Boome colors

From beautiful wine country to deep dark magical caves, it was then off to Broome. I am completely obsessed with the natural colours of western Australia. The crisp blue skies, the green foliage and then the rich red dirt. Totally unique, unlike anything I've seen. This beach so typically showed these typical colours that I went snap crazy.

Dragons and darkness

During our road trip we ventured down into the depths of the earth. Literally. Down some 300 or more steps it was all fun and games on the way down. I've never seen caves before so I was mesmerized if not a little scared. We went to Lake Cave, one of many at Margaret River. It was amazing and hearing about the history was so interesting. It was incredible to think that in the 1900's a little girl decided that it was a good idea to travel into dark caves to see what was in there. Her bravery back then worked to my benefit. I also like the idea that no cave is complete without a dragon, which this cave had. See if you can spot it in my pictures. Then we had to climb back up the stairs. That was NOT fun.

Wine Country

Frist stop on our visit to Australia was down south of Perth to Margaret River. As Perth is so small we wanted to see something new and Hipster Dufus wanted to show me where he holidayed when he was a young boy. The only sad thing about it was that this is the second time we've travelled to a wine region where Hipster Dufus can not fully enjoy the benefit of the experience. While I would make the perfect designated driver (I don't drink wine) I don't know how to drive. Nevertheless we survived, picking up a few bottles along the way and bringing them back to New York with us.

Fabulous

Finally I've managed to shake off the jet lag from Australia, catch up on pressing issues and sift through the mountains of photos I took. I really tried to be careful but I did see a lot of new things this time round and loved getting in the practice after a few months of no inspiration. As these were obviously far too many photos for just one post over the next couple of weeks I will be posting digital albums of the various regions of Australia (and Dubai) that we explored. 

But I really wanted to just start with the flight there. For the first time ever I got to experience a business class flight and wow! It's hard to think that people spend this much money on just one trip. But I have to say of all the flights that you want to travel in comfort for, a 26 hour flight to the over side of the planet is probably the one you want to splurge on. And even then the flight was still brutal. It was fun though, from the flat beds to the excess baggage allowance. The super wide TV screens to the 3 course meals served on real china. This apparently is how the other half live.

 

Exploring Long Island

Last weekend we continued on our exploring and ventured into yet another borough of New York, our aim is to get all the five boroughs. So far we've done the obvious, Manhattan, Brooklyn and even Queens. At the weekend we ventured into Long Island (which technically Brooklyn and Queens are part of, and it's not a New York borough...). There's actually not much there, but Hipster Dufus was responding to the call of the MoMA outpost, PS1. As is the case with him he'd done his research on where to eat, what cafe's to stop at and which shops were worth popping into. We found that most of the shops were closed (or had closed down), but there were a few little cafe's to stop at. We were enticed by afternoon tea, Long Island style, it was lovely. After that we headed straight for the MoMA. 

This was definitely worth the visit, the art was all contemporary and I found two exhibitions that related to my field of study (I know, I know, I'm a geek). The building was an old school that had been converted which always makes for a great setting. Each classroom was yet another gallery space and even the cafe came complete with school desks as tables and blackboards with the menu on. We finished the day with a drink at the Dutch Kills bar, a saloon style bar with delicious cocktails. I won't be returning to Long Island in a hurry, but I would love to go back for the art and a drink. I already have plans for Staten Island and then all that's left is, gulp, The Bronx! 

At Sea

Ok so spring isn't exactly here yet but it's coming and is right around the corner. I can feel it. Plus I know it as the weather man says it is. With the new season coming in I'll be able to adopt a new form of transport in the city. River travel is a very much underused mode of transport in most cities and it's a real shame. You get the best views of a city from the river. London in particular having many of it's iconic landmarks lined up by the water. New York in comparison does not equal this beauty in my opinion as it doesn't really seem to have cottoned on to the value of river front real-estate. All of the buildings facing the river are warehouses, factories and motorways and the areas are completely underdeveloped. Even so the views from the river boats are still amazing. On a partially cloudy day the scenery is magical with the sunlight beaming through, delicately lighting up the buildings. I was lucky enough to find myself on one at sunset.