Day #101 - Found Nemo; Kissed Kylie - Happy New Year!

Last night turned into an early morning, so we were a little slow in getting started this morning, but we had to be up since James had booked us a 9am slot at the Sea Life Aquarium.

We therefore had a lovely Sunday morning stroll through the central part of the city to Darling Harbour.

As you can see, a bit of a grey start to the day!

The Sea Life Centres in the UK are cool, but the ones I have been in seemed a little dated and tired. Sydney's one however was amazing and it is one of the world's largest aquariums, with over 700 different species and 13,000 animals in an impressive six million litres of water.  The aquarium is also home to the world's largest variety of sharks and rays, as well as Australia's most famed marine animals, including a dugong and tropical reef fish.

Grey Nurse Sharks, Stingrays, Penguins, a Dugong and Australian Green Sea Turtle.

We also found Nemo (Clown Anemonefish) and Dory (Blue Tang)!

Next door to the aquarium, was Madam Tussauds - a classic attraction in many cities around the world. We wondered how many Australian figures we would recognise, but we needn't have worried. It was great to be reminded how much Australian culture we knew - although we did draw blanks on some pop stars and sports athletes! See how many of our new friends you recognise:

As you can see, we had a lot of fun! 

The evening's main event was of course midnight and the spectacular New Year's Sydney Harbour Fireworks. 

The city has many possible viewing spots since the harbour is big. We naively thought that we would be ok not planning or booking much and we could find a spot a few hours before the main event. How wrong we were! It rapidly became apparent during the day that all the viewing spots had already reached capacity early on in the afternoon. A million people were expected to come into town for the show! So we decided not to give ourselves any stress and watch what we could from our hotel balcony overlooking Hyde Park and the live stream on the TV - so you could say, we watched the fireworks in stereo!

As you can see, we got to see a little of the display and more became visible as the show reached its climax but the TV was definitely the better option. Next time we come, we'll be more organised! 

Here is the full display filmed by the broadcasters:

As a side note, as spectacular as they are, I do feel London still puts on the BEST NYE fireworks. They have a narrative, it reflects on the year and it's so synchronised with the music. Love it!

We'd also like to take the opportunity to wish you all a very happy New Year and hope that 2024 brings you as much joy and pleasure as 2023 did for us with all our adventures. Thank you as always for reading.