Summer's just around the corner

Sydney's warming up for summer, and I'm warming up for how FAB this city becomes when the sun's out and the festival season begins. There's nowhere else in the world I'd rather be in January than Sydney! But first of all, a quick update on the last few weeks.

Since my trip to NZ with dad I've been suffering from post-holiday skintness, making my social life revolve around free (or very cheap) things, so nothing too extravagant. First up I was lucky enough to get invited to see Patti Smith at the Sydney Opera House.

The wonderful Patti

This woman is truly legendary, she's well into her sixties, and was rocking like she was back in the punk era. The whole of the concert hall was a-buzz with Patti adoration and the crowd was a generous and warm-hearted one. This was definitely up there in the top ten gigs of my life. She played all the classics and was a charismatic and talkative performer. Her son joined her on stage playing guitar, and he looked so square and stiff compared with the old rockers that surrounded him.

Some art deco

A couple of weeks ago the Historic Houses Trust (the equivalent of the National Trust in the UK) held Sydney Open, a day when architectural wonders across the city are open to the public (a little like Open House Weekend in London). Although the history of this city is relatively young the architecture has been splendidly preserved through the years. I saw some fantastic art deco buildings, the inside of the commonwealth bank vault, a masonic lodge and Australia's oldest synagogue.

As well as the older stuff I queued for an hour to see the new Lumiere building -- a block of apartments designed by Norman Foster Architects (the great minds behind several amazing buildings such as the Gherkin in London and the new airport in Hong Kong). The building is actually half apartments and half hotel, and I took a tour round both halves. I have to say it was quite possibly one of the most vile buildings I have ever seen, although there were some occasional nice touches. The foyer was black and imposing, blocky, severe and uninviting. The furnished apartments were garish, busy, and overbearing, with no thought to the realities of living in the city. The penthouse was a cool $8 million, although for $2 million less you could have a 'warm shell' (a blank canvass of an apartment with no decor, no fixtures or fittings, nothing). I would have much rather had the empty one and created my own space. Still, the swimming pool was pretty cool.

Lumiere post room

Looking down on the dining room

The cool pool

Anyway, apart from that, I've joined a gym, and am frantically cramming in as many pilates classes as possible before bikini season starts in earnest. And what about that skinny kid with the funny name that's just become the next US president? Aint that something?

Hope, as seen on Bondi Road

cx

Guest blogger!

Well folks, I introduce you to my first ever guest blogger -- Flat Eric.

"Howdy all, it's Flat Eric here. You may remember my star turn in that Levis ad, but now I'm retired and living in Pocklington with Caitlin. That is, until I decided to go on My Great Big Antipodean Adventure!

First stop was Sydney in Australia, to see Caitlin's sister Carmel. And what a beautiful city it is -- built around a stunning harbour, with lots of original buildings from the first settlers preserved, and some great pubs. Just five minutes walk from her house is the most beautiful clifftop walk. Just look at this view!



I went to the zoo to see Koalas and Kangaroos -- they were so cute! Marsupials are very strange though, I don't think I could hang out with them too much. But the monkeys on the other hand, they were cool...






I also took a trip to the Blue Mountains, where I climbed a giant mountain, saw some great waterfalls, and travelled up the world's steepest railway.







Then I decided to go on a Great Big Kiwi Adventure, and took a plane to New Zealand to see what I could find. NZ is a country to the East of Australia, made up of two islands. I'd heard the South Island was the best, so I headed there.

First of all I was amazed by how beautiful the country was -- I stayed in some cool places where you could have spent the whole day just staring out of the window, it was so gorgeous.



Of course that would have been boring, so instead I headed out to see if I could make some friends.



I did a lot of walking in NZ -- up hills, around crater rims, through rainforests. I had sturdy walking boots and was well-equipped for even the harshest of conditions.



Here I am overlooking the city of Christchurch.




And here I am having a spot of lunch overlooking some old Gun Emplacements. Not sure why the people of NZ thought they'd be attacked, but you never know...




Some walks were so windy I thought I would get blown away, so I held on for dear life!



Sustenance is always essential on such trips. I was never without a large supply of muesli bars.




In Lake Tekapo I made friends with a sheepdog at the Church of the Good Shepherd -- he was very friendly and protective.



As we ventured further South it became very cold, until we eventually encountered snow! Here I am building a snowman.



I became a most intrepid adventurer. I skippered a boat on the Milford Sound...




I climbed mountains...



Hid in tussocks...




Went caving.



One of my favourite adventures was walking on Fox Glacier... I had to have a sturdy Gandalf stick to help me walk on the 200-metre deep ice, and I nearly fell into a crevasse, but it was a totally awesome day.






Travelling is fun -- people in hostels are so friendly, it's easy to just follow your nose around New Zealand and make your decisions about what to do on a day-to-day basis. The hostels are so well kitted out, and I could check my emails, keep in touch with friends from home, even play chess and entertain my fellow guests with the guitar. I could definitely get used to this life!





The beer in New Zealand was great too! I even found one specially brewed for me: Little Creatures.




But as much as I loved New Zealand it was great to come back to Sydney and stay with Carmel for a few more days before heading home to the UK. I caught some rays in Bondi...



Built myself a sandcastle...



And took a boat on the harbour.




Thanks Carmel for a great adventure! Love, Eric."

Oops...

Yes, Americans, you have a duty...

cx

The perils of New Zealand

Despite what I may have led you to believe in my last post on New Zealand, it's not all just stunning vistas and impossibly friendly people. Oh no. New Zealand may be very different from Australia, but it is also extremely perilous, and we encountered many scary-looking warning signs as we journeyed round the country.



Take this for example, a road sign not encountered in any country previously, warning us of fluffy little penguins who may attempt to cross the road.




Or this helpful illustration of the perils of cycling near Christchurch's tram tracks.




This very scary-looking sign was placed at the base of the Fox Glacier. Our guides ignored this with willful abandon, assuring us that 'danger' was the Kiwi word for 'press on', as we climbed over the barrier and continued our trek to the mass of ice before us.

Many of our walks took us to remote places with beautiful views and stunning scenery. But we were never allowed to forget the perils of such terrain -- it may have looked beautiful, but beneath its exterior lay hostility and... peril!






On the top of Mount John the wind blew so ferociously we were in danger of being blown away completely...




... and on the Crater Rim walk we might have been obscured forever in the undergrowth.




I armed myself against the perils of the glacier...




Protected myself with stylish waterproof clothing against the perils of Milford Sound's waterfalls...




And wore layers of wetsuit and boilersuit while caving in icy, rocky tight squeezes.




The animals were also very dangerous. Australia may have the 10 deadliest snakes and spiders, but only New Zealand has the Kea. A large rainforest parrot that likes to nibble at the rubber round car doors and play on air vents above campervans. Scary!




Here we see proof that the warnings really are real -- rocks have fallen across the road, right near a danger sign.



So you see, we were dicing with death on our trip round the South Island -- I feel privileged to have returned home with my life.

cx

Wedding bells are a-ringing!

While I am here in Sydney, freshly returned from my New Zealand trip and mooching about on the weekend with friends, my good friends Sam McNabb and Liz Kerr are getting married back in London. I miss you both loads and wish you well on this special day. Can't wait to see the photos although I'm sure it will make me sad and wish I could have been there. It was great reading your adventures in South America and I can't believe your wedding day is here already! How time flies. Have a wonderful wonderful day and get Dom to give you big hugs from me. Lots of love and hope to see you really soon.




Love and wedding wishes,
cx

I *heart* New Zealand

Well folks, I'm now back home in Sydney after an incredible holiday in New Zealand, as I mentioned in my hastily-scribbled post a couple of weeks ago. I am back in body, although I'm still in NZ in spirit at the moment, as I don't start back at work until tomorrow. Dad and I had a fantastic time, New Zealand is a beautiful country, and I feel relaxed and refreshed after our trip.

Tramping near Christchurch

I left my BlackBerry charger at home, so had no contact with the outside world for two whole weeks (apart from the odd sneak into an internet cafe to check the rugby scores and bank balance!) and although this perturbed me at first, internet junkie that I am, I ended up embracing it, and discovering my inner naturalist*. Time moves more slowly in New Zealand, distances are longer, people are friendlier, and you can't rush about because you have to stop every five minutes to pick your jaw up off the ground where it's dropped at the stunning scenery. We hired a car and drove around the South Island for two weeks, and every windy hilly corner that we turned brought another breathtaking vista.

With dad near Lake Hawea

Not content with chilling out entirely, we filled our time with lots of outdoor pursuits, including lots of tramping, which as I mentioned before means hiking in the rainforest and mountains. All walking tracks in NZ start with a hefty uphill schlep, but it's worth it once you clear the bushline (get above the rainforest) and can see all across the valleys.

Snow!

New Zealand is so vast and untouched by humanity that travelling round some of the areas is like going back in time to prehistoric eras. Many of the valleys were created by glaciers and then filled with sea water to create fjords, and remnants of glacial scraping is still evident on the rocky walls of the fjords. We took the opportunity to walk on an actual glacier, carving out steps in the ice and marvelling at the fact that we had over 200 metres of compressed ice underneath us, and yet the rainforest was just a 30 second walk away!

In a glacial cave

While we were away my dad celebrated his 50th birthday, which I exploited with many ageist jokes etc. For his present I took him caving, with an old guy called Ray who showed us round a set of caves which were only discovered in the 80s. The morning had seen a large rainfall and the caves were gushing with icy water, which soaked us as crawled through the small gaps in the caves. It was scary and exciting, a great birthday present.

Dad getting soaked while caving

While I travelled I took the opportunity to speak to lots of locals and read lots of historical information about New Zealand. It's a relatively young country and its history is fascinating. From gold mining to eco tourism, the country has a colourful past, and promising future. I found myself extremely interested in the natural world there and learnt lots about the way NZ is protecting its environment. The saddest things we learnt were all about the destruction of native birdlife by animals introduced from Europe and Australia. Almost all land mammals in NZ are 'introduced', which means they are not native. The native flightless birds had no defence against the stoats, rabbits, possums and weasels brought over by white settlers and many have become extinct in the last hundred years. We did our bit by squishing some possums as we drove round the country.

Twisty lakeside roads formed much of our route

One of my favourite things about NZ is that much of it is like driving round Scotland, only a little larger. It felt like being back in the UK, and is surprisingly different from Australia. I loved the fact that we were there in Springtime, as the hills were heaving with sheep and little lambs. As we drove South the lambs got smaller and smaller, as the weather is colder so they were lambing later than the sheep up North. Lambs are so cute, and tasty too.

Tek care. Lambs on t'road

I'm going to blog a bit more about some of the 'perils of New Zealand' later on, but please take the time to check out my pictures on my flickr page (click the link and then click on a picture, you can then go through all of our NZ pics) -- Dad and I shared a camera and tried to capture as much as we could, although much of the scenery was too vast and stunning to sum up in a quick snap. Watch this space and you will also get the chance to hear from my first ever guest blogger...! Who will it be?...

It's good to be home to the sun and home comforts, but I did really enjoy relaxing and simply soaking up my surroundings, without worrying about work and the next thing I had to do. It was also great to hang out with my dad, who is usually so swept up with work himself, and family concerns, and rarely takes time out to chill, so it was a treat for us both. It was quite scary discovering how much we have in common -- always ordering the same in restaurants, finding the same things interesting, liking the same beers...! At least this made us a very easygoing pair of travel companions, as we were usually happy to do the same things, (apart from when I spent an afternoon reading my book while dad went to some dodgy transport museum!). I'm sure dad will retain more facts that we learnt, and pass these on to you all back home in the UK, lucky you!

cx

[* Not to be confused with Naturist.]