I quite worrying that everything I had upgraded was still susceptible to the y2k bug, and went to lightspeed at Ellerslie racecourse. Had an absolute blast!
I worked a straight 36 hours through NY Eve & Day. Y2K mitigation dontcha know. People forget how hard so many of us worked to ensure that Y2K “was a non-event”.
Party in a ski hut at Whakapapa with my lovely uncle who organised how to 'pipe in the haggis' using his harmonica, playing ping-pong for hours and skiing on new year's day. Wow, it's getting to be a long time ago 😳😁
I snuck out to meet my friend at a campground. We went to the beach with some boys. Mum sent multiple people out to find me when she noticed I was gone. I got found and grounded. They went out. I snuck out again. Watched the sun rise on my own, on the beach, then walked home. I had just turned 15.
Hung out with friends until they all had to go home for curfew, then slammed some sparkling grape juice and taquitos.
Also spent a lot of time wondering about the friend who made us all promise to go in the basement with our families if we heard trumpets sounding from the heavens at midnight.
I was on the phone with my 78 year old great grandma to make sure she was ok. 2 years later I'd be living with her during my freshman year at Pitt. She was the best person I ever knew
I convinced a late arriving friend to not join the party at 11:55 PM, and instead go down into the basement and pull all the fuses at midnight to make everyone think the power went out.
Was a prison officer (US) and a member of riot squad. Leave cancelled (Y2K, y'know) (I was supposed to be in NZ). Had to be able to respond to site in 30m. I lived 30m away! Spent the night in full uniform, lying on sofa, watching Until the End of the World and then fireworks from around the world.
Went to River Thames next to HoP to see the 'incredible fireworks' - it was a massive disappointment. And the people I was with all had their own bottles of champagne at midnight and I didn't have one. I was sober and gutted (no one shared). Long walk back to West Kensington to my friends place.
Snowboarding in Zermatt, Switzerland with a group of Aussies and English. Well munted. Randomly & secretly Robbie Williams was also there, offered him some Veuve straight from the bottle as he was dancing beside us away from the worlds media, but he declined and left the town sq soon after midnight
Yeah, man! Robbie has told this story - he was in Switzerland for New Year with people of all different nationalities around him, and at some point in the night I Will Survive came in, and everyone sang along to the string part. And he thought, oooh, I should sample that…
Cool. Yes, he was there with some tall blond woman & his security. He was dancing away minding his own business, people were respecting him, not asking for photos or anything just leaving him to do his thing. Our group were right beside him, we offered him champagne but he declined every time.
At my parents' up north, where they'd recently retired to.
Let off fireworks in the road out front.
SibK went inside at midnight to be with Nana, just in case it went to custard.
Nana was in an armchair, watching the fireworks.
Next day, to Waipu for the international strongman games.
Went to a lookout in Dunedin to watch fireworks with my Dad and my daughter and her partner then on our drive home 30kms away Dad and I stopped at Brighton Domain and slept in the car so we could watch the sunrise.
I was in Edinburgh with my future wife (and, it turns out, future ex-wife) and a bunch of Kiwis. We got really drunk for the NZ new year, went and had a recovery kip, and then went out on the streets of Edinburgh. It was crazy busy. There was haka, piss circles, fireworks and much more. Insane time.
I remember at a party with friends, watching tv for the countdown, thought it’d be nicer to go watch the fire instead; heard them 3-2-1-oh... Because the tv screen turned into a big discover card ad or something tacky like that. But the fire looked great!
I don't recall precisely but I know my husband and I were at the in-laws house and his mom and her BFF were sitting on the couch watching TV because it was BFF's birthday and she didn't want to deal with Y2K stuff on her birthday. I think we went out to the local Irish bar but were back before 12.
I was 5 and having a very boring subdued evening at my auntie and uncle's place in Auckland.. unlike the year before when I was dancing on the bar in a tiny country pub where my dad was playing with his rock and roll band (yes, at 4 years old. I was born a party animal 😂
...One launched beside me (and a pile of other people) but only got 2 metres into the air before it went off. You haven't lived until you've been INSIDE a starburst firework. My ears rang for quite some time. Luckily no one caught fire.
- Went to a house party
- Drank way too much SoCo and ginger ale
- Got fascinated by a toilet with a heated seat and bidet
- Threw up out the passenger window of my Saturn SC2 while The Bends was on CD player
- 2 cops by Capitol Records Tower said look at that guy
I had a 3 month old baby who was still being breastfed. So no ingesting naughty. But baby still young enough to take everywhere knowing he would just feed and sleep.
It rained. We had plans but … it was really pelting down. (Auckland)
I think this was the first NYE that my brother and I were allowed to stay up for, both because it was monumental (millenia only come around once every 1000 years, after all) and my mom felt like, "I don't THINK it will, but if the world DOES end, I want to be holding my kids."
We waited until 12:01 to celebrate, because we were all holding our breath, waiting to see if SOMEthing would happen. I remember my brother remarking, after we felt safe, that he was surprised the lights didn't even flicker. 😂
I got laid off the Monday after Xmas. I spent the next week drinking, then went to a NYE party with several co-workers who were also laid off. I hooked up with my ex-girlfriend who was a co-worker. It was great/regrettable/perfect in equal portions. Life in your 20s hits different.
Went off grid in a mobile home parked at the bottom of Mt Hood ski area...cooked risotto, went night skiing and enjoyed the irony that the propane tank in our mobile home sprung a leak in the middle of a snow storm causing untold complications...while the grid was fine.
Built an igloo on top of a ski resort out of bounds, caught last lift up w/the love of my life, took a selfie, set up the stove, oops forgot the food, packed up, rode our boards down in an epic heavy snowfall in waste deep powder with only the distant light of the resort to guide us, ordered pizza.
Watched fireworks all over West London, including on the Thames, from the top floor of the old Mortlake Post Office. Was where we had office at the time - went up there with family and a bottle of champagne I think, and met a few others from work who'd had the same idea.
I was working on y2k mitigation. Really annoying how NYT recently reported it was a 'nothingburger' or whatever. That's because a bunch of people worked hard to make sure it would be one.
I went to Mt Maunganui, and it took me 1 hr to walk 1/2 a block to the beach. Made it just as the clock struck 12, kissed some guy that tasted of peppermint, lost my friend. Walked home, then sat to 6am talking to some random guys staying in the bach next door. Watched the sunrise.
The friend I lost ended up in Te Puke after she met a random dude, did not have money for a taxi home she did the EPIC walk of shame from Te Puke to Mt Maunganui.
Massive community party at Waitetoko on Lake Taupō, friend’s family’s bach, all the neighbours went in on a big marquee and everyone brought food and drink inc a Nebuchadnezzar of champagne that sadly had been stored standing so the cork had dried out, no pop or fizz, undrinkable! Fun night tho
At Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes with my mates who are computer geeks. They had spent the year prepping for Y2K & didn’t want to be in town if all their efforts failed 😏
Oh god, I had an absolute shocker. Had been badly beaten up by an ex on Xmas Eve, moved to Akl for a new job on 27th Dec. Went to the Loaded Hog because my friend was the mgr, had a totally shit time. Caught a bus back to the shore about 2am, pissing rain, walked the last 30 mins. Forgettable.
Meh, it's in the past. No biggie now.
I had thought I had a better story about being out at Piha with my friend Boh, and buying torches in case the lights went out, but that must have been another time...
Yes, actually it was weird at the time - I came up to Akl to manage one red dog Taka, and it was so full-on I didn't even have the bandwidth to process it until about April, and then it all hit me, really. Not a great time.
But I'm all good, what doesn't kill you, and all that garbage.
didnt used to be bad a couple years back, but Franklin has just added 5k new homes and the closest grocery stores to any of them are in Pukekohe, so instead of a shitbox flatbed toyota ute every 10 minutes, its a steady stream of Merc's, Audis and Range Rovers that dont indicate
my friend and her sister would probably be a few years younger than you but IIRC her parents were there forever before that. She escaped to hamilton and it was genuinely funny to see her be shocked by normal things that ruakaka doesn't have.
Went to the Auckland Domain, where the drizzle and fog ensured the fireworks were a complete fizzer. Persuaded a taxi driver that an exceptionally drunk friend wouldn't throw up in his taxi. Thankfully she didn't
A friend threw a party. Little did they know that he had disappeared just before midnight. He slid down the basement stairs. At the first strike of midnight, the party in full gear, he threw the power switch. I’m sure his sly smile said it all as they all screamed in a panic. It really happened!
I was 1 year into new motherhood.
My son took his first steps with his grandparents, while I was laid up and puking from food poisoning like there was no tomorrow 🫤
I’m laughing at how many kiwis in this thread were also there - I possibly snogged at least one of them because that’s what the night ended up being all about - lines of people threading through the crowd, kissing those going the other way 🤣
@foxylustygrover.bsky.social Took a big sound system and generator to a private cove on the coromandel, with 50 of my best mates with records, and a had a great couple of days on the leer.
Not really, it truly was a lame effort. I remember I had to work so why I was in Wellington. The party at the house in MT Victoria was cool but town was lame on a usual night and for some reason there were cover charges that night.
That was my first Welly New Years!
We’d moved here in November, I was just home from 2nd OE. So broke we hitchhiked back to Rangiora/Christchurch for Christmas.
Back to Welly for New Years, friend I’d made being an Orc extra picked us up and took us to a flat party in Aro St. Instant friend-group!
I got to storm the castle! There was a battering ram and everything.
We were filming just before Christmas, so my new friend and I amused ourselves through the long nights by singing carols to all the armies from Gondor and Rohan as they marched past on the way to their shots.
I also suspect i was in my late 20s with a paying job, so, yeah, I had a cellphone like the upwardly mobile customer services manager I was at that time.
Effectively what we did too because we were looking for a few friends that we knew were out (no cell phones to contact them) and I think we eventually ended up in McDonalds Courtney place & walked home.
I wasn’t cool enough and only got my first real cell phone in 2000, I had a brick that I never took out (was one of those literal bricks) so it was really flying blind trying to find people.
In a surging mass in the French 1/4 of New Orleans with my newly American twins and a kiwi girlfriend.
Then on to a blues venue and then fireworks on the harbour.
Memorable times.
I was in Glasgow & then boyfriend (now husband) & his brother went into town. I know they gatecrashed a party but I didn’t so must have been other people with us but have no memory of who it was.
Actually had some clarification, they didn’t gate crash the party, they stood at the stairs & denied people entry as if they were the bouncers. They were waiting for me to come back from the loo at the pub across the street which took me about an hour 🤣
I went to Glasgow to live, planning to stay for a year, because I’d had a good weekend there once & ended up staying over 7 years & acquiring a husband & a cat long the way. Never went back to Aussie to live because “it’s too hot”
Have a few nights bleeding into days…..
Attended a 3 day hippy festival outside of Oxford in Canterbury. Camped there with my wife, our then-toddler, and my wife’s parents who were visiting from Canada. Lots of meditation, vegetarian food and earnestness. Probably face painting too.
went to friends for a party with our two younger kids in tow. (Eldest was away) Walked up to the top of Maungawhau as a group in the mud and wet to see mist cloud and no view of the fireworks. There were heaps of people walking up. Stayed up all night. Definitely memorable but....
Stayed on a farm in the Wairarapa with our young children and my recently widowed mum. Woke the 3.5-year-old up to watch the sun rise on the new millennium. It was cloudy, and I strongly suspect he doesn't remember it. But I do.
We had a 14 month old. Sat in the lounge overlooking Mana Island and watched the countdown on TV. Just after midnight I accidentally kicked the power cord out of my modem and lost connection to the internet, for a few seconds I thought Y2k had hit.
Sat in the lounge of a grungy Dunedin flat watching my stoner boyfriend play PlayStation because he refused to do anything that involved people, celebration or not being catatonically stoned and had an overdue epiphany that it was perhaps not a relationship I wished to continue 😂
In London by the Tower, watching the most amazing fireworks display along the Thames. Long walk back to an open Underground station but was a fabulous night. Then got engaged. (Now divorced but still friends, and we produced some damn fine humans along the way.)
I hired a kayak and paddled over to Rangitito. Turned out to be a bit far at night so came back in. Did it again a few months later in a 2 person kayak and in the daytime which was safer.
Stayed home with family (I was still a minor), got nervous the power would cut out at midnight, breathed a sigh of relief when it didn’t. Played my guitar.
Was camping with friends at Waipu Cove, but we got flooded out so we retreated to one mate's family bach in Whangarei Heads. There was a power cut and the Civil Defence siren went off just before midnight (another mate was in CD so had to call in, but it was a Y2k issue!). It was an adventure!
Was still in high school. My gf and I had an exceptionally contentious argument about whether celery had “negative calories” then drank too much and fooled around.
It was when I became aware that as a kid who'd watched TV here in the early 60s I knew about the risks of exposure, and what to do. Many younger people down there had no idea, and it was very lucky there were no deaths eh
I’d managed to mooch in as a performer so we’d arrived on a bus a day before the official start. One day of perfect pristine weather, then it started raining……
Sat on Herbert Hill, coastal Otago to watch the sun come up. It was drizzling and grey so we couldn’t see the sunrise. I was pregnant with a toddler and a 4 year old in tow - so just a damp disappointment all round.
WE had the best millennium party. 'Come as you were' (ie what incarnation were you in the past' & it was also a house demo party as they were starting major renovations the next day. So we threw all the bones on the carpet & was stupidly debauched. ChCh
You just reminded me that the guy who pulled off our prank came in a really good Robbie Williams costume because he looked a little like him, a costume can really change everything
I went to a party with my extended social group from uni days (not many years in the past, but I’d been unwell and thus not social for a while in between). I had a nice enough time but also realised that this wasn’t really my scene any more.
We drove up to the top of Mt Brown (490m), and set up a BBQ to welcome dawn with a sausage, a glass of wine, and Kiri Te Kanawa singing from Gisborne as the sun rose. Memorable, particularly for son, who was dragged behind an irrigation tank by neighbour's granddaughter for his first kiss.
It may have been the drugs but I seem to recall Peter Sinclair broadcasting on the wireless and after midnight, with some trepidation, using his dial up modem to try to connect to the internet..quality radio in those days, aye.
Omg went to a massive teknival in the south of France- crashed like 3 times on the way haha raves for 5 days straight, sleeping in a forest near the abandoned hypermarche it was held!
Skiing in the French Alos with 24 other Kiwis. We celebrated NZ new year at midday and then French New Year at midnight. Great fun, even though I’m not a huge fan of skiing (but I do apres ski very well 😂)
Showed off my Y2k bug stuffed animal, and thought of how all the work I had done on Y2k bug fixes was about to pay off as my small contribution to a non-disaster. (A few things here and there _did_ break the next day, but a lot less than would have if folks hadn't put in the work.)
Worked short handed at a group home for really violent mentally ill kids cuz some asshole called out to go party. Got home at two in the morning, slept a few hours and then returned for my 16 hour shift with those same kids.
Wandered around central Auckland in the rain with mates, couldn't see the fireworks. Got pissed, lost my keys, had to climb in my bathroom window & fell into the bath, breaking the curtain rod. Had to call emergency locksmith for the car $$$$$$
Cold wet Auckland CBD, wearing a thick winter wool coat over the strapless shot silk top I’d made from leftover ball dress fabric. Went to an Irish pub, tried to see the Skytower fireworks which just vaguely lit the clouds and then walked to along the bays to see waka come in at sunrise. Cold. Wet.
Age 11 in Nelson. Playing gin with the fam, then down to Tahunanui beach for midnight fireworks. Remember looking up at princess drive/the hills over rocks rd & everyone being excited the power was still on.
Went under the Auckland Harbour Bridge to watch the fireworks. The weather was terrible. We wanted to make claim to be doing the first running man dance of the millennium so did that as the clock struck midnight. Then walked the bays to see in the dawn. Coined the term ‘millennium shoes’.
Which are those uncomfortable shoes you buy for an occasion that end up being taken off and carried on hooked fingers. Many women were spotted with their “millennium shoes” that evening/morning.
The Gathering - it was so wet! We were pretty well prepared as we’d been road-tripping around the South Island and had a carload of stuff, but even then it was full on.
Dancing in the rain was lots of fun (tho I should’ve packed gumboots and more socks).
At a party at friend’s place on Mt Albert - she had a young baby. Couldn’t see much past their deck because of rain. Drove another couple to Westhaven to peer at barely visible fireworks through rain. She was 7-months pregnant. 1/2
25 years later the Mum-to-be is 61, has very early onset dementia and in a care home. I visited yesterday morning and am glad she still enjoys a short walk and seems to recognise me even if she can’t keep track of which direction we’re walking. Treasure all those memories. 2/2
I lived in Scotland back then, and made friends with a Greek guy who was studying conservation at uni in Edinburgh. Went to visit him and his crew who I’d met on visits to see their friend 😎
Soggy in the Domain with all then other idiots not seeing the fireworks because of the terrible weather. Feeling crap because most awesome first year of grad school was done and it felt like the band was breaking up as various peeps went their separates.
Christchurch..up in the hills. It rained, back to Twizel New Years Day…sat and watched the rest of the world celebrate (on TV) while I cracked the first beer of 2000.
Spent the night in a midtown Manhattan hotel room, alone, reading Mick Foley’s first book while my wife worked her trading company’s call center overnight.
Small gathering at my parents. Got cross with L for not kissing me at midnight cos he was watching the clocks tick over on all the computers, in the study with my dad. My parents & L’s parents met properly for the first time the next day, & we were married February 2001.
25 years after that kiss, aka last night, we had a raging New Year's Eve with both of us sick in bed 😩 Our kids gifted us there germs for Xmas & I was coughing my lungs out while hubby had a fever of 39.3 🤒 Not so romantic as 1999 😂
Remember coming home in taxi at sunrise, driver shared a spiff, he came into our pad for another, and to play the yet to be released iso of Gran Turismo 2 that I'd sourced the previous day... he wouldn't accept it as payment for the journey though 😂
i remember that one. went to bed early, woke up at some point, looked at the clock, noticed the streetlights were on and thought, yay the power didn't go out and went back to sleep.
(thank you to everyone who updated the software and fixed the bugs so things kept working)
7 months pregnant sitting at home, watching TV. My 21 month old toddler barely back to sleep, after having to to take him when I picked up my drunk hubby from the club.
I had a terrible flu that knocked me flat for a fortnight.
R and my BFF went to Sparks in the Park, but came home early to let off the fireworks we’d stashed from Guy Fawkes with me (I feel like that was a new and naughty thing in AoNZ).
Then we shared the bottle of beer I’d bought in Belgium.
It had not travelled well, and even though it was a small bottle, I’m not sure we finished it.
(The beer was Delerium Tremens, which wasn’t available here back then. I looked it up to show the bottle, but the pink elephant is nowhere near as cute nowadays days as it was back then.)
I was living in browns bay, akl with then BF. We waited & waited for a bus to get into the city.
Then gave up & walked home to watch the fireworks on TV.
Hung out at my boyfriends flat with the couple he lived with. She filled the bath with water and unplugged everything "just in case". Drank a lot of Jim Beam.
We went up to Edinburgh for a house party at a family friend's place. From 11pm we all buggered off outside to go and stand outside the castle where Texas were headlining, and they sounded fucking great, even from outside the venue. Was a lot of fun.
Comments
It didn’t.
Also spent a lot of time wondering about the friend who made us all promise to go in the basement with our families if we heard trumpets sounding from the heavens at midnight.
Big crowd, pool for hygiene, tents on the lawn, lots of bbqs, morning doves and aviary with baby quail, card games and board games...
Let off fireworks in the road out front.
SibK went inside at midnight to be with Nana, just in case it went to custard.
Nana was in an armchair, watching the fireworks.
Next day, to Waipu for the international strongman games.
They were launching industrial scale fireworks from tubes about a meter from the pathway...
- Went to a house party
- Drank way too much SoCo and ginger ale
- Got fascinated by a toilet with a heated seat and bidet
- Threw up out the passenger window of my Saturn SC2 while The Bends was on CD player
- 2 cops by Capitol Records Tower said look at that guy
It rained. We had plans but … it was really pelting down. (Auckland)
What was happening in Onehunga?
I remember partying like it though
Turned up late to something at Auckland domain in the rain is all I remember.
Imagine that happening today!!!
I was 4.
It snowed.
I had already left Queenstown for Auckland airport, but my kids told me it snowed while they watched the fireworks from on top of the gondola
Turns out I needed have worried that night.
It didn't kick in until lunch when UTC rolled over.
I had thought I had a better story about being out at Piha with my friend Boh, and buying torches in case the lights went out, but that must have been another time...
But I'm all good, what doesn't kill you, and all that garbage.
Foolishly moved into Whangarei due to 25 minute drive for work. 25 minutes? That like ‘down the road’ in Auckland. 🤣
Prepared for the apocalypse with ready salted chips and onion dip as a treat...
My son took his first steps with his grandparents, while I was laid up and puking from food poisoning like there was no tomorrow 🫤
We’d moved here in November, I was just home from 2nd OE. So broke we hitchhiked back to Rangiora/Christchurch for Christmas.
Back to Welly for New Years, friend I’d made being an Orc extra picked us up and took us to a flat party in Aro St. Instant friend-group!
I thought I recognized you!
We were filming just before Christmas, so my new friend and I amused ourselves through the long nights by singing carols to all the armies from Gondor and Rohan as they marched past on the way to their shots.
All the cooler people have parties at their mansions.
He responded, eventually, with "sorry, in bed with a hottie".
So I spent the early hours of 2000 wandering aimlessly around the "entertainment district" of Wellington, until the trains started.
Yet, still ended up meeting at McDonalds on Willis and Manners.
Then on to a blues venue and then fireworks on the harbour.
Memorable times.
Have a few nights bleeding into days…..
Personally I spent most of it avoiding having to socialise with people I didn't know as much as possible by hanging out in their garden
(I had Rey on the 9th)
It's a very pure sort of "fan created" event, in that way. Until a promoter thinks there is money involved, buys the license, then goes bankrupt.
I got paid lots of £££ to sit about watching tv
Dancing in the rain was lots of fun (tho I should’ve packed gumboots and more socks).
We went to the big public gathering but left early because my ex-military friend got BAD VIBES
We went to a restaurant associated w her fiancé & drank & danced until nearly dawn
(Fun fact: she kind of predicted 9/11 in 1999. O B-Laden was on her radar)
I beg to differ!!
https://youtu.be/lPkSxqGbQTE
Remember coming home in taxi at sunrise, driver shared a spiff, he came into our pad for another, and to play the yet to be released iso of Gran Turismo 2 that I'd sourced the previous day... he wouldn't accept it as payment for the journey though 😂
Then got horrendously sunburned the next day.
(thank you to everyone who updated the software and fixed the bugs so things kept working)
R and my BFF went to Sparks in the Park, but came home early to let off the fireworks we’d stashed from Guy Fawkes with me (I feel like that was a new and naughty thing in AoNZ).
Then we shared the bottle of beer I’d bought in Belgium.
(The beer was Delerium Tremens, which wasn’t available here back then. I looked it up to show the bottle, but the pink elephant is nowhere near as cute nowadays days as it was back then.)
Then gave up & walked home to watch the fireworks on TV.