Sydney is one of the first major cities in the world to ring in the new year and the fireworks and celebration are broadcast around the world. When we first decided on Australia and New Zealand for our trip, this was a must-do, once in a lifetime experience. New Year's Eve in Sydney wasn't really the driving reason for this trip, but we did plan everything else around it. We were not disappointed.
As mentioned in a prior post, nearly one million people come to Sydney to watch the fireworks. Many locations around the city are free and open to the public, but you have to line up early in the morning and sit or stand in "your" place all day to keep your spot. Rather than spend a full day with a million of our closest friends, we instead chose to buy tickets in the botanical garden months prior to ensure a good view and to see more of the city midday.
With our extra time we traveled out to Bondi beach in the morning to hike the Bondi to Coogee track. Bondi and Manly (day before) are the two iconic beaches of Sydney with lifeguards, surfers, and tanned bodies. Bondi was a wide and fairly long beach, and it was packed!
Tourists, including us, were watching and photographing the surfers clustered in the areas where the waves broke right.
The water was cold to us, but heaps (Aussie for lots) of people were swimming and playing in it.
The Bondi to Coogee track proved to be a very popular hike. It's a paved trail of 6 kilometers that takes you along cliffs and past small beaches and coves. Along the way, multiple dramatic lookouts provided great views of Bondi and the coast.
Every half kilometer the view changed to a new series of cliffs either ahead of us or behind. It also seemed as if a new, small beach was around every corner that only the locals knew about. There was even a workout circuit along the path and a good number of joggers. In total, the hike took about two hours to get to Coogee. Fortunately, there are restaurants or barbies (grills) if you brought your own food.
We had to get back into Sydney by 3 pm to avoid road closures, so we didn't get to spend much time in Coogee. Sydney was buzzing when we were dropped off near our hotel, and they had already closed off most of the public viewing areas because max capacity had been reached. Our designated area would not let anyone in until 6:30, so we had time to relax and clean up.
For crowd control reasons the botanical gardens had been fenced off with only one entrance. We wound our way around until we found the sign for our event, called Midnight at the Oasis. Included was a designated table, food (appetizer, dinner, dessert), and open bar. Once past bag check and a short walk, each guest was handed a sparkling wine and the fun began. Just beyond, the sound of a few hundred revelers grew louder. Most found their tables and then quickly found their way to the railing to get their pictures with the Opera House and bridge behind them.
The view we had from our table would be perfect for the fireworks.
Straight ahead was the Opera House and bridge, downtown was to our left, and the harbor and larger boats were to our right.
Midnight at the Oasis had good spacing between the food and fireworks. We were provided a snack box when we entered (with our sparkling wine) around 7, and then dinner was available starting at 7:30. There were two open bars serving local beers, wine, and sparkling wine. The children's fireworks were at 9, so Nate found a spot along the railing to get some photos. A good number of attendees had brought tripods for this, but Nate had left his in the room because we didn't know if they would be allowed in.
They lasted about 10 minutes and were mostly coming from near the bridge, with periodic bursts from downtown and a barge in the harbor.
If these were the small fireworks, then we had a lot to look forward to at midnight.
Shortly after the family fireworks had ended the dance floor opened up. This would provide entertainment for the dancers and the public who sat above on a hill and watched. For those not interested in dancing (or watching), a boat parade occurred in the harbor for the next hour. Many of the dinner cruise boats had New Years Eve parties tonight, and a selection of these were lit up in reds or yellows while they participated in the parade.
There were two types of tables at our event: long ones that sat 10 and small circular ones that sat 4. We had our own circular table until about 11:30, when an older couple showed up. They were already well into celebrating, and apparently had been visiting a friend who lived in the apartment next to the Opera House and almost didn't make it. They were a fun couple to talk with for the next 30 minutes.
At 3 minutes till midnight, the countdown began on the bridge pylons. The last 10 seconds were loud, as everyone counted to 1. On cue, the fireworks erupted across the sky from the skyscrapers to our left, the bridge in the center, and from a barge to our right in the water. It was hard to stay focused on more than one or two spots.
The highlight, besides the grand finale, was the "waterfall" effect of fireworks cascading under the bridge.
After the finale, a loud cheer and clapping was heard. All total, Sydney spent $6.6 million on fireworks, and it was a great display.
We only lasted another 30 minutes, because we had planned an early morning trip to the blue mountains tomorrow.
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