Well, that certainly went off with a bang!
One thing on Xave's 'must do' list, was to be on the harbour for new year's eve celebrations. tick.
We dropped anchor in Double Bay,
dropped anchor, I mean splashingly, heavily actually dropped anchor - (sorry, still patting myself on the back for that one).
as I said, we had dropped anchor the day before so as to secure a good pozzy. Nick had suggested Double Bay, as it was less of a circus than the very popular Athol Bay at the base of Taronga Zoo. It turned out to be such a good spot - and we had nothing but water between us and the sparks. (We later talked to a couple who had been anchored in Athol Bay, who said that it was utter chaos over there and actually quite stressful).
So the Tsoukaris & Robinson boats were rafted together thereby creating 2 spaces - one with music, a dance space, and comfy seats, and the other with lego down below and a quieter, if not less comfortable, chill out zone. Perfect. During the rafting process, when Xave & Nick were busy on the starboard side, a water taxi arrived on our port side, calling out for me to accept his passengers.
Um, OK, but who exactly are they? Thankfully one made himself known to me (I would have welcomed them regardless), and so I got ready to catch the rope to tie up the water taxi... the driver obviously thought I was quite hopeless as he suddenly asked for the 'deck hand', to which I happily (and rather braggingly) replied 'this is MY boat, and you're looking at her'. Nobody likes a bragger, but gee it felt good!
(We transferred the passengers without incident.)
Initially, knowing that Roo & Cookie were the youngest on board, I was a nervous wreck - and when 2 of the teenage kids jumped in for a swim, I ran, panicked, to the side thinking that Cooks had gone overboard. My friends got a drink into me soon after that, they then stapled, superglued, and velcroed Cooks to the 3 x 12 year old girls, and Roo and the big boys busied themselves down below with the lego etc- we had to put a stop to the 'chasey' game they started around the 2 boats later in the night. Xave and I took turns supervising the kids, and we had such a fun night. For Xave in particular, it was brilliant to hang out with all his old school pals.
The kids LOVED the fireworks, (Roo set his body clock and re-awoke for the midnight ones - clever boy). We feel so lucky to have been able to enjoy the spectacle from aboard Awaitea. We also had all of Xave's kids on board together, which was wonderful. Happy New Year to you all.
* There are lots of hilarious photos of people in varying states of inebriation, but without their knowledge & therefore their permission, I'm only posting pics of our family. Oh how I'd love to post more....
Alex & Phoebe
Dan & Jake
A happy dad with his 4 kids all together
