Latest news with #Ates
The Guardian
21-06-2025
- The Guardian
Wildflowers, saunas and antiques: a local's guide to the Blue Mountains
My partner and I are both creatives. Six years ago we were living in a tiny apartment in Sydney's inner west, and I was paying extra for a studio. It wasn't sustainable so we decided to move to Katoomba, on the traditional lands of the Dharug and Gundungurra people. I read an article recently saying something like 'skip it, it's not at its best' but Katoomba has a beautiful authenticity, even if it's not quite polished. Our closest upper mountain towns are Leura and Blackheath. Katoomba is all old-world treasures and beautiful building facades. Blackheath has the incredible Victory Theatre Antique Centre, Gleebooks, Hat Hill Records & Audio and great rock climbing and hikes. Leura has an upscale main drag full of lifestyle and fashion stores, but it gets busy on weekends. I recommend walking the backstreets to see the cute cottages and gardens. Our favourite place to eat is the award-winning Ates in Blackheath. It serves delicious Mediterranean-style share plates and always feels like a special night out. Much of its food is cooked in its 150-year-old wood-fired oven and there's a greenery-filled courtyard. On weekends, Tempus Katoomba has a fine-dining menu with an incredible all-Australian drinks list. It's in the old bank and lots of historical parts remain but the interiors are fun and fresh. On weekday mornings it switches to the Tempest Up Early cafe, serving Little Marionette coffee. We're so lucky to have Black Cockatoo bakery here. It's run by a French expat, Alexandre Rivière, and uses organic Australian flour and Pepe Saya cultured butter. Savoury or sweet, it's all delicious. It's a cool space, too, with custom ply joinery and lots of plants. We just discovered The Laughing Elephant in Wentworth Falls. It's an Asian grocer but they make amazing banh mi and laksa at lunchtimes. Fidelity is a new cafe run by two super-warm and welcoming guys with a deep passion for coffee. The seating spills outside with lots of dogs and friendly vibes. I drink decaf and often feel self-conscious but the baristas at Fidelity are like, 'You've got to try this decaf!' The house-made chai is great too. Cassiopeia has great coffee and baked goods too; it roasts its beans in Leura. Lyrebird Dell walking track in Leura is magical. It's shaded and cool with waterfalls and tree ferns so it's a great in summer. You can detour down to the Pool of Siloam waterhole for a swim. It has a sandy beach and doesn't get too crowded. Lockley Pylon is a three-hour walk (7.2km return) mostly along a ridge in north Leura. It's known for stunning wildflowers in spring, like boronia and waratah. It's very exposed, so walking on windy or super-hot days is not advised. At the end there's an incredible view over the Grose Valley. Wentworth Falls Lake Park has a new walkway and a viewing platform along the eastern edge that's pram- and wheelchair-friendly. The area still feels wild in places but there's also a big playground, a cute jetty and ducks. People kayak and canoe here; we like to swim on the north side in the shade of the gumtrees. It's busy on weekends with people barbecuing and picnicking. Minnehaha Falls in North Katoomba is 2.7km return with some stairs, but the waterhole at the end is a sublime swimming spot. The track follows Yosemite Creek which has loads of scribbly gums and banksia. I love native plants but I'm also a sucker for the lilacs, tulips and maples at Everglades House and Gardens. The art deco house is a wonderful glimpse into the past and you can do Devonshire tea in the tearoom. The 12-acre garden is manicured in some parts and bushy in others and you can picnic on the lawn. Down in the Lawson industrial area (15 minutes' drive east of Katoomba) is a quarterly experimental arts event run by SIRC_UIT. It's always a unique experience, with performance and installation, and there's a pop-up bar and food. Zoe's Blackheath has live music, Italian-influenced pub-style food and a great bar for a casual drink. Mountain Culture Brewpub in Katoomba is in a rambling 1900s building. The co-owner is originally from North Carolina; it has won many awards for its beers. There's great views and yummy burgers and fried pickles. Aqua Ignis is a new sauna and bathhouse in Blackheath that's open until 9pm. It has magnesium baths and a herbal steam room; it's such a restorative evening. Blue Mountains Sauna in Leura has been around longer; it's a more traditional Nordic-style space with regular 'clothing optional' sessions. Blue Mountains Cultural Centre in Katoomba is a crucial stop for art lovers. It features touring shows, such as the Archibald prize and the Wynne prize, as well as exhibitions from renowned local artists such as Claire Healy, Sean Cordeiro and Nick Stathopoulos. There's also an immersive permanent video installation filmed in the national park. I'm a mural artist, and the encouragement of street art here is so nice. Me and four other female mural artists painted the Froma Lane walkway that connects Katoomba Street to the centre. Beverley Place was really dilapidated 10 years ago before it was transformed into the Katoomba Street Art Walk. When a wall mural fades a new artist is invited to paint it. It's a really cool space to walk through. The cultural centre runs short street art tours or you can use a self-guided map. Landslide Gallery in Wentworth Falls was once an old flour mill. It runs an Australia-wide and international artist-in-residency program and its exhibitions showcase the incredibly diverse mediums of Blue Mountains artists, from ceramics to sculpture, paintings and textile art. Day Gallery is a commercial gallery in Blackheath; the couple behind it, Helen and Vincent Day, are legends. Their roster of artists is truly inspiring. During Covid lockdowns, renowned local painter and musician Claire Nakazawa (from the band Haiku Hands) created a mural on the external wall as her response to the landscapes after the black summer fires. The area around the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre in Katoomba is getting so vibrant. Katoomba Civic Centre's gardens are re-landscaped with tree ferns and banksias, and it's a lovely stroll through the Carrington hotel's garden down to Katoomba Street. The Blue Mountains Co-op is near there and has a kiosk with the most amazing soups. The co-op market garden is next to the cultural centre and the Carrington hotel. It's run by Farm it Forward, which makes unused pieces of land productive. This patch was long abandoned and now it has a head farmer and the co-op sells its seasonal organic produce. I painted a produce-inspired mural on an adjoining heritage-listed wall to bring some joy and to revive the space. The Carrington (from $230 a night) is an old-world beauty and I love looking at the historical photographs of how Katoomba began, with just the Carrington at the top of the hill and this rickety train line. The Kyah (from $190 per night) is a very cool renovated motel in Blackheath. It has a great restaurant called Blaq, gardens, a tennis court and a hot tub. Chalets at Blackheath (from $1,300 a night; sleeps two) are very high end and dreamy. There are four freestanding chalets with bushland views. They have fireplaces, bathtubs and a sundeck; you're really immersed in the environment and birdsong. Cloud Parade (from $1,095 a night; sleeps 10) is an Airbnb in Leura with lovely interiors and stunning valley views. It's only a 15-minute walk to the town centre, which is impressive, because often places with views this good are a fair hike from the shops. Nastia Gladushchenko is a Ukrainian Australian artist and interior designer
New York Times
17-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Scouting the Blues' enemy: Breaking down the Jets with Murat Ates
The St. Louis Blues were 22 seconds away from playing the Vegas Golden Knights in the first round of the playoffs. But a goal by the Minnesota Wild's Joel Eriksson Ek earned the Wild a point against the Anaheim Ducks, and with that, the Blues' opponent switched to the Winnipeg Jets. The series starts Saturday at 5 p.m. CT at Canada Life Centre. Advertisement That Winnipeg won the Presidents' Trophy this season, and that the Blues went 1-2-1 against the Jets in the teams' four meetings, proves it will be a hard series. But the pressure will weigh heavily on Winnipeg beginning with Game 1. The Jets will be reminded they were the favorite against the Blues in 2019 and became the first team to fall on St. Louis' way to the Stanley Cup. Winnipeg, not Vegas, may just be the opponent the Blues want. Do they look nervous? We'll find out. For a closer look, I'm bringing in colleague Murat Ates, our man on the ground in Winnipeg. Ates provides fantastic coverage of the Jets, and I really recommend following him on X and Bluesky and reading him here at The Athletic throughout this series. Rutherford: I don't think many people predicted Winnipeg to win the Central Division, much less the Presidents' Trophy. What's made the Jets so good this season? Ates: The Jets were better than I expected them to be for two main reasons. First, the Jets' power play was dynamic for most of the season, with multiple ways to create Grade-A scoring chances no matter who had the puck on their stick. Second, Connor Hellebuyck put together a spectacular season, somehow improving upon last year's Vezina Trophy-winning performance by leading all starters in wins, shutouts, save percentage, goals-against average and goals saved above expected. He could win the Hart Trophy this season, has already won his second straight William Jennings Trophy, and is a near lock to win his second straight Vezina. But you asked why the Jets were good. The real answer is that somewhere along the line, the Jets' star forwards bought in to team defense, and the role players developed such a complete game that they created offense, too. Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor used to put up point-per-game seasons but give up even more goals than they created. They've worked hard under Scott Arniel (and Rick Bowness before him) and turned from a matchup that other teams could exploit into a star tandem that takes care of winning the puck before rushing off on the attack. They have the puck more often, score more often and get beat less often than they did in years past. Advertisement The Jets' depth forwards are also wildly underrated. There's a hard-forechecking, annoying-but-effective player type Winnipeg used to lack but has since added multiple times over in the form of Alex Iafallo, Nino Niederreiter, Vladislav Namestnikov and Brandon Tanev. Adam Lowry's shutdown line, usually with Niederreiter and Mason Appleton, has played some of the toughest minutes in the NHL this season and won by fighting for the toughest parts of the ice at both ends of the rink. I'd argue Winnipeg's overall advantage over most teams is more about its depth than its top-end forward talent. Josh Morrissey leads a defense corps that has learned how to contribute to offense with or without his skating ability. The Jets forecheck — and backcheck — way better than they ever have, so the defense can gap up on their blue line early and aggressively. Winnipeg does a good job of forcing turnovers (or dump-ins) at the line, turning and making great passes to send its forwards up the ice. I thought that was the biggest part of what went well for the Jets against St. Louis earlier this month — yes, the Blues defended their zone brilliantly, but Winnipeg spent a ton of time on offense. Why? Because the Jets worked their tails off to stuff St. Louis' entry attempts at Winnipeg's line. That's not a star power thing, it's a team buy-in thing. And Winnipeg is better bought-in this season than at any point in my memory of covering them. Rutherford: Last season, the Jets picked up 110 points but got picked apart by Colorado in the playoffs. Plus, there was that whole 'Spittin' Chiclets' storyline about Winnipeg being frauds. Is this version of the Jets an actual playoff threat? Ates: Short answer: Yes, yes, they are. Longer answer: This season's Jets were always going to be judged by their playoffs. That's the cost of Winnipeg's disappointing playoff history. Winnipeg had already made substantial year-over-year improvements to go from missing the 2022 playoffs to getting beaten by Vegas in 2023. They got even better with Lowry as captain last season (and malcontent Pierre-Luc Dubois shipped to Los Angeles for Gabriel Vilardi, Iafallo and Rasmus Kupari). But the improvement Winnipeg managed, as real as it was, brought it only far enough to realize how far it still needed to go. Advertisement Jets leadership took last year's loss much harder than the losses before it. 'I hope it stings,' Morrissey said, and then player after player talked about getting 5 percent to 10 percent better in the offseason. From the outside, these will seem like platitudes, but the players' willingness to speak the truth — that they weren't good enough — kickstarted a long offseason that's led to real growth. I've written that I believe in these Jets' resilience more than previous models — that what we got wrong about this season's Jets was not the truth in their call to action but the size of their response to it — and I stand by that now. The Jets just get after it this season. They don't let bad shifts or bounces derail them. And they're finally playing with the doggedness from top to bottom that characterizes true contending teams. There are points of concern, of course. Vilardi will likely miss Game 1 and Nikolaj Ehlers will likely miss the entire series. If you're unfamiliar with his game, I think of Vilardi as the Jets' power-play quarterback despite Winnipeg running a top unit of Connor, Scheifele, Morrissey, Vilardi and Ehlers (when healthy). The Jets' power play is ranked No. 1, but is less dynamic with Vilardi and Ehlers absent. The Jets also have a hardworking, physical third pair of Luke Schenn and Logan Stanley that gives up quite a bit in terms of footspeed. Schenn appears to have the veteran wiles not to get burned by it; Stanley has mixed solid games with moments of chaos leading directly to goals against. Rutherford: The last time Hellebuyck and Jordan Binnington faced off in a high-stakes environment, Hellebuyck gave up the deciding goal to Connor McDavid in the 4 Nations Face-Off. Binnington won the Cup in 2019, too, while Hellebuyck came under fire last year. Can the two-time Vezina winner beat Binnington when it matters most? Ates: There's a narrative out there that Hellebuyck gave up 24 goals in five games to Colorado and must have been the reason Winnipeg lost. If you didn't get the chance to watch that series, you'll have missed the Avalanche's utter dominance in the moments leading up to their goals. The Jets didn't have an answer for Nathan MacKinnon or Cale Makar's speed or Valeri Nichushkin and Arturri Lehkonen's net-front presence, so what you often saw was zone entry, cutback, pass to a trailer with tons of open ice, seam pass, shot, recovery, seam pass, shot, rebound, goal. It was that dominant. While the 4 Nations gold medal game wasn't nearly that one-sided, Team Canada did create a ton of slot shots, and Hellebuyck was equal to them until McDavid was left all alone in front. I'm not worried about Hellebuyck's big-game ability. Binnington can absolutely dazzle, though. There were many moments in that tournament when I thought he'd been beaten, and, no matter what position he was in, he found a way to make an incredible save. It felt like 2019 all over again, but somehow all the more spectacular on the international stage. I'm not worried about Binnington's big-game ability, either. Advertisement Rutherford: The Jets made smaller trades at the deadline, picking up Brandon Tanev and Schenn. (Not sure if you've heard, but Luke has a brother who plays in St. Louis.) How will Tanev and Schenn impact this series? Ates: Winnipeg tried to trade for Brock Nelson, but that trade didn't come to fruition; it seems Colorado was Nelson's preferred place to play. The players the Jets did add addressed specific needs. Tanev is tenacious, fast, and a pain to play against. I wouldn't expect much offence, but you'll know him well for his speed and his involvement in after-the-whistle scrums. Schenn is Winnipeg's only player who has won a Stanley Cup and provides an on-ice element that the Jets have lacked; Schenn wins net-front battles and ends plays on the boards with authority and strength. He's not fast — and that could become a problem — but the Jets got sick of getting beat for loose pucks and rebounds, whether at five-on-five or on the penalty kill, and Schenn helps on both of those fronts. Rutherford: Is there somebody less famous than Hellebuyck, Connor, Scheifele or even Morrissey who could be dangerous for Winnipeg against St. Louis? Ates: I'm sure Blues fans will feel the same way when Connor and Scheifele get cycling as Jets fans will feel on shifts when Thomas and Kyrou are controlling play. I've also praised Winnipeg's depth players; I'm fully expecting Lowry, Iafallo or Niederreiter to score a big goal from within an inch of the crease. In this case, though, I'll pick 23-year-old Cole Perfetti. The cerebral, playmaking forward scored 50 points while staying healthy for his first 82-game season. Perfetti is equally adept as a shooter or a passer, but his biggest strength is his hockey sense: He has the intelligence and hands to make a first-option play and the hockey IQ to hold on to the puck for a quarter second until a seam opens up that other players may not have seen. Perfetti has only played in one playoff game before this season, though, and his next playoff point will be his first. Rutherford: Ehlers is hurt. Vilardi is hurt. That's an enormous part of Winnipeg's top unit for the league's No. 1-ranked power play. What's the latest on those players, and do the Jets have any other lineup concerns? Ates: Vilardi has been skating on his own before recent Jets practices. Arniel is calling him 'day to day' but Vilardi has yet to take contact or participate in a full practice since his upper body injury on March 23. I'd be surprised if he played in Game 1. Ehlers is out 'week to week' and I don't think he'll play at all in this series. Advertisement This is where the Jets may be vulnerable. Iafallo has given the Jets a hard forechecking, hard backchecking option to play with Connor and Scheifele while Vilardi has been hurt. The Jets have promoted Niederreiter to play with Namestnikov and Perfetti with Ehlers out of the lineup. In both cases, the Jets' depth provides a quality 200 foot player who gets the details right, but neither Iafallo nor Niederreiter can match the production of Vilardi or Ehlers. I don't worry about the Jets' commitment to team defence but they're going to need to work harder for goals against St. Louis than they've needed to for most of the season. (Top photo of Adam Lowry shooting against the Blues: Connor Hamilton / Imagn Images)
