New Years Eve

NYE went kinda like we thought.  We left the hotel at 9:20am and walked about 2 miles to the "Queue" (line).  We were going to be watching from the Mrs MacQuarie Point, which is very close to the bridge.  The line was super long, even that early in the morning.  In fact, when we woke up at 7am, there were people camping out in a line outside our hotel.  

Football field with half the queue already there at 9:40am.

The crowd was massive.  Mrs MacQuarie can hold about 16,000 people and at least 8K were already in line when we got there.  They used a nearby park to extend the line, wrapping serpentine the length of a football field.  

Geishas.  Sideways.

Where's Waldo?

We were in that line for approximately 3 hours before we made it slowly to the bag check.  The crowd was an international one.  We had the PDA Germans in front of us.  In front of them were the Wangs.  Geishas and Waldo were there too.  It was a mad house, but festive and fun.

Once we made it thru security, we hustled to the end of the point, at least another mile walk.  It was already packed - the land grab had already happened and would continue so for another 3 hours or so.  The bummer about watching fireworks in Sydney is that there are very few place with no trees.  Even Mrs MacQuaries was a grove of tall trees.  So we posted up under a tree near the point, figuring we could move once fireworks started in eleven hours.  

Giggling Spaniards.

Under our tree.

Once again, our little plot of land was surrounded by internationals.  We had the Creepy Germans to our right, along with the Infringing Indians.  Below us we had the Easy Going Asians and next to them the Tented Brazilians (no idea if they were actually from Brazil, but you know).  Then up the hill from them and to our left were the Giggling Spaniards.  And finally the Pakistanis.  

We had a riot.  The time flew by as we lounged around on lawn chairs reading and doing Sudoku.  Oh and we ate a lot.  Janna and I had hit the grocery store prior, so we were loaded up.  

Shelby hangin in there prior to fireworks.

The evening was filled by various events, like a child's fireworks and a lighted flotilla.  Also two air shows.  The harbor was filled with boats (the way to do the fireworks, btw).  By the time fireworks hit, we had a pretty good idea where to stand and we had a great view.  We could see the bridge too.  14 hours of camping and festivities and a brisk walk home put us in bed by 1am.  Up by 7 for a train ride to the airport and a flight to LAX.  

Really looking forward to home.