rorytait

[rorytait]

Castlepoint

On the eastern coast of the North Island, far from the Wairarapa’s major population centres, sits Castlepoint and Deliverance Cove. This settlement is, despite its distance, a popular beach spot.

Its icon though, is the Lighthouse.

Further round the point is the beautiful Deliverance Cove (unfortunately tainted by that inconsiderate New Zealand past-time that is taking your planet-warming compensatory 4x4 ute onto the beach for the only off-roading it’ll do all year).

Just outside Castlepoint, at the even smaller settlement of Sandy Bay, are the Mataikona Rocks which are an interestingly geological formation.

[25 December 2022]

[rorytait]

Wellington Architecture: the Central Spine

Following Route 3 "the Central Spine" from John Walsh's "Wellington Architecture: A Walking Guide" I went for a wander through the western part of Wellington's city centre.

This post doesn't cover every building, or even the exact route, but I highly recommend the book for an interesting way of exploring the capital.

Starting with the Pukehinau Flats (1978) which remind me of LEGO.

Then I headed towards Aro Valley and it's mix of character properties and mid-20th century towers.

The First Church of Christ (1983) has seen better days, and actually since going on this walk, has now been demolished.

St John's (1885) now sits in contrast with 111 Dixon Street, one of Wellington's better examples of urban high density that isn't a flat glass box.

Further up Dixon Street are the Dixon Street Flats (1944). Built as some of the first apartment-based public housing in the country, these now Historic flats are still part of the Kāinga Ora's public housing stock.

Not that I'm huge on churches but St Mary of the Angels' (1922) is, in my opinion, Wellington's most grand. At least from the outside.

The Hibernian Building (1930, on the right) now marks one side of a small urban park along Willis Street, neighboured by the large Rita Angus mural.

There were many more buildings along the route with architectural interest but were either difficult to photograph or I had already captured them previously. Once again, highly recommend Walsh's book, there are also versions for Auckland and Christchurch now too!

[24 October 2022]

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Oriental Bay from Roseneath

From the summit of Mount Victoria, you can follow the Southern Walkway north to Roseneath for what I think are some of the best views of Oriental Bay and the harbour. And to top it off, you get to finish the walk by walking along the promenade by the shore.

[17 October 2022]

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More planespotting from Tirangi Road

After planespotting here back in May, I had to come again for a look. Just a couple of Air New Zealand planes today, the best of which were the ATR 72 and A320 seen below.

[26 September 2022]

[rorytait]

Sydney Park

On the way to the airport we stopped at Sydney Park for lunch, a walk, and some planespotting.

This is yet another place I hadn't been before, so it was cool to check it out.

[16 October 2022]

[rorytait]

Sydney Bus Museum

Where I stay in Sydney is only a short walk from the Sydney Bus Museum, but due to its unusual hours (only open the 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month) I had never visited. This time I was there on one of the open days so had to make the effort to go!

You can enter most of the buses inside, including double deckers which give you a great view over the depot hall and the sheer number of buses here!

There is a range of Sydney, Australian and even some international buses like this Hong Kong one!

The museum also puts on double decker bus rides as part of your entry ticket. These run into the city centre - however on ours we ended up heading over the Harbour Bridge as the driver missed his exit. I don't think anyone on board would've complained though - it's pretty special getting to cross the Harbour Bridge on an ancient London double decker bus!

[16 October 2022]

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Sydney: Ballast Point Park

From Ballast Point Park in Balmain there are some nice views across to the colourful boat houses and then the skyline behind. Balmain isn't the easiest inner-west suburb to access due to its location on a peninsula, but it is pretty adorable and worth the effort.

[rorytait]

Evening planespotting at SYD

After our day out at the HARS Aviation Museum, we stopped by Sydney Airport on the way home for some planespotting! We stood at the end of the Mascot Rock Jetty, accessible from Cook Park in Kyeemagh.

And finally a view from the opposite direction, of sunset on the beach:

[14 October 2022]

[rorytait]

A day trip to Woollongong & the HARS Aviation Museum

85km south of Sydney is Woollongong, an industrial port city. The drive down is very scenic through the Royal National Park.

Our main destination was the HARS Aviation Museum at Shellharbour Airport, but first we stopped by North Woollongong for lunch by the beach.

The HARS Aviation Museum has an extremely impressive collection of aircraft across a number of hangars. They are all packed in quite closely which makes it difficult to photograph but seeing them in person is very cool. You can go inside several of the planes too!

The airport is home to an old Qantas B747-400, still kitted out on the inside which you can tour. There are also wing-walks but I've done one of these previously at the Qantas Founders' Museum in Longreach.

After a lovely couple of hours being guided around by the volunteers, we started the drive home, stopping off at Stanwell Tops for this spectacular view looking back south.

[14 October 2022]

[rorytait]

Sydney: Barangaroo to Town Hall

It was fascinating to see Barangaroo have some actual life to it this time after visiting for years and it just being a dull mix of construction and half empty towers.

The passageway to Wynyard Station remains my favourite part of this area, but there is also some interesting architecture and public art appearing!

After walking through Barangaroo north to south, I headed east back towards Town Hall on George Street and a bus home.

[13 October 2022]

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Sydney: The Rocks

After taking the light rail up from Haymarket, I went for a wander around The Rocks, a preserved historic part of Sydney's city centre.

From Campbells Cove you get a good view back towards Circular Quay and the skyscrapers behind.

A lot of people find The Rocks too touristy to be enjoyable, and while I agree there is a commercialised touristy core, there's also plenty of streets away from that with a historic charm + great views.

I continued up from the shoreline to Observatory Hill, an underrated viewpoint in Sydney, in my opinion.

The sheer size of the Crown Towers in Barangaroo is evident from here.

With looming rain clouds I made it down to Barangaroo for the next part of my walk.

[13 October 2022]

[rorytait]

Sydney: Darling Quarter

Heading south from Darling Harbour itself is the freshly redeveloped Darling Quarter. Filled with interesting architecture, this district links the Harbour to Haymarket and Chinatown.

The Darling Square Library reminds me of a birds nest and somehow I've missed truly taking it in on previous visits so it was a must-do this time round. It also has a viewing deck on one of the upper floors which gives an interesting perspective on this dense part of the city.

Crossing into Haymarket, you come across the light rail, offering an efficient way to the north end of the city centre - my next stop.

[13 October 2022]

[rorytait]

Sydney: Pyrmont & Darling Harbour

Pyrmont is a formerly-industrial now mixed residential-commercial district filled with a mix of older heritage buildings alongside more modern buildings.

In many cases additions & renovations have mixed these two eras of construction for quite an attractive look.

Pyrmont sits on a peninsula, and as you round its tip to the eastern side, you start to see glimpses of the city, and in particular the massive Crown Towers complex in Barangaroo.

Once all the way around, you're on the shore of Darling Harbour with a clear view to this new office precinct. This was my first time in Sydney since Barangaroo has mostly been completed and no longer a ghost town - so I was looking forward to having a look around.

This harbour is also home to the Maritime Museum so there are a number of old ships, including a replica of Captain Cook's Endeavour.

I crossed the Pyrmont Bridge onto the city-side of the harbour and started wandering down towards Haymarket...

[rorytait]

Sydney: Wentworth Point & Metro adventures

Following my morning around Circular Quay I hopped on a ferry for the roughly hour-long ride to Wentworth Point. This high density suburb is just beside the Sydney Olympic Park and forms one of Sydney's many 'tower clusters' across the metro area.

There is a 'green bridge' (for pedestrians, cyclists & buses) over to Rhodes, where the main station is. After lunch with a friend, I crossed the bridge to catch one of Sydney's infamous double decker trains to connecting with the Sydney Metro North West at Epping.

From Epping's underground station I rode to Cherrybrook, which I was hoping would give me a chance to spot one of the Metro trains (the Alstom Metropolis model, like Montréal's new REM trains) out in the open.

With some difficulty I did manage to get a bit of a glimpse, but this is the downside with a line that's either below ground or on pillars - it is very hard to train spot!

On the way back to Chatswood, I was travelling counter peak and the train was pretty much empty. Which meant I got to enjoy the 'driver's seat' (since these trains are automated). I'll have to head out to ride again to the end of the line to experience the elevated portions.

From Chatswood it was an easy transfer to head back into the city, where I walked down George Street to complete my multimodal day with light rail photos.

[rorytait]

Sydney: Circular Quay

On my first full day, I headed into the city to visit the Museum of Sydney's "Unrealised Sydney" exhibition all about the different visions there had been for various parts of Sydney from the Rocks, to Darling Harbour to Woolloomooloo.

After this healthy dose of urbanist content I set out for a short wander at this more tourist-y end of the city.

Of course I had to take the lift up to the Cahill Expressway lookout for the ferry & bridge views.

By now I had figured out which ferry I was to take out to Wentworth Point to see a friend for lunch, so I had a couple more brief photo stops before jumping aboard.

[rorytait]

Sydney: Tamarama to Bondi

While on previous trips to Sydney I've driven the eastern beaches route, I've not walked much of the famed "Coogee to Bondi" walk - so this time I wanted to change that.

After arriving by train from Canberra, Tomm picked me up and we headed to Tamarama, where we started walking north in the late afternoon sun.

The lighting was perfect and the walk was gorgeous, so it was a really lovely way to start my stay.

[rorytait]

Canberra: An evening ride around the lake

On my last night in Canberra, I took a bike for a ride around the eastern portion of the lake. This turned out to be a bit of a highlight due to the variety of views and how quickly I got away from the city itself.

The National Carillon sits on a little island in the lake, recently renamed in memory of the Queen. It contains 57 bells and chimes every 15 mins.

It was impressive that for essentially the whole route there was a proper cycle track.

I went through Kingston, a modern 'canals' style development full of upmarket apartments and restaurants, before following the busier lakeshore paths back.

[10 October 2022]