Wandering up to the top of Observatory Hill in the afternoon sees this place quite busy. There was a marriage proposal in the bandstand and many people on the grass watching the sun go down. It’s a lovely place to view over to the north of the harbour.

New Years Eves, it’s advisable to stay in a hotel, if you can, expensive I know, but it’s well advised. On the eve of the fire work display we wondered up to somewhere called Observatory Hill lookout. It’s Free. The walk was easy with a slight incline at the end. Beautiful pathway leading to the top, amongst the morton bay fig trees. We got there really early. There was literally a handful of people there and we honestly got a prime spot. It was fantastic but being idiots, we forgot to bring sun shade . As the Sun beat down, you can imagine, we’re doing chase the shadows, anything to avoid it, we kept moving around with the shade of the trees. We ended up under a huge tree at one point that was amazing because there where beautiful bats that kept flying over our head, they were so big and they swooped down and got so close to us it’s like they weren’t scared at all. I got a little group of us talking about the bats and how large they were, it was decided they must be fruit bats. Then the conversation ventured into how big there droppings might be. This was too much, there’s always one. We decided to move a few feet down towards the fence and hedge row. Great shade to be had here, but not the best view point. Come 2pm, the look out field was getting really full. At 9pm they had a children’s fire work display, some of the crowd dispersed after the display, but it filled up again really quickly. Toilets be prepared for a queue, if you feel you need to go, go, don’t leave it until last minute. You could be in for a little accident, especially if you have children with you. Food, take it with you, they have a few stalls, but not many, so obviously more queue’s. At the 9pm display, people kept standing up spoiling it for everyone else. Well , old mum here, started a mini riot. 😂. I was shouting “SIT DOWN, SIT DOWN”. My daughter was mortified until she heard others joining in. I got ¼ of the field shouting. Everyone that was stood embarrassingly sat down. 😂. At the start of the midnight display they started to stand again. Guess who started a second mini riot. ME, and guess who got all the crowd going. ME. 😂. Oops. But it worked, everyone sat down, making it enjoyable for all. The display was incredible, quicker than I expected. But it was fantastic.