After crossing the Harbour Bridge, we jumped back on the Explorer and got off in Chinatown. We called at our hotel and the room was ready. We planned to have showers and get back out there but the best laid plans went slightly amiss. After our showers the weariness of jet lag overtook us and the urge to have 5 minutes shut eye was over powering.
We woke up several hours later, it was 8.30pm on New Year's Eve.....
"Bloody Hell!!!!!! We could have missed it, I cursed.
After dressing quickly we made our way up to Circular Quay, stopping for something to eat on the way. Never have I seen such a crowd, there were thousands of people crammed in every available space, awaiting the countdown to New Year. Alcohol was not allowed and the crowd, although high spirited, was well behaved. We managed to find a place to squeeze in so that we could watch the celebrations. People were chatting to us, many had come from Sydney's suburbs, smaller towns a couple of hours drive away and other Australian cities. People were really friendy and surprised to hear that we had come from England and only got there that morning. Official figures said that there were well over a million people there that night.
New Year was counted down and then the fireworks started. It was absolutely amazing. They were exploding off the top of the huge hotels in the city centre, the Opera House, Darling Harbour and up the river but the star of the show was definitely the Harbour Bridge (known affectionately as the coat hanger). It was spectacular and I really doubt that we will ever see another firework display that will beat it.
The next day we mooched around the city then went to Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife World. We spent several hours admiring the corals, tropical fish and other Australian wildlife. I will mention the wildlife later in the travels as we had plenty of enounters with it......
Needless to say, it was a nice way to spend the day and we were still recovering from the journey so it wasn't too energetic.
When we awoke on the 2nd January it was absolutely persisting down. We were going to Sydney Cricket Ground to watch the first day of the last test match. The rain just poured and poured but luckily, in true Brit style, we had waterproofs. We got to the cricket ground and waited for the rain to stop, it finally did, and we got to see some cricket. England were batting, and to be fair, we probably saw the best day as far as England were concerned. The Barmy Army were sat quite close to us, they were well behaved but very tuneful. We were wetting ourselves laughing at some of the songs, especially the one about 'Matilda,' but I can't give you the lyrics on here without being banned..
After the cricket we went to get some photos of our 'star,' The Harbour Bridge. This bridge is huge!!!!! It never really looks that big on photos and on the telly, but it is massive. The arch stretches for 1,650 feet and we walked every single foot of it. The arch weighs about 30,000 tons with rivets in it the size of halved grapefruits. I loved looking at the bridge and could have happily stared at it all night. It was nearly time to move on though, so we went back to the hotel and hit the sack..
Here are some pics.... There's Circular Quay, Sydney Cricket Ground pre-match, our flag flying proudly, and The Coathanger...Sydney Harbour Bridge taken in the evening.