John Daly-Peoples
John Daly-Peoples
Destination Sydney recently manged a unique promotion which has highlighted Sydney as a cultural destination and the arts and architecture on offer.
Dorothy Smith a 102-year-old from San Francisco visited Sydney completing her bucket list dream of visiting all seven continents.
Two young men, Ammar Kandil and Staffan Taylor who produce Yes Theory, a YouTube channel with almost 9.3 million subscribers, met Dorothy in October 2024 while filming a story at The Redwoods Retirement Village in Mill Valley, California.
They discovered Smith had always dreamed of visiting all seven continents. She had been to Asia, South America North America, Antarctica, and Europe but never made it to Australia.
Kandil and Taylor partnered with destination NSW and Qantas to make her dream come true and organised a flight to Sydney .
“It’s never too late for an adventure, just try and see and I think you will be surprised how well you do.” she said in a video Yes Theory shared about her trip yesterday. “You either rust out or wear out. I chose to wear out.”
Smith’s visit involved a Sydney Harbour cruise, a koala and kangaroo encounter at Sydney Zoo, touring Sydney Opera House and Bondi Beach, the Botanic Gardens and the Museum of Contemporary Art.
The video of her visit which has had 500,000 views online highlights the opportunities for older travellers and their ability to have art experiences over walking tours, ski slopes and surf beaches.
The MCA currently has a major exhibition of works by Julie Mehretu an Ethiopian artist now living in the US. She is one of today’s most acclaimed living painters and the exhibition which blurs distinctions between abstraction and figuration. One of her works, Haka and Riot which evolved from photographs of children held in US detention centres refers to exorcism or a dancer performing the haka.
They also have New Zealander Kate Newby’s installation “Hours in Wind” in the Sculpture Terrace on the top floor of the gallery.
The other major exhibition on in Sydney during her visit was “Magritte” which features one hundred works by the artist – paintings of clouds, hats, pipes and apples among the most recognisable images of surrealism. Renowned for his deadpan, realist style, the Belgian artist depicted ordinary objects and everyday settings, revealing them to be mysterious and enchanting.
“Magritte” journeys from the artist’s first avant-garde explorations and commercial works in the 1920s, to his groundbreaking contributions to surrealism, his surprising provocations of the 1940s, and the renowned paintings of his final years, before his death in 1967.
With her stop at the Sydney Opera House Smith could have seen the current production of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” or even a concert by the New Zealand band Crowded House.
Smith said she loved visiting Sydney, saying the city was beautiful and the people were so friendly.
“The people are charming, the food is good, the scenery is just wonderful, and even the weather is nice,” she said. Although she didn’t expect the city to be quite so developed.
The Sydney Opera House was a particularly special place to visit, with Smith being more than twice as old as the iconic building.
For Dorothy’s Sydney experience watch it here.
New Zealand Arts Review 