Happy New Year!

New Years Eve day is not a stat holiday and I had to work.  It ended up being pretty busy and the day flew by fast.  We were able to move some clients up so I could leave at six instead of seven.

New Years for us was going to be with our Sydney BFF's Josh and Christina.  Joel headed to their place early to pregame, as all three of the had the day off.  I took the train over after work.  We ordered in some Thai takeout and I busted out my favorite Innocent Bystander Moscato to chill out after my busy day.  We ended up playing a funny board game called WTF, telling funny stories of our past, and having a dance off.  Things got a little rowdy when "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" came on and everybody had to dance on the furniture.  This has got to be my favorite self timed photo ever!

At eleven o'clock we headed over to the train station to catch the train back to the city.  As usual on drinking nights we made some random friends.  Tonight consisted of an Aussie rapper named Geo.  Once on the train Josh decided it would be a good idea to preform the Haka dance (as he is from New Zealand).  For those of you that don't know, this is a traditional Maori war dance.  The All Blacks (NZ rugby team) preform this before each game.  Joel got right into it too (even though he's never seen it before) and the two boys were dancing and chanting away.  Josh had me video it on his phone (if it gets a million views on youtube we can make some money!) and I can't wait till that video surfaces!  Anyway, the boys were a big hit (all the tourists thought it was cool to see some "authentic Australian dancing" on NYE) and the whole car clapped and cheered for them and wanted their pictures.

We got off the train and walked to the Observatory Hill, which we all agreed would be a great place to watch the New Years Fireworks.  By the time we got there it was full, so we had to find a new place.  We walked down the hill and ended up finding a sidewalk with a nice clearing in the trees exposing the bridge.  There weren't bad crowds here so sat down and made ourselves at home.  The bridge was lit up with flood lights which alternated colors.  This itself was cool enough.

Right before midnight a countdown started up, then the fireworks began.  Even though we didn't have the prime viewing spot, holy s*^% those fireworks are good!  They were coming off the bridge and four different barges along the harbor.  We didn't know where to look there were so many!  Huge booms of explosion, bright colors and funky shapes.  Best. Fireworks. Ever.  You can check out the real deal here.  Every year there is a guest designer and this year it was Kylie Minogue.  I had a couple mini bottles of champagne in my purse so we busted those out as we watched in awe.

The Harbor Bridge still lit up after the show.

What the fireworks looked like from the front of the bridge in Circular Key.

After the fireworks were over we walked down the street to The Hero of Waterloo.  Yup, the final stop on my ghost tour!  Christina and Josh had done this tour previously and Hero's became their favorite place after!  This is where things started to get rowdy.  Joel made some friends with some Lebanese guys, who he must have told he was also Lebanese, and he became their god!  They were dancing around together, cheering go Lebanon, and buying each other drinks.  The highlight is when Joel picked one up and spun him around!  Also in our new posse was an Irish couple and a couple middle aged ladies who were enjoying salsa dancing with Josh.    At one point Josh decided to stand up on a table, do a mini strip show and take off his pants.  The crowd went wild, the bouncers did not.  Luckily they just said don't do it again.  We stayed till close to two then moved on as it was starting to quite down.  We walked back through the Rocks to the train station and the streets were a mess, littered in streamers, hats, bottles and cans.

From here on the night took a big turn and got a little hazy...