In fact the culprits, looking suspiciously like cheeky nannas, are being actively encouraged! They are yarn bombing and wool tagging all over the joint – and having serious fun while they’re at it.

Trainworks Museum in Thirlmere, about 90km southwest of Sydney, turns one on April 1^st 2012 and as part of the celebrations the local Picton Knitting & Crochet group have been let loose to brighten up exhibits with scarves for funnels, ‘eyes’ for buffers and spider webs for carriages. That a museum encourages such community involvement and interaction with its exhibits, speaks volumes about its philosophy of engaging the public and indulging in a bit of fun.

Trainworks underwent a $30 million dollar refurbishment in 2011 and the money has been well spent, breathing new life into dusty old trains. The museum is truly engaging for all ages – from Thomas the Tank Engine for little children to Australia’s largest collection of rolling stock for serious train buffs.

Exhibits include the massive 260 tonne 6040 Garrat, one of the world’s most powerful engines, and the elegant timber Governor-General’s carriages. A prison van comes to life with inmates’ stories and the rail pay bus looks like it comes straight from a cartoon.   

Birthday celebrations on April 1^st include vintage steam train rides, Circus Monoxide performers, Dixieland bands and a jumping castle. There’ll be a three tiered birthday cake, to be cut by a mystery guest, with slices for everybody.

Don’t forget to check out the work of the graffiti grannies, which is on display until April 25^th.

10 Barbour Road, Thirlmere NSW Trainworks is open 7 days a week. 10am-4pm Mon to Fri, 9am-5pm Saturday and Sunday. Ph 02 4681 8001 www.trainworks.com.au

I’ve always loved corrugated iron, the relatively inexpensive building material used, and reused, for farm sheds and shanty towns. From shiny, shimmering virgin silver to rust-ridden russet tones, its undulating surface catches light and shadow for dramatic effect.

It’s had a renaissance of sorts recently as a trendy building material, holding up bars, lining restaurants and bathrooms, and as an art surface for painters and photographers.

But in Tirau, it’s been given a new lease of life, sculptured into quirky shop signs, unusual statues and animal-shaped buildings.

It all started in 1998 with a wool shop built from corrugated iron in the shape of a sheep. When the town needed a new building for a visitor information centre, the community decided to build it in the shape of a sheepdog, adjacent to the sheep, and the rest, they say, is history.

Local shopkeepers and business have joined in the fun with cute colourful signs. Even the local church has a corrugated iron Good Sheppard out the front.

Tirau means ‘the place of many cabbage trees’ and the town logo looks gorgeous rendered in corrugated iron.

This has meant plenty of work for local corrugated artist, Stephen Clothier, of Corrugated Creations, which is located just outside Tirau. The ‘mechanic-turned-handyman’ was initially reluctant to take on the sheepdog project, but once finished he was inundated with orders for signs, garden features and letter boxes.

Each artwork is individually designed for the location and handmade, including the frame. 

With galleries, art and craft stores, coffee shops and more, Tirau makes a great place for picking up some unique NZ gifts or souvenirs. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to check them all out, or buy my own corrugated souvenir. But I’ll be sure to stop off next time I’m in New Zealand.

I’m standing in the crow’s nest, or in this case, on a small metal plate, 15 metres up the mizzen (aft) mast of the timber sailing ship the Southern Swan. Sydney Harbour is sparkling beneath me, the Opera House glistens in the sun to my left, and the Harbour Bridge frames the view ahead. Sure, the boat is rocking, but only gently, and the thrill of the climb is worth it.

As a schoolgirl in New Zealand in 1976 I climbed the mast of the sail training ship Spirit of Adventure. Scrambling up the ratlines and out onto the yards to unfurl and furl the square rigged sails was exhilarating.  So when the Southern Swan launched its mast climb experience this month (after 12 months of negotiations and red tape) I leapt at the chance. Could I still do it after all these years?

The Southern Swan is a barquentine built in Denmark in 1922 and took part in the First Fleet Re-enactment in 1988. Thanks to the efforts of owner/operators Marty Woods and David Warne, she is now Sydney’s only authentic timber tall ship.

Devastated to see the Bounty sold to Hong Kong, the pair purchased the Southern Swan in 2007, determined to keep her for the enjoyment of Australians and visitors to Sydney Harbour.  Investing their life savings into the purchase and on-going restoration, their enthusiasm is infectious.

Sword-fighting pirates welcome guests at Campbell’s Cove and a band plays on the two-hour Sydney Harbour cruises, which include a delicious BBQ lunch, brunch or dinner with champagne and beer available. You can sit back and relax or help set the sails. And for just $59 you can climb the mast.

Wearing a harness and clipped on I make my ascent of the ratlines (ladder rungs fastened between mast shrouds). A twinge of nervousness threatens, but I just concentrate on climbing and soon I’m into the rhythm. The topmost rungs are so narrow it’s hard to get a foothold and with my short legs the clamber into the crow’s nest requires reversing bottom-first.  

But I’ve done it and the view of Sydney Harbour is my reward. Thank you Southern Swan!

Visit www.sydneytallships.com.au to book.

*Futtocks – timbers of a sailing ship’s frame. Futtock plate – an iron plate across the top of a lower mast to which the dead-eyes of the top-mast rigging and the upper ends of the futtock-shrouds are secured.

The walls of the Tooles Family Hotel in Tibooburra, in northwest New South Wales, are a canvas for artists from around Australia and murals range from landscapes to body-scapes, portraits to playmates.

Dan and Kathy Toole, who bought the hotel in 2009, are keen to preserve the existing murals and continue the tradition, thought to have been started by Pugh in 1969. This has meant removing a huge Athel pine from out the front whose roots were invading the hotel, cracking floors and painted walls. 

The latest painting, being added this month, is a rendition of the dingo fence by Roxanne Minchin, whose late husband Eric Minchin’s outback scene adorns the opposite wall. 

Roxy, as she’s known, chats amiably with patrons while applying vibrant shades of blue and red to the once-bland wall. The colours are intense, but having just driven alongside the dingo fence in nearby Cameron Corner I can verify their accuracy. 

So if you’re planning a trip to this part of NSW, be sure to stop by the Tooles Family Hotel and check out the murals over a beer or two. Have a meal in the refurbished dining room (I can recommend the schnitzel with meat lovers topping and the homely apple crumble) where Roxy’s prints adorn the shiny corrugated iron walls, then stay the night in one of the hotel’s cabins across the road. It’s a quintessential outback NSW experience.

Unfortunately, it’s illegal to hold a koala in NSW – much to the dismay of many tourists, but at Featherdale Wildlife Park in Sydney’s Doonside, they make it easy to get up close and personal with a koala whose butt is safely wedged in a branch as it munches on fresh eucalypt leaves – you can even give it a pat. All day, every day. And you can take your own photos.

Featherdale has come a long way from its origins as a chicken farm. Now the seven acre site sits like a green oasis in the middle of suburbia, completely surrounded by houses. It was those residents, among others, who saved the park from redevelopment in 1975, something we can all be grateful for. There’s nothing like the excitement of little (and not-so-little) kids feeding their first kangaroo or finding a tawny frogmouth sitting on a branch at their eye-level. 

The award-winning park (also a finalist in the 2011 Great Sydney Tourism Awards - you can vote for the Peoples Choice Award here) brings storybook Aussie animals to life – like jabirus, brolgas and emus. You can scratch a wombat’s back, feed the kangaroos, and hold a lizard. Watch out for peacocks who randomly flash their dazzling feathers, and don’t miss fairy penguin feeding time as they mob the fish-filled esky. 

During the July school holidays you can meet the seven gorgeous little dingo pups, born mid-May, before they are relocated to other parks around Australia. Look out for the numerous albino animals too.

As dawn broke we huddled around the burner as the 265,000 cubic foot balloon slowly filled and gracefully sat upright. Once inside the basket our liftoff was so gentle we scarcely realised we’d kissed the ground goodbye. As our quilt of yellow, blue and green fabric took flight a landscape carpeted in mist spread out beneath us.  

Curls of dense fog, thick as cotton wool, snaked along the Hawkesbury River, like the plume of a steam train. The Blue Mountains basked in the golden morning light as the sun rose, lengthening shadows and sharpening silhouettes.

Slowly, a patchwork of green emerged through the mist – turf farms, horse studs, polo farms, race tracks, sports fields and airfields, divided by hedgerows and glistening dams scattered like shards of broken glass. City skyscrapers twinkled in the distance (visibility is much better in the cool of winter than the heat of summer) while the moon determined to remain in a rapidly blueing sky.

Our landing was magical too, drifting into a mist-shrouded paddock of horses that pranced around us inquisitively. We played inside the deflating balloon, which felt as high as a two-storey building, before helping pack it away. Our reward – champagne served in silver goblets and non-stop humorous banter from our pilot and ground crew, before being whisked back to our meeting point, the Hawkesbury Sebel Resort & Spa, for a well-deserved breakfast in their sun-filled dining room.

It might have taken us three attempts to get airborne (our first two bookings cancelled by recent foul weather) but we were rewarded in the end with a winter wonderland rarely appreciated from the air. The Hawkesbury truly is a magical destination, only 50kms from Sydney. So why not make a weekend of it by booking a combined Sebel stay and Cloud 9 Balloon flight. See their website for current mid-winter specials.

For sensational family fun don’t get on your bike, get on a Segway and float above the ground.

OK, it’s not quite levitating, but the Segway personal transporter does feel like it hovers above the ground rather than rides over it, and that’s a thrilling sensation.

Looking a bit like a pogo stick with wheels the Segway uses dynamic stabilisation technology, including gyroscopic sensors, to make it self-balancing once you’re standing on it.

Like an extension of your body it senses your movements and the changing terrain then responds accordingly.  To move forward or backward, you just lean forward or backward; to stop you stand up straight and to turn you lean in the direction you want to go.

Basically, if you can stand up you can ride one, although their size dictates children need to be about nine years old and there are weight restrictions (between 30 and 120kg).

It definitely feels a bit weird initially, but it doesn’t take long to get the hang of riding one and then you fall in love with the sensation and want to take the Segway home.  

 Segway Tours in Sydney operates at Newington Armory in Sydney Olympic Park and offers 30-minute fun rides through to 90-minute all-terrain adventures. Unless you’ve got very young children who might tire, you should definitely go for the longest tour, which still isn’t enough!

All rides start with individual tuition, then a guide accompanies you around the park. As your confidence builds they’ll teach you new skills and soon you’ll be zooming off, spinning around and racing each other – with a permanent grin plastered on your face.

Our family has done it twice and can’t wait to do it again. Sure it’s not cheap, but it makes a memorable special occasion family outing you’ll be talking about for ages.

Have you done any great Segway tours you’d like to share?

Sydney: Segway Tours Ph 1300 85 99 83, www.segwaytours.com.au

Queensland: Segway Safaris are available at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary and O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat. See www.segwayqueensland.com.au  

A patient at the Falcon Hospital

It seems a bit incongruous that a bird that can fly up to 300km/h gets a lift in a passenger jet, but it’s all part of the fascinating world of falconry, where travelling birds even have their own passports. It’s true, I’ve seen one, stamps and all!

I’ve been enlightened on the finer points of falcon frequent flyers by the vivacious Dr Margit Muller on a tour of Abu Dahbi’s Falcon Hospital. I was unsure what to expect from a visit to this working falcon vet hospital, but it’s one of the highlights of my visit to this intriguing city.

Falconry has been part of the local culture since the Bedouins caught wild falcons on their migration from Europe and trained them to catch much needed food like hares and bustards, before releasing them at the end of the season to migrate back to Europe.

The UAE no longer allows trade in wild falcons, so captive bred birds are imported from Europe. As hunting is now banned in the UAE birds and their owners must travel to places like Pakistan and Morocco. Hence the passports and inflight privilages. 

Handling these regal birds is a thrill

Our tour starts with fascinating falcon facts – a 1.3kg bird can catch and carry a 3-5kg bustard and can kill an animal as big as a gazelle – before we enter the surgery to watch an anethetised bird have its beak and claws clipped. We get to hold the magnificent creatures and take a turn as they fly between us, before listening to one crunch the bones of a tasty quail titbit. 

So why a dedicated hospital? Falcons, like any pet, become part of the family and despite their fearsome appearance are quite delicate – they can die within five hours of eating something inappropriate. Hence the staff are on call 24 hours a day to deal with falcon emergencies as well as general maintenance. There’s even a boarding facility with a loyal clientele.

But it appears all is not equal in the world of flying falcons. On Etihad Airways falcons are welcome in first and business class as well as economy (well the falcon is the airline’s symbol and the national emblem of the UAE) but on Royal Jordanian airlines they are restricted to economy class. (But neither seem to address the issue of falcon poop.)

See Creative Holidays for a stopover package that includes a tour of the Falcon Hospital.

Formula Rossa Roller Coaster

Blast out on the world’s fastest roller coaster at Ferrari World where you go from zero to 240km/h in five seconds, replicating the acceleration of an F1 racecar. (It will be the quickest facelift you ever get – pity gravity takes over again afterwards!)

The thought of an indoor theme park seemed a bit strange, until I experienced Abu Dhabi’s draining heat – when it made perfect sense. But you still get the wind in your face on the roller coasters as they shoot out from the building into the sunshine. 

There’s something for every age group, from tiny tots to big kids, including a junior driving school and state-of-the-art racing simulators. Don’t miss the journey into the  heart of a V12 engine – a hilariously funny, if rowdy, flume ride. 

Dune Bashing in Abu Dhabi

Dune Bashing

Unlike Dubai, where hundreds of people hit the dunes each night, our party consisted of only two vehicles. I never thought skidding sideways down a dune, perilously close to tipping over, could be so much fun. Our party of girls alternately screams with fear and squeals with laughter as showers of sand cascade over the windscreen. A camel ride and dinner in the desert round out a fantastic evening.

Bird Watching

Learn about the fascinating history of falconry at the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital where you can get up close and personal with these majestic birds. Witness one having its beak and claws trimmed under anesthetic or listen to it crunch through a piece of quail, bones and all. While one sits regally on my arm its hard to believe it’s capable of killing a gazelle.

Architecture

Abu Dhabi’s development, which feels less brash and more planned than Dubai’s, is no less spectacular and will appeal to anyone with the slightest interest in architecture. Check out Emirates Palace Hotel, where gold is de riguer, including in champagne and coffee. There’s even an ATM which dispenses gold.

You’ll feel dwarfed by the monumental Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, with its 80 domes, built to promote understanding and tolerance between cultures. Just don’t forget your sunglasses.

Hyatt Capital Gate Hotel leans more than the tower in Pisa

For a more futuristic look there’s the disc-shaped HQ of Aldar Real Estate company and the new Hyatt Capital Gate Hotel which leans 18 degrees. To see what’s coming in the future head to Manarat al Saadiyat which showcases the designs of upcoming buildings on Saadiyat Island including National, Louvre and Guggenheim museums.

For more see Visit Abu Dhabi.

The damage caused by floods and Cyclone Yasi in Queensland is perceived to be more widespread than it actually is. While there is significant damage to Mission Beach, and Bedarra, Dunk and Hayman Islands are closed temporarily, most of the rest of Queensland is open for business, and desperate for visitors.

A Hidden Valley cabin

We can show our support for Queenslanders by taking a holiday in the Whitsundays, Sunshine Coast or Gold Coast.  Or go bush on a Dreamtime Journey with Kookaburra Tours in Far North Queensland where you can also stay in Australia’s first carbon neutral bush retreat, Hidden Valley Cabins which only sustained some vegetation damage in the cyclone.

The Charlotte Jane Hotel

Christchurch & Canterbury Tourism is also urging visitors to return to the region. The beautiful 5 star Charlotte Jane Hotel opened its doors again this week and is eager to welcome visitors back to the hotel and restaurant.

Akaroa Harbour

Head inland from Christchurch to the thermal pools and spa at Hamner Springs or travel seaward to the picturesque harbour-side village of Akaroa, where it is business as usual. A local tells me you might feel a few mild aftershocks, but that would make a memorable holiday anecdote.