When my friends announced plans to fly to Australia to see the New Year in in style, I couldn’t resist joining them. Here’s how we got on spending 6 days in Sydney over New Year.

Having decided to extend my trip to a 7-week, mainly solo travelling adventure in Australia and New Zealand, I was on a bit more of a budget than my friends who were spending 2 weeks split across Sydney and Melbourne so rather than joining them on their outbound flights from the UK to Sydney with Emirates, I opted for significantly cheaper return flights with Air China. I had flown solo to Australia before so this side of it didn’t bother me and my flight was due to arrive into Sydney within an hour of my friends arriving.

The only downside really was a 5 hour stop in Beijing on the outbound flight and an 8 hour layover there on the inbound flight but I figured it was worth it for the £500 saving!

As it turned out, by the time I had got through security (and a rather scary experience where I was repeatedly shouted out in Chinese, unsure of what was going on, only to have a portable phone charger yanked out of my hand luggage and thrown into a bin!), grabbed some food (I had brought a small amount of Chinese Yen with me purely for this reason) and had a nap on the airport benches, the 5 hours had flown by and it was time to board my Sydney bound flight. I even ended up landing in Australia slightly ahead of my friends after their Emirates flight was delayed in Dubai!

After our early morning airport reunion at Sydney International arrivals, the 5 of us hopped into a ‘maxi taxi’ to set off for our city centre accommodation. Normally, I’d use public transport from the airport but as there was a group of us, a taxi worked out around the same price.

With accommodation prices being sky high over the Christmas and New Year period (we had left the UK on December 28th and arrived in Sydney on December 29th), we had decided to split our stay between 2 places, one that was cheaper over New Year, one that was cheaper in the days after.

For New Year itself, we would be taking up 2 studio apartment rooms at the Mantra 2 Bond Street for 5 nights. The hotel was in an extremely convenient location being walking distance from Sydney Harbour which is, of course, at the centre of the New Year celebrations each year. The apartments had full kitchens allowing us to keep spending down by eating in for the most part.

Arriving so early meant our rooms were not yet available but the staff went out of their way to get one of the rooms ready as soon as possible so we could use that to freshen up in. Once we’d done that, we decided the best way to get over the jetlag would be to get out into the city. It was a beautiful, warm summer’s day so we walked towards The Rocks area of the harbour and found a pub to sit out and grab some food at – my first of many chicken parmas of the trip!

Then we strolled around The Rocks area and walked around Circular Quay towards the iconic Opera House and its Opera Bar – the site of the New Year’s Eve party we had booked to attend a few days later! The area was busier than I had ever seen it on previous visits to the city but we managed to find a gap on the sea wall benches to sit and relax for a while until it reached check in time back at our hotel.

Once checked in, we walked to the local Coles supermarket to grab some essentials for our stay before having lazy evening and an early night catching up on lost sleep.

Our first full day in Sydney, and New Year’s Eve’s Eve, was another gloriously sunny and hot day. After breakfast we made some sandwiches for lunch and walked to Circular Quay to catch the ferry to Manly Harbour. The ferry ride was a really enjoyable experience in itself, offering beautiful views of Sydney Harbour with its bridge and opera house and also views of the city skyline. Once in Manly, we strolled down the busy Corsa, stopping to take photos with the huge Christmas tree still standing proud, and found our way to the main beach.

The day was mainly spent sunbathing and relaxing. Being someone who can’t sit still for long, I took a walk with one of the others along the sea front towards the lido at the far end of the beach.

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Later, after we all cooled off a bit in the ocean, I took a solo walk in the opposite direction along the coast path. Passing an area signposted as Cabbage Tree Bay, I met a few water dragons basking in the sunshine along the way and eventually came to a small but busy cove before turning back and heading back to meet my friends.

Leaving the beach early evening, we sat out at one of the restaurants on the Corso for a fish and chip supper before catching the ferry back to Sydney Harbour.

We timed this perfectly to see the sunset, reaching Sydney as night fell and the city lit up.

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Still not completely over the jet lag and knowing we had a busy day and late night the following day, we spent another evening in at the hotel, making use of the hot tub and pool on the hotel roof!

The next day was New Year’s Eve. After a lazy morning, my friends were planning on spending most of the day getting ready for our big night out.

Not being one for spending ages getting dressed up or indulging in pre-party drinking, instead, I met up with a friend who happened to be in the city and we took a walk to Darling Harbour and visited Sydney Wildlife Park. The wildlife park was a bit disappointing as, maybe because of the heat, many of the animals were not out and we didn’t see a single kangaroo our whole visit!

Getting back to the hotel early afternoon, I quickly got ready for the evening and we made our way to the Opera Bar party.

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We had done a lot of research into where to watch the evening’s celebrations from. There were many places to go to watch for free – in parks, for example, but here, drinking was either not allowed or you couldn’t take in your own alcohol so my friends worried about long queues at vendors.

We considered a boat party out on the harbour but read some reviews that it could be difficult to get a good place on the boat to see the bridge and watch the light and firework displays.

Our research threw up nothing but good reviews for the Opera Bar party so we settled on this, buying tickets well in advance on the day they went on sale in September.

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The theme for the party was ‘Long Hot Summer’. Our tickets gave us entry into the cordoned off grounds of the Opera House where there would be included entertainment and snacks, drinks would be at our own expense. We arrived early with the intention of grabbing a good place to watch the fireworks from and we found the perfect spot right on the sea wall settling in there for the evening.

From here we could take it in turns to go and get drinks or nibbles and the entertainment – stilt walkers, jugglers and dancers in various costumes came to us as they made there way through the party.

The atmosphere was great and they had let enough people in to make it feel like a real party atmosphere without it ever getting rowdy or feeling too packed.

From our space, we were able to perch on the sea wall to watch the jet boat displays in the harbour or get up and dance in front of it to the tunes being played by the party DJ later into the evening.

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At 9 o’clock we got a taste of what was to come as the countdown began to the ‘family fireworks’ – a pre-New Year display aimed at those who wouldn’t be staying up for the main event – and this was followed by a parade of boats lit up in bright white lights, sailing around the harbour before docking for their passengers to watch the midnight celebrations.

Midnight itself was an emotional experience. Having seen the Sydney celebrations so many times on new reports back home in the UK over the years, it was a surreal experience actually being there with a group of my best friends seeing the New Year in and we all shed a few tears of happy emotion as we toasted the New Year in and watched the spectacular pyrotechnics on Sydney Harbour Bridge and the accompanying dizzying firework display.

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Following that, the party continued into the early hours as the DJ cranked up the music and we finally left our spot for the evening to hit the dancefloor.

With the music becoming a bit too ‘dancey’ for my tastes after the singalong commercial pop preceding it, and with late nights never being something I particularly cope well with, I retired well before 2am, making my way back to the hotel by myself through the throngs of revellers still out on Sydney’s streets, my friends lasting another hour or so longer! It had certainly been a night we wouldn’t forget in a hurry, a once in a lifetime experience and worth every penny.

Feeling surprisingly fresh the next morning, we awoke late, made breakfast and, with it being another perfect summer’s day, made plans to walk through the Botanic Gardens for a chill out day. As we walked through Circular Quay towards the Opera House, we spotted the jetboats touting for customers along the harbour and decided it might be a fun New Year’s Day activity so we booked a spur of the moment trip out for later that afternoon.

Then we walked past the scene of last night’s party at the Opera House and followed the path around into Sydney’s Botanic Garden, sauntering along the sea wall path until we reached Macquarie Point.

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Here, we found the perfect spot to sit, overlooking the water’s edge with the Opera House and Harbour Bridge in the distance. After eating our picnic lunch, we relaxed in the sunshine until it was time to make our way back to the harbour to check in for our jetboat ride.

Despite being a bit of a spur of the moment decision to ride, the jetboat was one of the best parts of our trip and made for a great start to the new year!

We got absolutely soaked as we cruised through the harbour, spinning through crazy turns, nosediving into the water, the boat feeling like it was going to overturn each time.

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It was exhilarating, hilarious fun and a great way to cool down on such a hot day.

Soaked to the skin, we returned to our hotel abandoning our plans to go back out later and instead stayed in taking to the hotel’s rooftop pool and hot tub to once again toast the new year.

The following day, we caught the bus out of the city to Sydney’s North Beach area, visiting Palm Beach, otherwise known as Summer Bay in Australian soap opera Home and Away.

The show wasn’t currently filming but we took a walk up to the lighthouse for beautiful views of the peninsula location then spent the afternoon relaxing on the beach. Just before we left, warning signs had to be put up to prevent people swimming or surfing as there’d been a shark sighting off the coast! We had dinner at the golf club across the road before catching the bus back to Sydney.

We were checking out of our hotel the next day, moving to the World Tower apartments near Darling Harbour for our last 2 nights in the city. A couple of our group had been up early to do the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb so after meeting them at the Harbour Bridge, we went to retrieve our luggage and move to our new accommodation.

I had stayed at World Tower on a previous visit and been very impressed with its apartments. It was no different this time and our mouths were all open as we took in our huge, 76th floor plush apartment space with breathtaking views over the city. Unfortunately, the weather had started to take a turn for the worse and rain clouds were moving in.

While some of the group decided to abandon our plan to go to Bondi Beach that afternoon and instead enjoy our new apartment, a few of us decided to go anyway – and we arrived to a torrential downpour!

We headed to the nearest bar and once the rain had eased off a bit, I decided to take a walk along the coastal path to neighbouring Bronte Beach. It was a really beautiful walk despite the overcast weather with lots of dramatic coastal scenery along the way. The skies started to clear slightly as I walked back to Bondi and I found my friends waiting for me sunbathing on the beach.

Back in Sydney, we finally made it on a night out deciding on a visit to Darling Harbour where we had drinks in some of the bars overlooking the harbour, ending up in a nice cocktail bar.

My last day in the city was spent getting caught in torrential downpours walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to Luna Park and catching the ferry back to Circular Quay. The weather dried up in the evening allowing us to head back to Darling Harbour for more drinks out before I set off on the rest of my trip the next day.

It had been a fantastic experience spending the week over New Year in Sydney and I’d advise anyone who ever has the opportunity to spend New Year’s Eve celebrating in Sydney at least once in their lifetime.