New Years Eve with Special Guest Editor, Jim Zimmerman (the IMD)

Our New Years' Eve Adventure: Before arriving in Sydney we made arrangements to watch the fireworks on a boat in Sydney Harbour. The outing was organized by a group of 150 Australians of Lebanese descent. The organizers sold tickets to a few others – including the four of us – to fill up the boat.

The family who kindly organised the tickets for us

The New Year's Eve cruise departed from a dock in Cabarita – a small town about 10 kilometers up the Parramatta River. To get there we took a train from Bonnet Bay to the Sydney Harbour and caught a ferry boat to the Cabarita dock.

Our New Year's Eve harbour cruise boat arrived at the dock around 7:00 pm and we sailed back down the river into Sydney harbor. The four of us and a few other 'outsiders' gathered in the upper deck of the boat where we had a great view of the harbor as the sun set.

The evening included drinks, dinner and dancing – mostly to Lebanese tunes.

We watched the 'children's fireworks' at 9:00 pm and patiently waited for the main event at midnight. The three hours would have passed slowly had it not been for a fight among several of the Lebanese party makers who had too much to drink. One of them was "quarantined" by the crew who called the Harbour Police.

Two police boats arrived to interview and remove the offender. The midnight fireworks display was fantastic! It began with the traditional fireworks from the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Soon the whole harbour was lit up with fireworks set off from buildings throughout the harbour area.

Our return trip 'up the river' included beautiful night views of the city. The cruise finished about 1:30. We then took a water taxi back to downtown Sydney where we caught a train to our 'home' in Bonnet Bay arriving around 4:00 in the morning.

January 2010: After our New Year's Eve 'adventure' we relaxed at our Bonnet Bay "home." The following day Sue and Peter Kenaly and their daughter Britt introduced us to an amazing seafood restaurant on the beach in Cronulla, south of Sydney. The four hour lunch was fantastic – one of the highlights of our visit.

Our remaining time in Sydney was spent on walking tours of the city, visits to Manley beach and several local museums and a great dinner in a restaurant overlooking Darling Harbour.

After spending nine wonderful days together we parted ways on January 6th –

Chris and Steph drove north along the beaches of New South Wales and into the Hunter Valley wine region.

We also travelled north on a plane back to the States and the cold winter weather of Virginia.