The Big Apple bites back

New York's statue of liberty is one of the country's greatest symbols of independence.

It's been four years since New York City was ripped apart by terrorists flying planes into the famous skyline. But in spite of the scar still evident at Ground Zero, there is a spring in the step of businesses, politicians and individuals who call this city home.

While the impact of the attack is still obvious, and far from forgotten, New York is no longer in mourning. Far from it.

The city is emerging from the trauma with a plan to reinvent the Big Apple so it makes an even greater impact on the world than before.

From my room at the Embassy Suites in the financial district I can see behind the tall security fences into the eerie void where the World Trade Center stood on my last visit here.

There is no obvious sign of construction work on the 6.5ha site. Buildings around the perimeter are still being refurbished or stand condemned and draped in a shroud of black cloth as a tangible reminder of the day the sky fell down, forever changing civilised society as we knew it.

Plans for a new Freedom Tower have finally satisfied the powers-that-be in this security conscious age, and a memorial park will be constructed as a sombre tribute in the foundations of the original towers.

A waterfall will cascade two floors over the names of those who were lost - including those at the Pentagon and in the field in Pennsylvania, who are sometimes forgotten amid the impact of the dramatic scenes in the middle of Manhattan.

But even before this new attraction rises from the destruction of September 11, New York City Tourism is working tirelessly to woo visitors and the efforts are paying off. Nearly 40 million people visited last year, breaking all previous records.

New hotels are scheduled to open this year including the city's first kosher hotel. Actor Robert de Niro is building a hotel in TriBeCa, and rock'n'roll's Hard Rock Cafe is opening digs as well as dining on Times Square.

The iconic 70-story Rockefeller Center is undergoing a massive refurbishment that will see its observation deck and function centre re-open for the first time in 20 years.

The original rooftop was modelled on a 1930s ocean liner complete with deck chairs and the air-conditioning vents made to look like smokestacks.

The same architectural firm is being used for the restoration to keep the art deco style, while adding 21st century technology like glass-top elevators showcasing the passage of time as you shoot towards the sky.

When the Top of the Rock opens in November you will be able gaze down the barrel of Central Park, see as far as the Statue of Liberty and stare eye-to-eye at the top of the Empire State Building.

It won't be long before lovers are bestowing bling at this, the newest romantic rooftop in town soaring 260m above 6th Avenue.

In the streets below, New York continues to live up to its nickname - well, one of them - as The World's Second Home.

With a spare day to wander around, I started in Chinatown. The tiny immigrant village squeezed into two square miles of lower Manhattan, was virtually cut off during the state of emergency, and remained isolated for months.

It now enjoys a new focus as visitors meander through the busy streets amidst a cacophony of promises of cheap clothing, jewellery and perfumes.

Organised tours of this mini Hong Kong include top dim sum restaurants, the best places to go for fresh market produce, eclectic Chinese fabric and curios.

The uniqueness of Chinatown is that it has kept its cultural personality for over 100 years with shops pouring on to footpaths where your bargaining skills come in handy.

But when looking for lunch in New York, you gotta try the pizza, I was reliably informed by my Italian/American friend. And, he added, it had better not be at a restaurant chain.

Stepping across Canal St into Mulberry St, China becomes Italy. Watches and handbags are replaced by so many pizzerias it is difficult to choose.

Cha Cha's was the first place my rumbling tummy came to and has a cute cafe garden hidden out the back of this built-up street.

I ordered a slice of pepperoni pizza for US$3 ($4.30) and sat surrounded by photos on the walls of famous people - some of whom had eaten here (Danny DeVito) and many who hadn't.

Every September since 1926, Little Italy celebrates the feast of San Gennaro, the patron saint of Naples. For 10 days Mulberry St is transformed into a virtual alfresco restaurant with wall-to-wall vendors selling great Italian food in a crazy carnival atmosphere.

But using all my willpower to abstain from the enticing gelato, I decided to stroll through the bohemian-chic neighbourhood of Greenwich Village.

My worn and folded map pointed me west to join the New York University student crowd and maybe glean a little inspiration from the ghosts of former residents Mark Twain, Edgar Allen Poe, Walt Whitman and O. Henry.

I grabbed a coffee and a look at passers-by at a cafe on the corner of Breecker and MacDougal Sts. You don't see many tourists with maps in this part of town, just students heading to class, coffee shops and restaurants spilling on to the footpaths.

Re-energised by the caffeine, I set off again. The boutique Chess Forum on trendy Thompson Street drew me in.

My eclectic chess collection, which started with a set from Peru of the Spanish v the Incas, has now been added to by a hand-painted George and Martha Washington as king and queen battling real King George and Queen Charlotte in the War of Independence.

The next day I headed across the East River. Brooklyn is another exciting borough visitors to the Big Apple tend to miss.

A sibling rivalry has existed between Brooklyn and Manhattan since it was incorporated into New York City in 1898.

The region is a thriving metropolis in its own right with world-class museums, landmark buildings and buzzing neighbourhoods.

If it were still an independent city, it would be one of the 20 largest in America.

But the only thing I knew before I explored it was how mortified Sex and the City's Miranda was to be moving there and how Carrie, Samantha and Charlotte thought they would surely never see her again as she was practically moving overseas.

In fact, Brooklyn is only minutes from Manhattan and, for culture-buffs, is worth a visit to the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

BAM, built in 1908, is an opera house, home to the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, a dance and performance theatre and three art deco-style cinemas that show art-house films in the funky neighbourhood of Fort Greene.

And if you thought there couldn't possibly be any empty space in New York to build a new neighbourhood, you need to see Dumbo. Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass is Brooklyn's answer to Manhattan's SoHo.

The former warehouse district is nestled between the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. Lined with cobblestone streets, warehouses in the throes of being transformed into pricey apartments and stunning views of the Manhattan skyline, it's a residential bonanza.

Arty bohemian-types are being chased away by dot.com companies and young families snapping up property at significantly lower prices than their neighbours across the river.

You can even picnic in a new park under the Brooklyn Bridge while watching the hectic life across the water.

So as the city continues to grow under renewed focus and an organised plan, the wound that scars New York has become a gift to its own people and one it is ready to share with the rest of the world.

Getting there

Air Tahiti Nui flies from Auckland to New York via Tahiti making the East Coast accessible without needing to leap-frog over California.

Accommodation

For information on where to stay and what to do in New York, please visit the links below.

Sightseeing

Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is at 30 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217, Phone 001 718 636 4100

Top of the Rock: Due to open shortly, tickets US$14 ($20.20) adults, $9 ($12.95) children. Book in advance for specific time slots to avoid enormous queues by phoning 001 877 692 7625

Chinatown: The Museum of Chinese in the Americas (MoCA), 70 Mulberry St, is running an exhibition of photos, artefacts and stories from the locals' perspective about the impact of September 11 on their community.

* Megan Singleton flew to New York courtesy of Air Tahiti Nui and United Airlines.