New Years at the Fay's Great Mercury Island

Here’s an excerpt from the wonderful account by Will and Dana Rousmaniere – backpackers invited by Michael and Sarah Fay to spend a few weeks visiting their remarkable island retreat.

New Year’s

We spent New Year’s Eve on the island, and attended the Fay’s annual party for the “boaties”: a rip-roaring dance-hall night complete with flashing neon lights, dueling djs, hip flasks, cannon blasts, dances under a billion stars, and a 2 a.m. breakfast of bacon & eggs. Will stayed up and joined the younger Fays in welcoming the New year sunrise, one of the first in the world. New Year’s Eve festivities were followed by a New Year’s Day beach outing. The Fays and Richwhites loaded up various boats with their fifty-ish guests, dogs, and baskets and baskets of food, and ferried them to a white beach on the far end of the island. We rang in 2003 with a Gatsby-esque scene of women in white pants and straw hats sipping Pims under Pahutakawa trees on the beach. We met some really wonderful people from all around the world.

For more on Will and Dana’s adventures check out their website The Roaming Year 2002-2003