It became very cold later in the night, especially with strong wind blowing over the Sydney harbour waters. What a change from the nearly 40 degrees in the afternoon.
Around 11.50 pm, the spectators began setting their cameras in place. At midnight Sydney Harbour Bridge lit up and flares went up.
The highly colourful and massive pyrotechnic display, one lakh of them, went on for 12 minutes from three points: Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney Opera House and barges in the harbour.
Apparently the whole thing has cost the Sydney City administration $6.5 million. There was a parallel bush fire fighting fund drive around the harbour that collected close to a million dollars.
After nearly 7 hours at Circular Quay, at 12.15 we joined the vast crowds making their way to nearby train/metro or bus stations. The Circular Quay train station was shut. So we had to walk nearly 10 mins to get to the Martin Place station. We reached home a little before 2 am.
Once again, my good wishes to all for a cheerful new year. May there be more tolerance and less strife around the world in 2020.