Aucklander in Sydney

Being an Aucklander in Sydney means you have eyes on stalks for all the stores we don’t have in New Zealand. Here are my highlights in photos…

Being an Aucklander in Sydney means you have eyes on stalks for all the stores we don’t have in New Zealand. Here are my highlights in photos from a whirlwind trip to Sydney in April 2013.

A case in point of one of these stores we don’t get in New Zealand is Karen Walker Home. Available exclusively at Myer, I couldn’t resist checking it out and of course picking up some cute animal and flower cushions and the ditsy whale duvet cover and pillowslips – luckily for me, they were 40% off, too.

More prettiness at Myer, this time from Missoni Home.

A highlight for lovers of textile design has to be the stunning Marimekko store. You may know the Scandinavian design house for its famous poppy print fabric but did you know they do fashion, homewares and childrenswear too? I got some red poppy print cotton to sew cushions with.

Here are some of my top picks instore at Marimekko.

I didn’t go in to Madame Tussard’s wax museum but had a cheeky pic with their Leonardo DiCaprio statue on the footpah.

Something I’ve enever seen before (but people nursing hangovers swear by it) is the oxygen bars and Internet access bars in the shopping malls.

Walking along the inner city streets, you can’t miss th eelegant old lady, the QVB. The Queen Victoria Building is a domed brick shopping centre with floors of retail and a cafe lining the centre.

And it’s NOT all shopping, oh no, Being a City Of Culture, Sydney has no end of world-class art galleries and I did three of them today.

The Contemporary art gallery of NSW is located on the Circular Quay waterfront in an imposing building set slightly back from the water’s edge and backs onto The Rocks historic shopping streets behind it.

On the wharves under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, I chanced upon the contemporary art installation, 13 Rooms, in a completely stunning historic wharf warehouse. Inside, 13 Rooms was a curated exhibition with live actors interacting with the public in thirteen spaces with opening doors on each. My favourite was the actor who swapped items from person to person as they entered and gave up an item to swap! More confronting was the naked woman spreadeagled on the wall and another examining hersef naked with a handmirror. In another room a painter painted the walls over and over again with different colours of paint.

NSW Art Gallery.

Megan Robinson
19 April 2013