City Break - Liverpool 2025

Liverpool, England. Friday/Monday 14/17-March-2025.

Friday 14: In Liverpool for the Blues Festival we had the mornings to do the proper tourist thing. We have taken to booking ourselves aparthotels as they have the convenience that we can do our own thing for breakfast rather than having to get up dressed and out to find a nearby café.

It would seem that this particular hotel is a converted warehouse of some kind as witnessed by this whacking great girder right up the middle of the bedroom.

Saturday 15: Saturday morning was, of course, parkrun. However, rather than do the nearest one we took the Metro out to Crosby to do a unique parkrun. 

Firstly, it is one of a few on a beach and secondly it features Another Place by Anthony Gormley, a series of iron men embedded in the sand or looking out to sea.

The first part of the course is out and back along the beach they use one of the iron men as a turnaround point. They have given him a high viz jacket a helmet and christened him Bing.

Sunday 16: We took a stroll round the city to take in the sights. First stop the cathedral.

One of the reasons for visiting the cathedral was to see to window dedicated to Kitty Wilkinson aka “The Saint of the Slums” who was instrumental in the creation of the first public baths in the U.K. in 1842. When we give talks on behalf of Friends of Carlisle Victorian and Turkish Baths we include a section on the origins of public baths including her pioneering work.

In our wanderings we stumbled across this Scandinavian church built to cater to the large number of Nordic émigrés who we presume were en route to America.

A poignant installation outside the bombed out ruins of the Church of St. Luke recalls the First World War Christmas Day truce and football match across no man’s land.

Liverpool had a significant Chinatown whose start is marked by this substantial ceremonial gateway. All the street signs in the area are bilingual.

Liverpool is, obviously, famous as the home of The Beatles. These statues are down on the docks. We also visited the site of the original Cavern Club with a statue of Cilla Black who at one time worked there as a hat check girl.

On the recommendation of a friend we visited the fascinating Western Approaches museum - the control centre for planning and monitoring the North Atlantic convoys bringing vital supplies from North America. They intercepted German morse code message and sent them to Bletchley Park for decryption. Here they planned convoy routes and arranged escorts on sea and in the air. Up-to-date information on U‑Boats was a vital part of planning and protecting the convoys.

They had an actual Enigma machine captured from U‑534, one of the few that was not destroyed by the Germans to prevent them falling into Allied hands.

Monday 17: A most successful weekend of touristing on top of the music festival.

Down Under 2025 - Sydney 2

Sydney, Australia. 03/05-March-2025.

Table of Contents:

• All posts
• Introduction, 05-February-2025
• Sydney, 06/09-February-2025
• Cromwell, 09/12-February-2025
• Fox Glacier, 12/14-February-2025 
• Christchurch, 14/16-February-2025 
• Blenheim, 16/19-February-2025 
• Wellington / Martinborough, 19/23-February-2025 
• Napier, 23/26-February-2025 
• Taupo, 26/27-February-2025 
• Hobbiton, 27-February-2025
• Auckland, 27-February/03-March-2025
• Sydney 2, 03/05-March-2025

Monday 03: The return stop at Sydney with no specific plans. For a bit of variety we chose a local Argentinian restaurant, La Boca, for supper.

Tuesday 04: We booked a Skyfeast at Sydney Tower but we arrived in the centre a bit early so had time to wander around Hyde Park and St Mary’s cathedral.

View of the tower from Hyde Park.

On the way there we also had a quick peer into the ornate lobby of the Grace building which was apparently the inspiration for “Are You Being Served”. Originally a department store owned by the Grace Brothers it is now a hotel.

SkyFeast was a buffet lunch in the revolving restaurant at the top of the telecom tower. We went for the premium wine package which includes unlimited, better class wines.

You are allocated an hour and a half slot. The restaurant rotates every 70 minutes which means you get a circuit and a third while you dine. The bird’s eye view shows how much waterfront Sydney has.

We got a good view of the cathedral and Hyde park.

There was nothing on at the Opera House so instead we went to the (other) Royal Albert Hall to hear Cat Power sings Dylan. A  very different take on the songs. Pleasant enough but we, metaphorically, didn’t buy the CD.

I was also taken by the older stations on the Metro which very much reminded me of Baker Street station in London.

Lovely cream and green tiling.

Wednesday 05: An evening flight back to the UK. Pretty uneventful, simply incredibly long. Having landed at 05:30 UK time, we took the train up to Victoria, tube across London, brunch at Euston and train up to Penrith. Door to door it must have been 36 hours travelling. It took at least a week for the sleep patterns to fully normalise.

We both agreed it was a fantastic trip and lived up to the hype from everyone who had been and said what a great place New Zealand was to visit.

Down Under 2025 - Auckland

Auckland, 27-February/03-March-2025

Table of Contents:

• All posts
• Introduction, 05-February-2025
• Sydney, 06/09-February-2025
• Cromwell, 09/12-February-2025
• Fox Glacier, 12/14-February-2025 
• Christchurch, 14/16-February-2025 
• Blenheim, 16/19-February-2025 
• Wellington / Martinborough, 19/23-February-2025 
• Napier, 23/26-February-2025 
• Taupo, 26/27-February-2025 
• Hobbiton, 27-February-2025
• Auckland, 27-February/03-March-2025
• Sydney 2, 03/05-March-2025

Thursday 27: After Hobbiton we drove the rest of the way to Auckland, dropped off the luggage at our Home Exchange accommodation before returning the hire car and taking the opportunity to explore a bit of the city.

Friday 28: We spent much of the day wandering around central Auckland following a booklet of Maori walking art trails.

In the mural on the side of this building each vessel represents a mountain and the tribal symbols for the Māori peoples associated with the respective locale.

Saturday 29: Was of course #parkrunday and the turn of Ōrākei Bay parkrun, our third and final parkrun in NZ. There were a number of tourists, many from the UK but also Australia and other parts of New Zealand.

A single out-and-back along a boardwalk by the bay. Mary striding in for the finish line.

Great bunch of marshals, especially the ultra-hyper lady and her lovely dog at the turnaround point. You could hear her cheering from about a kilometre away.

Any parkrunner will know the importance of handing in your finish token after being scanned.

The walk from our apartment to the local restaurants and shops took us down Great Road which was lined with luxury car showrooms: McLaren, Porsche, Lotus plus  Ferrari, Lamborghini and Bentley.

You could even buy a Bentley stroller for the tot who has everything.

It was a shock to the system to see skyscrapers after three weeks of low rise everywhere else.

One of the delights of this trip was being able to meet up with friends we made in 2008 when we took part in a London to Paris bike ride. Dave and Luci emigrated to NZ two years ago and live just north of Auckland on the other side of the bay, close enough to pop over for a meal. We met in a local wine bar and had a good catch-up.

As supporters of the Carlisle Victorian and Turkish Baths we were delighted to stumble across these Tepid Baths by pure accident as we were wandering about. They kindly allowed us to go inside to read about the history. The Baths were opened 1914 with a swimming pool and also slipper baths for cleansing. The parallels between their stories were remarkable, both addressing the need for public baths for the local working class and, in Auckland, also for visiting sailors.

And I just had to get an All Blacks’ duck to keep our Ampelmann duck company.

Sunday 02: A walk across New Zealand. Having walked across England and across Italy we thought it only right that we should add to our transnational walks with a stroll across New Zealand. Fortunately at Auckland that is a modest walk of 16 km so easily doable in a few hours.

We picked map from the Tourist Information office together with screen shot of the route description from the city website and headed off.

The start point was not signposted that we could see so the Maritime Museum seemed as good a spot as any to mark the beginning.

Passing through the city centre we passed some gnarly trees in Albert Park.

Next through Auckland Domain park, Auckland’s oldest park with lots of native flora.

We then had a steep ascent to the top of Mount Eden / Maungawhau for spectacular views in all directions complete with a caldera to let you know you’re on the top of a volcano.

We passed through suburbs many of which had lovely Victorian era wooden houses with ornately edged verandas.

The route took us past One Tree Hill / Maungakiekie which singularly failed to live up to its name, the eponymous tree having long since been replaced by an obelisk.

We then had a step descent with views of the southern shore.

We finally arrived at the coast where the signs petered out.

Not knowing where the formal end was we chose a suitable bench to rest and claimed “complete”.

Supper that evening was at a local BYO where we planned to use a fine bottle of wine we had brought on one of the wine tours. Unfortunately we forgot the wine so had to go to the supermarket next door to the restaurant and buy another bottle. Luckily we had room in a case so the forgotten wine became a souvenir to take home.

Monday 03: Up reasonably promptly for a morning flight back to Sydney.

Next: Sydney 2, 03/05-March-2025