Travel

Last week saw us down in the Snowy Mountains. Staying at Angler's Reach and skiing at Mt Selwyn. We drove down on the Saturday, arriving in the early evening. On the Sunday we just relaxed in our cottage - going out only briefly for a wander down to Lake Eucumbene - the water level hasn't improved since last year - in fact it's probably a little bit lower (so it's ridiculously low). On the Monday we went up to Mt Selwyn in the morning. The weather was rough - low visibility, drizzle - yuck. We decided to go skiing in the afternoon - to avoid getting soaked and giving up by lunch time. So to kill some time we drove up to Cabramurra - the highest town in Australia. There's not a lot there - but they did have a general store/coffee shop so that kept us occupied for an hour or so. They had some great photos of Land Rovers from the 1950's working on the Snowy Hydroelectric project. In the afternoon we put the kids into ski school so Caroline and I had a nice afternoon skiing without them (oops - should I say that?). In fact we had such a nice time that we put them into a full day of ski school on the Tuesday - so we had 1.5 days in total of skiing sans petit enfants - nice! On the Wednesday we took it in turns to ski with Dave and look after Chels. On the Thursday we had a late start, toboganning a bit in the morning, Chels in ski school in the afternoon which meant Dave, Caroline and I could then ski together. Dave's skiing is coming along nicely - he certainly has absolutely no fear when it comes to launching himself down steep blue runs at high speed. In fact he needs to be a bit more cautious (like his old and weary parents). Apart from the not so good weather on the first day we then had absolutely glorious days - sunny, crystal clear and cold! In fact one morning while driving up to the ski fields the car registered an outside temperature of -7C... now that's nippy. As usual I managed to take some photos just click HERE and go to '2010'.

I've finally found a spare moment to post some photos HERE from a trip I made to New York in early June.

I was over there for a meeting in a place called Palisades New York - just across the Hudson river (and up a bit) from Manhattan. It's just over the state line from New Jersey (and it showed). The place where I stayed was a custom built executive 'retreat' - complete with accommodation, meeting rooms etc. It was on a property stuck out in the woods - sort of an executive concentration camp. I came away with the distinct impression that I'll never complain about going to Poughkeepsie again - by comparison Poughkeepsie is the height of culture and entertainment. The place I stayed was probably really fashionable in 1980's corporate America - but now it is showing its age. Good food though - tons of the stuff - ridiculous quantities of it in fact.

The weekend before I stayed down in Manhattan at the Hilton. 1335 Avenue of the Americas between West 53rd and West 54th. Only a few blocks down from Central Park. I hadn't stayed there before, usually staying close to Times Square. The hotel was fine and the location was excellent. Definitely the place to stay in future (assuming the Plaza isn't on the list!).

It was US Navy fleet week so I went over to visit USS Intrepid on the Saturday. I hadn't been over to see her for years - since well before Concorde arrived on a barge (which was around 2003 I think). First stop Concorde - not sure how many Concordes I've been on now - but it must be close to at least half of the fleet. Pity they've all been traveling at precisely Mach 0.0 when I've been on board. Arriving around 10am it wasn't too crowded, by the time I left around 12:30 the place was packed.

On the Sunday I got up ludicrously early due to jetlag and went for a long walk around Central Park. Every time I visit there I seem to see more of the park - it's a fantastic place I can see why New Yorkers love it. I then wandered over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in time for opening. Given it was Memorial Day weekend they didn't have a full staff on so some of the galleries were closed. Still plenty of stuff to see though - I was there for about 4 hours before I got all 'arted-out'. Next stop FAO Schwartz (I seem to do a similar circuit every time I visit Manhattan). They were filming for a movie or telly outside which made it tricky to get in. Once in it's still as small and fairly lame as ever - next time, mental note to go to Toys R'Us in Times Square instead - probably no better (from memory) but bigger.

Given I was running out of time (and it's free - one of the only corporate perks left) I visited the MoMA. To be honest apart from some Magrittes and a Chagall I found the rest of it a bit blah. That's about all I did - probably rather pathetic compared with what most folks can pack into a weekend in Manhattan - I blame the jetlag (and I've seen most of it before anyway). I hope you enjoy the photos (filed under "2010").

Today we drove out to Oberon. a small town (village really) about 2.5 hours west of Sydney. I've flown over the place many times and had been there once before with Dave after we'd been camping near Kanangra Walls. It's a nice place - the trees in particular are spectacular in autumn (so we missed that).

They had a vintage steam festival on at the local footy grounds. Beautiful weather - nice to get the hell out of Sydney which has been suffering (along with me) with horrid humidity for the past month or so. I think we missed the majority of the exhibits as the main parade had been held the day before. There was still a bit there however. It was good to see some traction engines steaming around and we even saw a Series I Land Rover. The kids had fun though it was a long trip there and back. That's the price you pay for living in a country with not much in it outside of the capital cities (that can be a good and bad thing). I took a few photos just click on 2010 and you'll see them HERE.

Earlier this evening David and I returned from a trip out west. We'd been out to Temora for the weekend. It's a long drive there and back - the car managed to clock up an additional 1050 KMs or thereabouts. We went out to see the airshow at the Temora Aviation Museum.

The museum runs a weekend long airshow every few months, this weekend being the last for 2009. We drove out on Saturday morning - getting there by about 3pm (after stopping at McDonald's in Yass to stock up on calories). Accommodation (with a bed and a roof) in Temora had been booked out long in advance (all two motels that is) so we knew we'd be camping. The 'camp site' at the airfield turned out to be a postage stamp sized piece of ground already occupied with caravans and what looked to be a flock of air cadets.

Doing a bit of research before we left home I worked out there are no national parks (na notional parks perhaps) or other decent camping areas within at least a two to three hour drive of Temora. So things were looking a bit grim. Where to go? This is western New South Wales we're talking about - an area covered in a lot of wheat fields (so private land) but not much else. Luckily I'd wandered about (virtually) in Google Earth last week and a place called Combaning Forest caught my attention. About 20 minutes from Temora it's a NSW State Forest which means camping is legal there unless otherwise sign posted. So off we went. It was approaching twilight by our arrival. Driving off the main road and up a dirt track (out of view of the serial killers) we parked the car at a small clearing. All around were broken bottles, bits of charred and twisted metal and (what we only found out later) a large pile of animal excrement and bones (of animals?). The place had all the ambiance of the Blair Witch Project. I half expected some local to rock up in his ute, complete with shotgun and not particularly endearing sociopathic tendencies. Sort of a melange of 'Bob' from Twin Peaks, John Jarratt from Wolf Creek and Ivan Milat.

That being the case I decided against putting the tent up. Camping in a designated camp ground is fine (I'm not talking yucky caravan parks here). Camping out in the middle of nowhere is also fine as long as it's in effect in the 'wilderness'. Camping just off the side of a road in a state forest isn't such a wise move. NSW state forests haven't had shall we say a spotless record when it comes to safety. So... we car camped! Dave stretched out on the back seat with his pillow and sleeping bag and I had the driver's seat (so we could make a quick getaway!). Well, that was fun... not. After rustling and wriggling around for a couple of hours Dave finally went into a deep sleep and was relatively quiet. I on the other hand didn't get to sleep till after midnight. I woke up a few times from some freaky nightmares, obviously induced by the anxiety of our situation. I was awake again by 5am. Well as you can tell we weren't carried off by some murdering loony. And the car was a lot less uncomfortable that I thought it would be - though I wouldn't want to ever do that again.

The weather on Saturday was glorious. On Sunday (most typically) it was colder, with scattered showers and a low cloud base. The museum didn't open till 10am so we had yet more time to kill - with absolutely nothing to do and nowhere to go David displayed the patience of a saint. What a brilliant 6 year old! I'm so proud of him - you can take him anywhere - 12 hours worth of driving, sleeping in a car, eating take-away food, killing time in a town not overwhelmed with tourist opportunities, watching an airshow through rain showers and high winds - with absolutely no complaints - amazing!

But I digress. We finally made it into the museum. At the start of the first air display we realised that the really strong westerly wind would cause problems - in that the takeoffs and landings would be on a runway basically out of sight of the crowd. With that in mind we ducked out of the museum and drove down to the end of the into-wind runway. From there we were treated to a great display - seeing some beautiful old aeroplanes take off and land. Not too many though as the weather was playing havoc. We decided to call it quits by about 1pm. Driving back to Sydney we again stopped at Macca's in Yass for a calorie feast, getting home before Chelsea went to bed.

It was certainly an interesting weekend - bit of an adventure really. I probably wouldn't rush back out to Temora but I'm sure we'll go back there at some stage - perhaps in winter when the weather might be a bit more stable. Anyway, it's not important - I've seen more aeroplanes and airshows than most people have had hot dinners - the highlight of the trip was spending a great weekend with my wonderful son David. Oh and as per usual - HERE are some photos. Enjoy!

p.s. I've now got one of these Spot messenger thingies. Basically it allows you to send a message to a bunch of e-mail addresses and mobile phones - either in an emergency situation, as a 'hello, I'm fine - just checking in' or as a real time track (viewable from a web page). I've already used it for some bushwalking and biking trips. It certainly helps Caroline know where I am. It's great technology for anyone who does outdoorsy type things and wants their loved ones to know they're OK. Have a look at the map below for our track to Temora:

Dad and Dave go to Temora

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I'm over here for a meeting next week (starting tomorrow actually). I arrived into JFK on Thursday night. Weather driving up to Poughkeepsie was as usual abysmal. It always seems to be the same. Driving rain, high winds, low visibility, lots of traffic: glacial through Queens, heavy through The Bronx, mad up through Westchester County. Just the usual.

Forcing myself to get straight into the timezone (very difficult given I'd flown economy class - ah, the 'GFC' what fun!) I woke up the next morning at 05:30, went to the gym, then spent the day shopping - clothes for the munchkins at Woodbury Common and over to Gander Mountain for some hiking stuff (not much there actually). Gander Mountain is rather freaky - it's Red Neck central - dang! You go in there and you hear things like this over the P.A. "Shawna to the firearms section' and 'hey, can I get a price check on this shotgun'. There are so many similarities here to Australia and the UK but sooo many differences too. Frankly it's a bit of a scary place.

Yesterday again I got up at a ludicrously early hour, went to the gym and was down at the train station in New Hamburg by 06:30 ready to catch the train down to NYC. I got in to Grand Central Terminal (that's its real name, not 'Grand Central Station' (I"m sure you always wanted to know that)) at 08:27 (to be precise). It's on 42nd street. I walked from there (mostly up Park Avenue because it's empty that time of day) all the way to the American Museum of Natural History (via Central Park) which is on Central Park West at 79th Street. Walking past the Dakota Building outside which John Lennon was murdered. So a walk of around 5 to 6 kilometres. I thought it opened at 09:30 - I got there about 09:35. It actually opened at 10:00 so I could have ambled. Once it did open I saw 'Journey to the Stars' in the planetarium. A great show about the Sun and stars in general - the only downsides being one bit where they showed a supernova which was so bright it felt like it was burning my retinas out (I've had LASIK surgery so I know what lasering one's eyes feels like) and it was narrated by Whoopie Goldberg (yuck). Why they couldn't have found an astrophysicist with a decent voice (so maybe not Stephen Hawking) I don't know.

I didn't stick around to look at much else as time was passing so I headed back across Central Park. I've walked through Central Park many times but had never seen the Angel fountain that you see in so many films. This time I walked straight past it as I wandered over to the Metropolitan Museum. I always love The Met. Definitely one of the world's best art galleries, right up there with the Louvre. I wandered around the Egyptian stuff - very nice, saw the suits of armour (always a favourite) and then went past my favourite paintings. Monet's "Garden at Sainte-Adresse" being one of my favourites. Also Gerome's 'Almeh with Pipe', Klimt's Mäda Primavesi, Breughel's The Harvesters and Georges de La Tour's "The Penitent Magdalen". Great stuff!

After I'd had my fill of culture I headed back out, walking down 5th avenue all the way to F.A.O. Schwartz. What a disappointment (I've been there several times before so I shouldn't have been surprised). It's definitely not as good since they've rennovated it and it's not a patch on the size of Hamley's in London. Toys are all made in China these days - so whether you are in New York, London or Sydney you'll pretty much find the same toys everywhere. The curse of globalization I suppose. So the kids wound up with bugger all! They've already scored incredibly well in the clothes department on this trip so I don't feel too bad - though I'll try and find them something nice before I head back home next Saturday. Empty handed I then walked all the way back down to Grand Central Terminal in time for the 14:45 train back up to New Hamburg. Not a bad day really - the rain held off, was nowhere near as cold as they forecast (so I ended up a lot warmer than I needed to be). I've taken a load of photos - some of them can been seen here just click on '2009', they're on page 2. You might notice that some of the photo comments have been truncated - that's because of the software I'm using - I might fix it eventually!

A couple of weeks back was our 10th wedding anniversary - we spent it sans petit enfants (thanks to Granny) down the south coast at a beautiful spot called Bawley Point (about 20 mins south of Ulladulla). Highlights were mountain biking on nearby trails and a climb of Pigeon House Mountain. For some photos click here, select 2009 etc.

Last weekend found us down in the Snowy Mountains for a ski weekend at Mount Selwyn.
I took David down to Mount Selwyn last year - for an introduction to the snow and a day of toboganning. This year it was Chelsea's turn to toboggan and David stepped up to two days of skiing. On the first day we had a two hour private ski lesson with our instructor (James from Windsor). David quickly took to the skis - apparently he was 'a natural'. Certainly his balance was great, he had no trouble getting on and off the chair lift and by day two he was skiing down the hill by himself, without poles, without falling over - excellent! On the first day the weather was bearable - firm snow tending to soggy by afternoon. The second day the weather was lousy - the snow wet and soggy, raining, foggy - dismal! We only skied for about an hour on day two, on day one we were skiing for around 4 hours - pretty good going for a 5 1/2 year old! Caroline got to climb up and down the toboganning hill all day with Chelsea - so next year we'll take it in turns (Chelsea will still be too young to ski). A very nice weekend - driving home through Namadgi National Park, showing the girls Mount Clear camping ground and taking the kids to the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve for a play at the great playground there.

Just click HERE to see some photos (select 2009 then it should be easy to spot!).

Mid September to early October saw us on holidays in France and the UK. Flying with Qantas from Sydney to Singapore we taxied into Changi, passing Qantas' first Airbus A380. The aeroplane was on its ferry flight from Europe to Sydney. So we saw this historic aeroplane before it landed in Australia - that was cool.
We then changed flights to an Air France Boeing 777-300ER for the flight to Charles de Gaulle. Both kids were really good on these flights - it's helped that this is David's third long haul flight to the Europe (all before he was 5 years old) and Chelsea has been to New Zealand and Perth. Landing in Paris we picked up our hire car (a Peugot 407 - all our luggage just squeaked in). We had a villa booked at a Marriott resort next to Disneyland Paris. Luckily the villa was ready for us, so after a quick shower and change we drove into Paris. Parking near Parc du Champs de Mars we walked up to the Eiffel tower. We then queued for well over an hour and finally headed up to the second level. After some photos we finally made it to the top. Next day - Disneyland Paris - the kids loved it (that's the most positive thing I have to say!). Leaving the area the next day we headed down to our second destination via the relatively new Millau Bridge - an amazing feat of engineering. We had a house booked in the little village of Poilhes in Languedoc - right next to the Canal du Midi. While down in this part of the world Dave and I visited the Airbus A380 facility at Toulouse Blagnac airport. We saw several A380's in construction - including the soon to be finished second A380 for Qantas. We also visited Carcassone and the ruined chateaux at Peyrepertuse. We only had 4 nights in Poilhes (which was OK as the place was nosiy - even if it was a small village - it was harvest time and tractors and trucks roamed the roads and the village church rang its bells on the hour and half hour all day and all night - twice!).

Our next destination was Simiane La Rotonde - a small village in northern Provence. We had a beautiful villa in a beautiful little village. From here we visited Mont Ventoux, Avignon, Arles, Gordes and generally drove around the local region a fair bit. A lot of fuss has been made over Provence - some people likening it to some sort of nirvanic (is that a word?) heaven on earth. Well... I beg to differ. It's certainly a nice part of the world, very pretty, but there's not a great deal to do there (especially with young kids) and just simple things like buying groceries is a hassle (as we often find in France). So while we enjoyed Provence I don't think we'd rush back.

We left France via Marseille airport, flying to Gatwick. From Gatwick we picked up our next hire car - a crummy Vauxhall Safira (even though we'd booked a VW Passat). I drove us in the driving rain (and darkness) down to our next destination - a cottage we had rented in a small spot called Talybont-on-Usk in the Brecon Beacons. We had a great 5 days here - visiting Mary and Danny and Mary and Mostyn, going shopping to Cardiff without the kids (we usually only going shopping sans petit enfants biennially in Cardiff - on the other side of the planet!). Our final stop was with Caroline's cousin Linda in London. We took the kids to the Tower of London and as it was David's 5th birthday that week we took him to the mega toy shop Hamleys.

The flight back was again a piece of cake - which is amazing considering we were traveling with two small kids. On reflection it was a lovely holiday - in many respects I wish it had been longer - there were so many things we didn't get to do as time was short. However spending 3 weeks away from home, doing a lot of driving, and living in various different locations is hard work on young kids so by the end of the holiday we were all ready to come home again.

To check out some of the photos we took just click on this GALLERY link, select 2008 then, France/UK holiday 2008. Enjoy!