Christmas and New Year in Sydney

I got back from the Philippines to spend Christmas and New Year in Sydney and thanks to the Ultimate Oz arrival package I did when I first got here I had quite a few new friends to enjoy it with!

Christmas started with an amazing Christmas Eve roast as part of the party at Wake Up hostel. This is us that night!

The following morning after opening lovely bits of presents from my family I went back to Wake Up hostel to meet in the bar that was providing bucks fizz and mince pies to start our Christmas Day! Here we are hopeful for a sunny day ahead!

Christmas Day's plan was the Sunburnt Festival, an event specifically targeted at all the travellers away from home to be on Bondi Beach with a BBQ lunch. However Christmas Day was not sunny at all, it turned out to be very cold and wet.

 Here we were hiding under a tent. The festival was actually held at Bondi Pavilion, although meant to be an outdoor event there was one room, like a school gym, with a DJ which was where we all ended up.

Packed in to stay warm and drinking rum! You can see how busy it was, and the school hall-esque nature of it all! This was not the Sunburnt Festival we had been expecting but we made the most of our day before leaving early, in the rain...

That's the beach on the left!

So moving onto New Year and it was a hot day for the people waiting around for a good spot to see the fireworks. This time we had booked tickets for the event at Luna Park, located almost directly under the Harbour Bridge it seemed like a good idea.

Here we are arriving:

Luna Park was really good for New Year although very busy! All the rides are free so we queued up and did the roller coaster! They have jetty platforms that are really good for the fireworks so we saw the 9pm session but then everyone leaves, has some more fun or drinks and we only had to reserve a spot from an hour before to see views like these, compared to people who find a free spot and stay there all day, Luna Park is very worth it!

Then the big surprise of Luna Park was the main stage. It was like a massive night club with the biggest disco ball you've ever seen and a mixture of DJ and live acts! We danced the night away until 3am!

It was the best New Year I've ever had and ticking Sydney new year fireworks off the to do list was a very important thing to me, who knows if I'll ever be back on this side of the world again!

So right now I'm a bit lost, stuck in Sydney and still unemployed, but hopeful, as I write this! Jr has to go and do another 6 months on ship so all have to focus on is getting some more travelling in, there's so much I want to see...