My Favourite Holiday: Weatherman Christopher Blanchett loves iconic Sydney

Christopher, 33, is the senior weather presenter for the BBC north of the Border and a familiar face from his forecasts on Reporting Scotland.

Isle of Wight-born Christopher worked on various other stations before moving to Glasgow five years ago.

He hit the headlines when he steered Prince Charles through doing a forecast on a visit to the BBC studios.

I GREW up on the Isle of Wight where my parents ran a hotel.

It was an idyllic childhood. I was at the place everyone else came to for holidays.

You probably don’t realise at the time just how fantastic it was.

For the six weeks of the summer holidays I’d sort of share it with the families that came.

I’d play on the beach with their kids and then after a week or two they’d leave and a new family would come.

That was the normality of life for me and ever since I’ve had a love of islands and beaches.

But while I still have that affinity, now that I’m older I’ve become more of a city person.

And there is one city above all – Sydney.

I’ve almost lost count of the number of times I’ve been. It must be 10 or 12 so I’ve got to confess that it’s become a bit of an obsession.

The first time I went was when I was backpacking and I still remember the moment I saw the Harbour Bridge. I wanted to touch the white tiles on the Opera House.

They’re just such iconic world landmarks.

It’s such a buzzy city and the northern beaches, away from busy ones like Bondi, are just fantastic.

I once did that very British thing of spending Boxing Day on the beach.

I’m so mad about Sydney I once went for just 24 hours.

It’s not quite as crazy as it sounds as I was in Singapore and friends had to go there for work. I went with them and had a coffee by the harbour before heading back to the airport.

The weather is always so good. I’ve seen the locals in hats and scarves while I’m in shorts – they just don’t realise!

The other city I’ve just discovered is Tokyo which I visited last February.

I couldn’t get over the sheer number of people and just how busy it was.

But it was also surprisingly scenic.

There was an amazing view to Mount Fuji on the horizon with skyscrapers as far as you could see.