Erik Skye Travel Blog

3 Jan 2012

Here’s the map: Google Maps – Wizard of Oz

Car’s trip odometer: 1780 clicks (km)

All good things must come to an end. I don’t really believe in that sentiment, but it is time to move on. We had a good time in Sydney, the Emerald City of Oz. And, we meet some great people who unknowingly slipped into the rolls of some of our Wizard of Oz characters. We have Glinda -The Good Witch of the South (played by the lovely Erin Victoria Holland), The Wizard (played by master tog Alex Photopaint), and our munchkins (played by the mischievous, rebellious, and youthful Kelsey, Jessica, Kristi, and Lara).

I was inundated with photo processing from the shoot with Alex and Erin yesterday.  By the time I had selected my photos and published the blog for yesterday, half of today was gone.  But I managed to say goodbye to Sydney in style with a walk through Taronga Zoo (saddest thing was seeing a brown bear panting in the heat) and a run along Manly Beach (a better beach than Bondi if you ask me).  After a few parting pictures, I zipped up to Newcastle, a great seaside community two hours north.  What’s next?  How about finding some of those elusive 'Winkies'?

 "The soldier with the green whiskers led them through the streets of the Emerald City until they reached the room where the Guardian of the Gates lived.  This officer unlocked their spectacles to put them back in his great box, and then he politely opened the gate for our friends. 'Which road leads to the Wicked Witch of the West?' asked Dorothy. 'There is no road,' answered the Guardian of the Gates; 'no one ever wishes to go that way.' 'How, then are we to find her?' inquired the girl. 'That will be easy,' replied the man; 'for when she knows you are in the country of the Winkies she will find you, and make you all her slaves.' 'Perhaps not', said the Scarecrow, 'for we mean to destroy her.'"^16

I found a lot of good music listening to the national radio station "Triple J" last year.  I was hoping for a repeat, but so far that's not happening.  Still, here's one I like:  You and me at Six - Loverboy (again, let the website load briefly, then click the orange "play" below the title.)

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Footnotes:

16. L. Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz (The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1903) pp. 108, 109.