New Years In Sydney

We arrived back from our visit home on 28 December...just in time for New Years Eve which we missed last year. Sydney puts on quite a show with fireworks lined up and down the harbour, from the city buildings, and over the harbour bridge. We planned really early and bought tickets with our friends Pat & Nicole, Dan & Chez, and Gary & Louise to the Botanical Gardens where we had enough room to spread out with a picnic dinner and plenty of wine to enjoy the show without fighting the horrific crowds. It was a great time and of course Katie put her new tripod from Christmas to good use and took tons of pics. Nearly 2 million people showed up for the festivities. And to make it worse, I think everyone on holiday to celebrate in Sydney came to Manly beach the rest of the days. It certainly made getting around and getting seats at any restaurants a headache. But we did manage to enjoy the few days we had here before we took Jared's mom, Ruth, and sister, Amanda, to the Wet Tropics. We always love having friends here to share this experience with but it is even better having family around.

The first day we were all very tired and after walking around manly and getting lunch at the Four Pines brewery we fell asleep for the night at 5pm. But we shook off the jet lag and in the next few days we took them to Bondi Beach to do the Bondi to Brontee walk where most all of us got fried by the Australian summer sun, to Manly Beach for a relaxing day in the sun, and to the zoo. We also spent a fantastic dinner at Cafe Sydney with beautiful views of the Harbour Bridge where we tried Morton Bay Bugs (sounds gross doesnt it?). They are like small lobsters and were great.

Then we were headed off for another week of holiday in the Wet Tropics with the fam!

There were a few more days to spend in Sydney when we got back. One day was spent in the Hunter with a hot air balloon, champagne breakfast, and wine tasting. It was a crazy day and not properly planned at all as we didn't realise that the only time they do the hot air balloons is at 5am. So since we didn't have a hotel room for the night we set our alarms for 2am only to wake up at 3am and realise we were late. We raced up to the Hunter which was about 2 hours away. However, in the midst of the panic we forgot our map and got lost a few times on the way. We managed to arrive an hour late at 6am despite all the mishaps thanks to Jared's great driving skills and hopped in the balloon just in time for takeoff. Apparently the only thing we missed was setting up the balloon which we didn't mind at all. The balloon ride was nice with views over the vineyards and the kangaroos hopping below. Afterwards, we had a good breakfast at Petersons champagne house which is one of our favorites complete with mimosas and champagne tastings. We still had enough energy left over to discover some new favorite wineries that afternoon. Our top five hunter valley wineries are (in no particular order): Petersons champagne house, McWilliams, Iron Gate, Tullochs, and Tyrells...But there are many more to try out.