So I had been back for a week, caught up with most people and all of a sudden it was time for New Years!! Unfortunately for all the things Hamilton does have rather oddly New Zealands fourth largest city has nothing for this particular celebration! No concerts, no events, not even any fireworks, the last time I was here for New Years I was at a gathering which consisted of a group nearly entirely composed of couples of whom one pair had brought along their baby and all of whom were only up because they felt it was the done thing to do and I ended up swearing I would never do another in Hamilton again. Inaction and a general apathy on my part meant however that rather than the excitement of the London Eye like last year I was once again in the company of a group of mainly (different) couples though no baby!
Rebecca and Blair, Ann and Sean, Karl and Jason (not a couple), Jason me and Juliet of whom Jason and Juliet are the couple, Alie and Bryce (the hosts) and Dan and his new girlfriend Anna who is also pictured being particularly intrigued in a game of noughts and crosses (more fun than you might think) and finally Karl with three arms.
I am pleased to report that low expectations and the addition of some different and some new faces meant that the evening was suprisingly entertaining. Dan even brought some fireworks down which given cheapness of the fireworks and the unstable ground provided the additional excitement of not knowing which direction they were going to fire in. Alie tried spelling her name but once you've seen two sparkler photos you've pretty much seen them all.
That was about 11pm down at the park by Alie's house and Alie took some champagne with us in the event that we weren't back by midnight. We made it back in time but rather unsurprisingly the champagne had already been opened and consumed. So instead we brought the new year in with Bacardi and a giant box of Ferrero Rochers, a combination that went sown surpisingly well. And this year people stayed up beyond 5 past 12 and all in all, I was relatively satisfied with the night overall.
