Neither Home, nor Away

This is something for the British contingent!

As we're staying in the Northern Beaches area of Sydney, our friend, Leo, thought it would be rude not to take a drive up to some of the other beaches further up the coast.

The last beach may be recognised by some of you Brits as it is the home to a very popular Australian soap that ha its heyday back in the 80s and 90s.

The fictional location is Summer Bay, better known as Palm Beach locally. And in reality, it is the weekend playground of Sydney's rich and, well, rich!

But it is, of course, the outdoor filming location for Home and Away. It's about 40 mins north of Manly and fronts to the Pacific Ocean. Like many of the beaches along this coastline, it is a popular surf spot. Although there wasn't much surf to be had today.

Whilst up there, Leo took us for some yummy fish and chips with a view. And also with a rather splendid way to arrive (or depart)!

Sydney by night

Just thought you might enjoy these...

When in Rome...

Out doing our first bit of exploring around Sydney, we have been told to have a look around the historic The Rocks district.

As our visit coincided with lunchtime, we decided to partake in a recommendation that our friend, Leo had given us. So we had a Kangaroo Pizza!

To be honest, it tasted a lot like steak! But pizza is always good. It wasn't until after that we spotted the saltwater crocodile one on the menu!

Hello Sydney! Nice to meet you

Well it's taken us nearly 18 months, but we've finally "hopped the ditch" to visit our pals on the other side of the Tasman Sea.

We've come to Sydney as we know a number of people here so free accommodation is easy to find!

And just getting to our accommodation involved a 30 minute ferry ride which have us a preview of some of the sights we can look forward to.

A sample of Wellywood

As some of you know, Wellington is home to Weta, the fascinating company that was set up to help film director, Peter Jackson, achieve greatness.

It's specialists have brought movies like Lord of the Rings, Avatar and Tin Tin to life. And The Hobbit is currently in production locally (Stephen Fry is a regular visitor at the moment).

This weekend they had one of their sculptors publicly creating a one-off piece that he'd dreamed up in the middle of the Weta Cave museum. In keeping with some of the semi-mythological creatures created in the Weta workshops, when we visited, the sculptor was part way through building a robot fighting a centaur.

He was working from a "sketch" - a miniature version of the final work. Comparing the two models, it was apparent that he'd taken some artistic licence to change the statue as he went.

The robot's right arm had been changed from a strangulation hold to a more animated, extended position.

The artist explained a very technical reason for this change, relating to how your eye is drawn by the shape of the sculpture, and his desire to create a spiral flow around the two figures.

But, in closing he added: "I also had to find some way of getting the teddy bear in there..."