With the New Year’s Eve fireworks in mind, we saw a “Fireworks, Dinner and Cruise” being advertised by one of the booths, so we went to inquire about prices etc.
$A650.00 each, after a couple of coughs, and staggers we decided that maybe we would pass on that fine offer.
We rang our daughter, who had lived in Sydney, to ask her advice, which was to head to Botanical Gardens for the best views, so, the following morning we started climbing the hill towards the gardens.
When we arrived, about 11 am, there were barriers everywhere, entry only by ticket, and they were on sale miles away.
So we headed downhill towards the Opera House, thinking that it would be the next best place to go.
Again, barriers everywhere, no ticket, no entry, no, you can’t buy a ticket, they have all sold out.
So we wandered back towards Circular Quay and the booth we had seen the day before.
As we got closer, there was a different booth, with an advert about the fireworks, so we went to enquire, and ended up no. three in the Que.
While we were waiting our turn, this cheeky looking young Aussie, with a sparkle in his eye, came up to us.
“Have I got a deal for you”. “The best deal on the Quay, etc, etc”,
When he paused to take another breath, we managed to ask, “How Much?”
$A350.00 each, BYO.
As this is the only chance we will probably ever have to see the famed fireworks we got a couple of tickets and found that we had to go to the Quay at Darling Harbour.
We had a look at the map, thought about a taxi, when the boss suggested, “Seeing we are going to the Quay, why not use a ferry?”.
So we boarded and had a quick ride under the bridge to Darling Harbour, and the legs said "Thank You”, with all the walking I am sure that my feet had been worn off and I was walking on my ankles.
We had the rest of the day to fill in, so we sat and did some people watching, boat photographing, etc, until about 5 pm, when a heavy shower sent everybody under cover.
There was even a boat for the Boss
This quickly developed into a short thunderstorm, but by 6 pm it had cleared again, still very cloudy, but almost dry.
We were planned to board the ship at 6.45, and on time this relic from days gone by pulled up to the wharf, it was named “Fiesta” which was the name were after, so it must be ours.
We boarded and left the wharf about 10 minutes later, so the next boat could load their passengers.
We were hardly on board when the thunderstorm started again, and we were two happy little Kiwis to be inside, out of the rain.
We found seats with 3 girls, one of whom was from Auckland, who were good company for the evening.
We slowly [probably as fast as the boat could go] went out past all the rich people’s houses, and past a viewing site where the locals were all well covered in their raincoats or in tents out of the rain
While the fireworks weren’t firing the bridge was displaying a “light show” of its own.
Then, at 9 pm and again at Midnight, the sky erupted with the fireworks that have made such a name for its self throughout the world.
After the fireworks were over we very slowly worked our way back to Circular Quay, past the Opera House.
While being escorted by a Police boat.
When we got off the boat at 2 am, there were still a lot of people around, particularly around the railway station, and when we had finally staggered back to the hotel, about 10 minutes away, we found that the thunderstorm had affected the rail system, some stations were closed, and thousands of people were still trying to get home.
with thanks to son-of-satire for the banner