Maz Compton didn't stay up for midnight on New Year's Eve and she doesn't regret it at all.

I stayed in on New Year’s Eve and it was awesome.

First of all, January 1st 2017 marks two years since I’ve had a drink and I feel pretty chuffed about that accomplishment. In fact, it blows people’s minds when I tell them that yes I have managed to enjoy myself, be social, have fun times and not get wasted for two years.

New Year is always a big deal. Perhaps less so the older one gets but still everyone always asks you what you did and was it the best night ever? It’s like this social rite of passage we have with each other where half the time people are probably going to places for NYE just to tell the story the next day.

Again, perhaps less as you get older. The perception that you had an incredible, out of this world NYE is important right? And the pressure to do something amazing is definitely still there.

Happy New Year. From Bali with love xoxo ????

A photo posted by mazcompton (@mazcompton) on Dec 31, 2016 at 3:42am PST

December 31st, I find myself, for the second year in a row sitting in an Italian restaurant in South East Asia with my fiancée. Last year it was in Phuket, Thailand, before buying our own fireworks and setting off a love lantern across the ocean at midnight. (Ours blew over in the wind and was accidentally set completely on fire and burned into a pile of ash, by the way, of which we had to put out by kicking sand onto it).

This year it’s Seminyak, Bali. Between sips of my custom mocktail and shudders from the very close range fireworks being set of every 10 seconds from literally across the street, it was the perfect setting for a lovely NYE dinner.

We chatted about the year gone by, the year ahead, the twists and the turns that we never predicted, the upcoming nuptials and we decided to do things a little differently, which is becoming a theme. (Post continues after gallery.)

Sure, seeing the clock tick over to midnight on brand a new day, in a fresh new year is a thing. A special moment in time. A moment of glimmering hope that things will change or perhaps stay the same. That we will grow, heal, find, shed, dream, forgive, let go, move on, move forward. It’s a moment celebrated by many of us.

What about seeing the first sunrise, in a brand new year? Now that’s a moment that many of us miss due to the celebrations about the clock ticking version. But that’s what I opted for this year, this year being 2017.

The day ended like many do when taking in some much needed and well deserve down time in Bali. A beautiful dinner, a stroll home past the rice fields and cows to our villa perfectly positioned villa. Close enough to the madness yet just far enough away to escape it with ease.

The consistent offers of ‘transport, transport’ fly past from locals riding motorbikes and for some reason the offer to buy Xanax and Valium?! All to which the response is, ‘No thanks!’

Don’t go chasing waterfalls. #bali #2017 #rafting #rapids

A photo posted by mazcompton (@mazcompton) on Dec 28, 2016 at 1:20am PST

I was happy to be walking into the comfort of a villa, as others flooded the street with new frocks, crisp yet damp due to the humidity shirts and the hot anticipation of the wildest night painted on their sweet faces. It felt like I was handing over the baton as I peeled off the street as they were littered with people, everywhere, ready to let down their hair.

I tied mine up as I showered and slipped into my robe and jumped into bed. A nightcap of Netflix and then sweet dreams well before the clock struck midnight was my heaven on the last day of 2016. Now, trying to sleep between all the bangs (thanks to cheap fireworks) and the banging (thanks to our neighbours) was difficult at first. I eventually did fall asleep only to be woken, at I assume midnight, by an insane ruckus of explosions, cheers, music, noise and chaos all of which died down after a few minutes so I could return to my resting place.

5am New Years Day my alarm went off.

Leaving the comfort of my comfy bed and PJs so early on what is for the most part everyone’s official day off felt weird and wonderful. Greeted by empty streets and a hush across the village, interrupted by the odd drunk foreign couple loudly skyping their family overseas.

Beach to their own! Beach club days. All day. #balilife #2017

A photo posted by mazcompton (@mazcompton) on Dec 31, 2016 at 10:29pm PST

We arrived at the beach well before the sun was due to rise and it was really peaceful. The New Year Day waves crashing lightly on the sand and no no-one else around to ruin it. We settled into a prime spot on the beach and waited for the sun to rise through trees. It lit up the sky. It lit up my heart.

To be so present, for the first sunrise of the year and to mark such an exciting moment. Letting go of the pressure of 2016, the ups and downs, the dreamy moment and the disappointments, the doors that opened and the ones that closed.

And to look out across the ocean with fresh eyes as the sun came up, with a new hope, new ideas, new vision, a full heart and a juicy big smile, to be available to soak that all in, in a moment, now that was really special. I feel like I truly have seen in the New Year and am ready to take on all that it brings.

After the sun was up, we strolled to one of a fave café’s which was just opening, a breakfast order of Acai Smoothie bowls immediately after our New Year bliss, sitting in a deserted cafe with One Republic and Fort Minor as the soundtrack, it just couldn’t have been a more perfect to start to 2017.