The New Year arrived

We had a relatively quiet New Year’s Eve last night. I say “relatively” because some people set of a LOT of fireworks in the park near our house awhile before midnight. Sunny and Bella were freaked out, but Jake seemed to take it in his stride.

There was nothing good on television, yet again (as I noted last night), but we mostly just talked and ignored the box, anyway. TV One had a countdown at midnight and showed live video of most of the fireworks at the Sky Tower in the Auckland CBD.

This year’s fireworks were much more extensive—and much better—than in previous years; in fact, they were really good. I was pleased about that in part because it might get the US newsmedia to show a few seconds of our celebrations, too. They almost invariably show video of Sydney’s admittedly amazing fireworks, but probably also because it’s the first city in the world that Americans might possibly have heard of to celebrate the New Year. We, of course, welcome each New Year two hours before Sydney.

As it happens, we toasted in the New Year with an inexpensive—and surprisingly good—sparkling pinot noir from Australia. Our guest left shortly after midnight, Nigel went to bed and his sister and I stayed up for quite awhile after, watching TV; to be honest, I’m not quite sure why.

Above and below are a couple YouTube videos of Auckland’s fireworks last night. The one above was taken from a handheld iPhone 4 from Stanley Bay, the one below from Viaduct Harbour. Together they provide a more complete idea of what the fireworks were like.

Enjoy your new year!