Central Park and Times Square

As I walked into Central Park, it started to snow - magical! Robins and cardinals were a pop of color amid the bare trees. A very comfortable squirrel climbed my leg outside of the Central Park Zoo - this experience was a trip highlight. The zoo had all manner of cool creatures, including a snow leopard, red panda, and exotic-looking birds. I learned how to take the subway by myself. Meeting up with friends, we explored downtown and soaked up the atmosphere.

 

Taking the subway, getting used to meaning of downtown and uptown  

Robins and cardinals in Central Park

Lost in Central Park among the literary and historic statues

 

Squirrel that climbed my leg

Red panda

Gorgeous snow leopard

Cool birds

Church downtown

Mega LEGO store

Rockefeller Center

Ice skating

Everything was big and moving

Dunedin: Otago Peninsula

We began our week-long road trip of the South Island by driving from Christchurch to Dunedin, stopping at the Moeraki Boulders along the way. Unfortunately the tide was in so some of the rocks were harder to look at and access, but this made for some fun runs to take photos before getting too wet.

Coming into Dunedin, we headed straight out onto the Otago Peninsula to look for albatross. The breeding colonies are closed off unless you pay the exorbitant fee for the tour, so we had to settle for a view of a soaring albatross overhead and lots of seagulls and some fur seals, who were snoozing on a pathway looking adorable.

seaweed looks like hair

he had rolled over by the time we walked back around!

this guy was a little suspicious of me photographing him

Then I took the Highcliff Drive on the drive back for great views on top of the peninsula. The weather was gorgeous, and the lambs were bleating -- it was a nice experience.

We walked around downtown Dunedin for a bit and checked out the big church and grounds.

Chinese New Year in Sydney

Another cool thing about our time in Sydney was that it was Chinese New Year, and it is supposed to be the second biggest celebration outside of China because there are so many Chinese residents. The parade was cancelled due to construction on George Street, but they had 12 blow-up lanterns around downtown representing the zodiac signs, so we were able to make it to all of those. The Mahjongg ox was so cool! And they lit up the Town Hall, Opera House, Harbor Bridge, and Circular Quay in red.

The University of Sydney had a big campus and several buildings with nice architecture. You have to wonder what people are going to think of all our 'modern' glass buildings that seem to look the same. The library staff were not very helpful, but I still managed to check out several science fiction magazines from the early days of the genre which was really exciting. Going back to the source is definitely worth the effort because you get to see what people were actually reading and holding. Digital just can't replicate that.