NYE in Sydney

Arriving in Sydney after a laughably bad flight (who serves mini KitKat bars for breakfast?) was such a treat! The weather was glorious-25 degrees, sunny with a breeze-and our hostel was great. Mum and I stayed in a room with Mimi and Savannah--a hilarious duo made up of a 25 year old German girl and a fresh out of high school 18 year old Dutch girl. I had almost forgotten how funny it is to meet and talk to other travellers whose first language isn't English and hear their lost in translation expressions, like Mimi's "that would be like going to a whore and asking for a hug." Best ever.

We had a day and night to recover from jet lag before enjoying our amazing New Year's Eve adventure. We bought (for a pretty penny I might add!) tickets to a private NYE party on Clark island, a tiny little island/national park in Sydney Harbour. We weren't sure quite what to expect, but as soon as we arrived on the beautiful little island (via the Scarborough (!!!) ferry that took us right past the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge) and were handed a mojito, we both knew that the $440/person ticket was worth every penny!

 

We had a delicious 3 course meal and as much wine and champagne as we could drink (which for us, was definitely not as much as all the Aussies there!)

Being from Ottawa, I've seen my fair share of fireworks on Canada Day, but nothing like Sydney-where they do it twice, once around 9:30, and then the big show at midnight. Also, I never realized that the fireworks happen in 2 different places: over the bridge, and then also further out in the harbour, which happened to be pretty much right where Clark island is. Needless to say, we had a pretty good view.

       

 

   

The other incredible thing about being on the island was that we got to view the entire harbour lit up with a flotilla of boats.

Once we got back to Sydney proper, we had the pleasure of walking the entire main drag of downtown back to our hostel with thousands of drunk ding dongs (something I've def done many times before, but I think was a first for Susie Mrk). I'm just glad I didn't wear heels b/c almost every girl I saw was walking in bare feet on the littered pavement with her boyfriend carrying her stilettos. Very uncouth.

I think one of my fave parts of the night was watching these 2 ladies, prob in their 60's and wearing matching white lace dresses, who must have been sisters, get so rowdy and drunk on Clark island that they toppled over onto the grass. This was at approx. 7:30pm. If only I had gotten a picture...