, completely exhausted from such a long
day but still buzzing from a true bucket-list life experience that I had never
imagined having the opportunity to witness.
No comments:
Post a Comment