Its the little things...

For those of you who know me, you know my affinity for the Food network, more specifically Everyday Italian's Giada De Laurentiis. Much to my dismay, New Zealand doesn't follow American celebrity chefs very much. Their favorites are Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson; but after 12 long months they finally realized what this country is missing...

Giada is on every Wednesday night and for 30 minutes I feel like I am home again :)

Best of Sydney Shopping:

I’m a bit starved for quality retail experiences living down in New Zealand and our trip to Sydney only made that more apparent. Many kiwi’s go over to Oz for shopping trips as their Aussie counterparts have more selection and in my opinion a better selection of wares. It is nothing against Auckland, but shopping here is not their strong suit.

Sydney on the other hand has a plethora of options if you want to indulge in some good old fashion retail therapy. Here is a quick overview:
I would suggest hitting the Paddington Markets if you are in Sydney for a weekend. Saturday from 10-4 this market is bustling with local artists, jewelry, antiques and clothes. The atmosphere is part bohemian part hipster- overall fantastic.

I picked up my favorite souvenirs of the weekend while shopping the markets. A set of antique coasters and a pair of brushed silver stud earrings from a very adorable local artist.

Across the street from the markets are tons of boutiques with all kinds of clothes and little cafes. I was so excited to see Kiehls and eat the cup cake bakery!

You could spend all day shopping in that area, but if you are looking for more options go back into the CDB and you can hit the Pit Street Mall or Paddy's markets which are close to Chinatown. One store that blew me away (which again made me realize just how deprived of shopping I really am) was Lululemon. I love this line of attractive yoga wear and active gear but had never visited a store before. Being in the brand experience biz made me appreciate all the little details—the store feels like a tranquil yoga studio and every person working in store had on yoga clothes. On top of that there was a person doing yoga in the window, a huge display of all the yoga studios in the city and even an offer of a free session at the yoga studio of the month with purchase. Mat practically had to drag me out of this store.

We could definitely have spend more time shopping than we did, but the weather in Sydney really beacons you outdoors which is why we ended up doing this instead:

Best of Sydney- Sights

Without a doubt, the Sydney Opera house was what surprised me most. Although it is one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world, the ubiquitous pictures of it gracing the harbor do not do it justice. Naturally, there are lots of cafes and bars around this area so we grabbed a drink, slipped on our sunnies and watched the world go by for a while. If you look closely, you can see adventurous tourists walk along the top of the bridge.

We came back to the harbor at night to take in the Opera house and Harbor Bridge lit up, check out The Opera Bar at night for great people watching, live music and a magnificent view.

A must do is getting out on a boat into the harbor. To experience Sydney at its best is to enjoy the sunshine out in the harbor, even if it is just on a ferry. We did precisely that, taking the morning ferry over to Manly Beach (only 15 minutes on the express) and it was an awesome way to see the skyline from the water. Manly Beach is what I've always thought Australia would be- beachy and bawdy, sunshine and surfers.

We are the happiest as tourists just walking the city and Sydney was a great city to explore on foot. Starting at Hyde park in the center of the city, we walked through a great outdoor photography exhibit:

Saw St Mary's Cathedral: And then went on to the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Along the way we had at least 3 interesting animal sightings:

This last pic is of the grey headed flying fox. They are the worlds largest bat- no joke and there were hundreds of them.

There were so many sights that didn't fit into our short weekend. When we go back we want to also do: Bondi Beach, Blue Mountains, Sydney Aquarium, Barracks Museum, and the Hunter Valley Wine Country just to name a few!

Best of Sydney

(thanks National Geographic)

Lots to catch up on; most notably, Mat was away in Sydney for business last week so I got to fly over and meet up with him for the weekend!

Our first trip across the ditch was awesome; Sydney was a wonderful host- beautiful weather, beautiful beaches and beautiful people.

Check back in the next couple of days as I'll recap the best of Sydney. With only two days there was a lot to do and not enough time to do it all so I'm already planning to do when we go back!

Earth from above

New York City is going to host a free exhibit of works by photographer, Yann Arthus-Bertrand in May 2009. The collection of large scale aerial photography titled, Earth from Above, is visually stunning and purposeful; Arthus-Bertrand hopes the images bring awareness to our earth's fragility as well as beauty.

I was captured by these images that a friend sent me today, check them out:

Worker resting on bales of cotton, Thonakaha, Korhogo, Ivory Coast. Cotton crops occupy approximately 335,000 square klilometers worldwide, and use nearly one quarter of all pesticides sold
Icebreaker Louis Saint Laurent in Resolute Bay, Nunavut Territory, Canada
Icebergs and an Adelie penguin, Adelie Land, Antarctica. Antarctica, the sixth continent, is a unique observation point for atmospheric and climatic phenomena; its ancient ice, which trapped air when it was formed, contains evidence of the Earth's climate as it has changed and developed over the past millions of years.