Mates make annual date

MARIA PRIESTLEY
Good friends, good drinks, good times.
Cosying up at your favourite table at the Napier Cosmopolitan Club with a few brews, some good tucker and 30 of your closest mates is the perfect way to spend New Year's Eve, this group of merry mates believes.
And they should know - most of them have been doing it for about 15 years, the group's "organiser", Richard Cross, says.
"We have a few drinks, we get up and dance, we have a good time," says Richard, who has been a member of the club for 20 years.
Richard and his cousin, who is also attending the festivities, are fourth-generation family members to be regular cossie club patrons. New Year's Eve is no exception to the family tradition.
Richard, a partner at Napier law firm Willis Toomey Robinson and the club's lawyer, has arrived at the club with wife Laureen in tow some time before eight o'clock on December 31, every year without fail, for 15 years.
"And we've only had rain twice," Richard says.
The warm weather is an incentive to nab their regular hot spot out on the deck where they can "ooh" and "ahh" at the Marine Parade fireworks, which begin just after midnight.
"The fireworks usually explode just outside the club. We figure we've got the best view in town," Richard says.
Most of the group is usually too busy waiting on the deck for the fireworks to begin to sing Auld Lang Syne but they always manage a few celebratory embraces between friends when the clock strikes midnight.
Their yearly celebration must be doing the trick - Richard is not rushing to make any New Year resolutions, instead he's raising his glass to "another good 15 years", he says.
The Cossie Club has entertainment from 3pm today, including Uncle Bill's Variety Show and local band Nite Beat.