A Diamond Night in Emerald City

“Close your eyes and tap your heels together three times. And think to yourself… there’s no place like home.”

December 31, 2006 at approximately 9:08 pm, Dorothy’s Ruby Red Slippers were projected onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge encouraging thousands of children dressed in green to simultaneously click their heels together three times and say out loud “there’s no place like Sydney”. In doing so, Sydney was bathed in green lights staying true to the theme that it was in fact The Emerald City. Roving stilt walkers and characters from the 1939 film classic, “The Wizard of Oz” roamed the Lord Mayor’s picnic in the Royal Botanical Gardens in relation to the theme of this 2006 New Year’s celebration.

The Family fireworks show began at 9:00 pm with this year’s bridge effect being a Question Mark that appeared within the bridge but soon turned into a Coathanger that measured more than 100 ft wide and 45 ft tall. The bridge is commonly referred to as “The Coathanger” because of its arch-based design. Blasts of red and white illuminated the night sky before turning Sydney into an Emerald City. Afterwards, 50 illuminated boats made a majestic passage around the harbour for all to see. Each boat featured diamond emblems that glittered on either their hulls or masts causing their reflections to dance upon the water.
A series of mini light shows between the family fireworks and the midnight set began to slowly reveal the much anticipated bridge effect that would bring in the New Year. A Diamond inside of the Coathanger. This diamond was to usher in the 75th anniversary of the Sydney Harbour Bridge with spectacular firework displays and special effects never seen before in Australia. The crescendo came shortly after midnight when the glowing diamond symbol erupted in a sea of stars exploding in all directions. The show lasted for 13 minutes and is said to be the biggest and the best to date costing approximately 4 Million dollars.

Nathan and I began our celebrations shortly after 4pm with our drink menu consisting of Vodka and Coconut Rum. We made a nice dent in both bottles and by 8pm we felt we were plenty primed to hit up the New Year’s festivities. We ended up missing our bus by minutes but in the end that turned out to be a good thing. By the time we reached the Harbour Bridge it was 9pm… and that meant the first set of fireworks were starting. Blasts of color exploded all around us. It was amazing - we were in the middle of the action!! I haven’t seen fireworks like this in my whole life. I mean – I thought the Canada Day fireworks were big but these ones put them to shame.

We finally made it to the CBD and started to make our way to our destination. We bought tickets to the “Jungle Fever NYE 06/07” party at Jackson’s on George, which luckily was just seconds away from all the harbour action. Walking down the street I was amazed by how many people I could see heading towards the harbour, but when we actually made it there I was blown away by the amount of people. The police estimated that over 1 million people were along the shore for the fireworks and daylong festivities. It was insane!! The streets were closed down and everybody was just partying and having a good time. What a great atmosphere to be in!!

The Jungle Fever party featured renowned 4Play DJs plus a line up of Sydney’s popular DJ’s. They played the best in commercial dance, house, and electro across three floors. The venue had fantastic views of the bridge and the harbour, which offered the perfect platform for us to watch all of what was going on outside. We partied there until about 1130 pm before making our way into the crowd to ring in 2007!!

At first I thought it was going to be easy to get good spot for viewing but soon I realized what we were taking on and there was no turning back… literally. The crowd we were walking through no longer was just a crowd but a giant mob of pushing and pulling fiends hungry to get as close to the action as possible. They were moving one way and you went with them – like it or not. I was pinned and I couldn’t move at all!! I mean I couldn’t even turn my body around to make sure Nathan was still behind me. Luckily he kept close and we didn’t lose each other in all the madness. The crowd finally halted a bit but I think there was just no more room for anybody. We were packed in there so tight that when you blinked your eyelashes would brush up against somebody else. But now I had a problem… I was facing the wrong way. It seriously took me a good 5 minutes and a lot of force to get my body facing the bridge so I could watch fireworks rather than the people behind me.

Unfortunately we didn’t have the best view of the house but there was no way we were getting closer. What we did manage to see was absolutely mind-blowing. We were amongst so many different people and cultures but yet at that time we all had something in common - to celebrate the New Year. It was an experience I honestly can’t even describe. I would tackle that crowd again in a heartbeat because it was so worth it.

We went back to the Jungle Fever party when all was said and done and danced away the night. When we couldn’t party any more we packed it in and started to make our way home to bed. That was another experience. The streets were a mess!! There was McDonald’s garbage everywhere you looked. Probably due to the fact that it was the only food joint open down where all the action was taking place. There were even a couple people passed out within the rubbish. We trudged through the McChicken and Big Mac wrappers in search of our bus. The next thing we remember was the bus driver yelling at us to get off the bus because he was going no further. Where were we?? We didn’t recognize the area. After we wandered around for awhile we finally realized we were at the shops not too far from our place. But… unfortunately we were still 2 km away. By this time my feet were on fire. I wore new shoes and ladies you all know what that does to our feet… blister city!! Being the gentleman he is, Nathan took off his shoes for me to wear home while he trudged along in his socks. It seemed to take forever but we eventually made it back to our bed…safe and sound.

We’re both ecstatic that we were able to experience something to this extent. It will definitely top our New Year’s for many years to come.

Hope you all had as much fun as we did!!
E&N

Aussie (New Year’s Eve) facts of the day:
- approx. 11,000 shells, 10,000 shooting comets & a total of 100,000 individual pyrotechnic effects were incorporated into the fireworks display
- there was an excess of 3000 kg of explosive devices launched into the night sky
- 2 km of power cable was required to power the bridge effects