New Year’s Eve

Today we planned for a busy day in Sydney, to drive into the city and visit the “Taronga Zoo” that has the best views of Sydney as well as most interesting exhibits. We walked around the many different zoo areas, saw elephants, lions, tigers and a red panda as well as crocs, giraffes and koalas. In between the animal watching we took in the great view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House as well as the hundreds of boats in the harbour already vying for the best spot to watch the New Year’s fireworks at midnight. Even a huge cruise ship that was moored at the pier earlier, was anchored now in the harbour to afford the passengers a better view of the fireworks display. It was very hot, about 32 degrees and sunny, so we needed a few breaks in between our walks. At the end of the zoo visit we took the gondola from the bottom of the promontory back up to the zoo entrance. It was a grandiose view all around. It was so great that we took another round trip in the gondola, so saw the views from up high 3 times!

 

After leaving Taronga Zoo we decided to drive up north to Manly and take the lookout loop around for more pictures. Unfortunately the loop was closed for cars, as New Year’s Eve revellers already started streaming in on foot for tonight’s celebration. We found one last parking spot down the road and ‘hoofed’ it in to the Manly Memorial Park. Not an easy feat, as it was about a 2 km trek one way in blazing heat. The officer at the road closure sign had told us that it’s only about 1 km in, but that was a very liberal interpretation of the distance in metric terms… Sigi suffered beyond words and let me know it in no unclear terms!! We made it nonetheless, found a grand view and an even better café for a much needed rest. 2 km back, luckily mostly downhill and into the car for our way back ‘home’. On the way there we went for dinner to the “Mai Tai” Thai restaurant in the Gymea district close to home which turned out to be excellent. Interesting that there was no alcohol served or any other drinks but water. Customers brought in their own drinks and paid just a corkage fee. This idea has recently caught on in Vancouver too. We finally arrived at our suite around 8.30 pm, just in time to take a shower and rest and start celebrating New Year’s Eve with some very nice Australian champagne!! We watched the Sydney fireworks on the telly as well as some smaller fireworks live over Cronulla Bay. There were boisterous parties going on all around us on patios in neighbouring houses with funky music and lots of laughter. We didn’t stay up much longer after midnight, being royally wiped after a long impressive day.