While sterile skyscrapers dominate the city centre, further out there is plenty of natural beauty to behold with Indian Ocean beaches, the hillside hideaways and scenic bushland not far away.
He grins and continues down the trail into the thick green heart of the Blue Mountains bushland, which continues to be shaped by the endless ravages and renewal of the elements.
Walk across Urapukapuka and the landscape is a curious mix of the familiar and the exotic - rolling green hills taken from a Cotswold postcard descend into bushland borrowed from Jurassic Park.