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The photographs here are from the first two weeks of my trip, of Central Park in New York City (right in the centre of Manhattan, for those who are wondering). I wholeheartedly reject everything I wrote in that earlier post, by the way. Photographic cliches? I love ‘em. Tourist hot spots? They are all I think about.

Truly though, the beauty and enormity of Central Park is something that shouldn’t be missed by anyone. (One thing I did realise, wandering around the park, was how little attention I pay to the natural beauty of Melbourne. I can count on one hand the amount of times I’ve been to our perfectly spectacular Royal Botanic Gardens. I will remedy this when I get home.) Inside the park the city literally disappears; occasionaly the stern grey summit of a skyscraper pokes its head out of the clouds and looms over the trees, but for the most part the greenery is literally everywhere. You could, I suspect, spend hours walking its paths without once doubling your tracks or even seeing a glimpse of the surrounding city.

It even has its own zoo. It is modest, admittedly, housing only a small selection of creatures, from the positively hideous puffins – who surely are developing inferiority complexes, tucked as they are next to the vivacious and much-loved penguins; families of chattering tourists frown and stow their cameras away as they pass these spectacularly ugly birds – to the enormous and magnificent, but solitary, polar bear.

The turtles, ever relaxed, are a favourite of mine. (Perhaps it’s just that I still get a kick out of imagining them doing Bogart impressions and eating pizza in sewers – hey, the Ninja Turtles are from New York.) But surely any species comfortable enough to conduct a five-member orgy in front of a crowd of friends and eager photographers has to get some kind of credit.

If you’re looking for the rest of the photos, they’re on my Facebook.

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