Day 30 – Last Day In Australia

This is a few days late…but I was having trouble sitting down and writing it. For a couple of reasons, like I was sick my last day, and I was full to the brim with emotion!!

On my last day I requested to go back up to the Sunshine Coast to have one last look at Summerland before I go. Lori took me to Coolum Beach once again. The tide was in this time and the spot I was standing taking photos and videos last time, was covered in about 3′ of water now. We wandered alont the beach; I was taking note of the colour of the water, the smell in the air being very fresh – not salty, how Australian sand squeaks under your feet (it does! it’s the weirdest thing), how many things I’ve seen and done since I landed 4 weeks ago. I was marveling at all of it, if I could have sat on that beach and listen to thewaves forever I would have. I started having this emotional shift inside me; part of me longing to stay longer and see more, to find work and a cute beach house and live in summer eternally. Another part of me remembering my friends, family and husband who are all missing me, and wanting me home. Remember I have a new job to start Tuesday, a new chapter of life to explore, and how much I’m missing Scott. And how, inevitably I’ll have to let go of Summerland, and fly back to My Home and Native Land.. OH CANADA!

We came back to Brisbane to get ready for dinner at the Bavarian Bier Cafe with Kerri and Lynny, and all of us. The drive downtown was precarious to say the least. I thought at every bump and turn I was gonna chuck  my cookies! My hand was on the door just in case I had to tuck and roll out of the moving vehicle. Good thing for Matt I was able to hold it together. After having a bit of bread and two cups of peppermint tea, my tummy decided it was safe to have a bit of mashed potato, and I started feeling a little better. Not swinging from the chandeliers or anything, but good enough to attempt a ride on the Brisbane Wheel and see the city from high up. It was a perfect evening (naturally, this IS Summerland after all), the walkway has this great archway all along it, with bougainvillea growing all over it – beautiful purple flowers, looking lovely even at night. Oh, and with all the sickness, I forgot to grab my big camera – I was going to get shots of what Lori calls “The Noodle Box”, which is a pedestrian bridge that I can’t remember the name of. Lots of wires and really interesting looking. Brisbane is knows as the city of bridges, even more than Vancouver!

Fast forward to the next morning… Packed up all my stuff in the car, we dropped BamBam off first to daycare, he was like “BYE!”, of course he’s only 2 and a half so he doesn’t really know A) who I am or B) that I was leaving. It was cute though. We got to the airport about an hour early, which was actually good because it took longer than I thought waiting in customs line-ups. We said our (naturally) teary goodbyes. I honestly can’t express enough gratitude to everyone; Lori for planning my each and every wonderful day in Australia, Lynda for opening her home to me and letting me sleep in her spare room, and borrow Mindy as a snuggle buddy until I could see Doc again, and Matt for…. um….. OH! snorkelling the reef with me and making sure I didn’t get eaten by sharks, laughing at me daily especially at footie games, and taking me to a cemetery at night among the ghosts and ghouls (and wheel-chaired people making scary noises).

Who would have imagined that Lori phoning Canada so long ago to reach out to her extended family would end up like this? They’ve been to Canada and stayed with me and Scott,  perfect strangers really; and now I’ve been to Australia and stayed with them. But the only difference is they ARE family  now.

I love you guys…. and thank you, from the bottom of my grateful Canadian heart. Until next time….

Day 29 – The Footie

Today was Matt’s dad’s birthday, we were all invited out for lunch to celebrate, but I woke up feeling like complete and utter crap. So, I bowed out and decided to stay home and rest up. For some reason I always seem to get sick at the end of vacations. Mind you, that’s better than getting sick at the beginning I guess; but naturally I’d prefer to not get sick at all. So, at home with a headache, sore throat and cramps, I wasted much of the day on the internet, and texting Scott while he was at work, conveniently working nights!

In the late afternoon we headed down to The Gabba, Brisbane’s cricket and AFL field, to see the Brisbane Lions take on the Western Bulldogs. I asked “Western where?” and they said they are from western Melbourne. The very first goal was by my new favourite player, Daniel Rich. I noticed him more on the reply over the big screen, what a cutie!! Haha! And apparently I made a good pick as my favourite because he is kind of a super star, really good player! This was my first (and probably only) Aussie Rules football game, and I gotta say, it beat the heck out of Canadian or American football – WAY faster paced. They don’t stop for ANYTHING! Two Bulldog players hit head to head, knocked each other unconscious, and everyone just kept playing around them! I’m shouting “STOP THE GAME! STOP THE GAME!”. Eventually they realized there were two unconscious people on the field so it stopped for a bit, but geez! They’re tough sons of bitches!

A couple things to note: instead of hot dogs, which is our staple at most every sporting event, here they eat pies. Meat pies. So, I had one (as it’s been a recurring theme on my trip; Fernvale, Yatala…) and it was good except for two things. 1, it was beef. 2, I’m pretty sure it had lamb in it too. All that said, it was fun to blend in with the locals wearing my scarf and eating my pie! Another thing to note: I was completely distracted by the photographer in front of us. We were in the first row, and on the field right in front of us was a photographer, shooting with a Canon 1d, and a 200-400mm lens. It was massive!! Not as big as the other guy’s 600mm lens, but whatever. I got lots of pics of it! hahaha!! Zoom envy….. The last thing to note: They let people rush out onto the field after, and play footie with their kids! It’s amazing! So we walked across the field at the end, which was convenient because we needed to go out of the gate across the field from us anyway, it was a timesaver. Just be careful of flying footballs – they were everywhere!!

With the help of my spirit gear (scarf!) and changing my profile to the Lions logo, and Daniel Rich, WE WON!!! 100-93!! And, I’m proud to say, this was the last Lions home game of the season, so I’m really glad we took part!! 🙂 Fun fun!

High/Low

High: The Footie!!

Low: Feeling like death warmed over.

WOD: Piker. Someone who backs out of social commitments, like I did today. I was called a piker…. I was piking…. sorry John!

Day 27 – Ayers Rock Pt. 2

We had a very early start today, up at 4:30 for all of us to shower and get ready for a 6:00am pick up for our Sunrise Breakfast – including bacon and egg sandwiches and damper (see WOD below). We drove up to sand dunes to watch the sun rise in the east across the desert. The guide Eric was very knowledgable about all the flora and fauna in the area. Which I’m surprised to learn about myself, I actually do want to know what flowers and trees are called! And I’m so grateful that we got to see the desert in bloom!! Apparently they had a lot of rain in July and the desert has woken up and blossomed. A very early spring I guess 🙂 later on (like December) it will be 46°c in the shade he claims, and 20° at night whew!! For months! No reprieve!!

After that we went for a walk around the base, and got some really great photos. Such a beautiful place!! We also saw a waterhole (yep there was water!) and some aboriginal drawings in a cave area, where they would have taught their children their stories of creation.

Now we are wrapping up our whirlwind tour and flying back to Brisbane via Sydney. Gonna be a long travel day again, probably won’t get right home until 10pm or so.

High/Low
High: seeing Uluru up close & learning about the vegetation
Low: more traveling again so soon? Lol
WOD: Damper. This is a traditional bread typically made in the outback on coals by drovers and swagmen.

Day 26 – Ayers Rock

We said goodbye to Sydney this morning for a 10:30 flight to Ayers Rock. Lets talk bucket list for a moment shall we? The big bucket list item was of course coming to Australia. But if we break it down into subcategories, Ayers Rock is FIRST on that list, with stars around it, flags flying nearby and a rousing march by DeSousa playing in the background. I’m hoping you get the point. And I’m here now….nuff said.

My first view of Uluru was getting off the plane, which was exciting! I kept tearing up just thinking about it, especially when we were waiting at the airport for our plane. We checked into our hotel, and 2 hours later were on our sunset tour and BBQ! There was a lot of build up about crying here, and I actually didn’t. I think the difference between this and swimming the reef, is here I had all my gear and a job to do. I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself to get this shot, so I didn’t want to mess it up, I was focused and remarkably unemotional. Who knows, we still have a breakfast tour tomorrow!!

So after sunset pics we had a BBQ at the cultural centre, outside among the stars. They had steak, chicken, shrimp (prawns), kangaroo, sausage, potatoes, salad. It was all so good — and YES I tried kangaroo. It was ok, reminded me of beef (chewing it forever – which is why I don’t eat beef), with a hint of gamey, but not bad. They can’t cook it rare or medium though apparently, it has to be cooked well through, so I found it kind of tough, I’d probably like it in a stew much more, as I will eat a beef stew if its nice and tender and fall apart. So, if you like beef, you’d like roo.

After the meal we did a bit of star gazing as there isn’t a town for 450 kms so the skies are über clear! I got a picture of Scorpio, the moon which was full last night so pretty bright tonight still, the southern cross (which doesn’t contain the south star, as that doesn’t exist!), and it on the Australian flag (and New Zealand, New Guinea, ams Brazil as well we learned!!). Then on the way back to the hotel we listened to a few songs like “Rain on the Rock” and of course “Waltzing Matilda” which is about as Aussie as Stompin’ Tom’s “The Hockey Song” is Canadian. It was great to hear everyone singing along and feeling good; my smile was a mile wide!

Ok…off to bed now.

High/Low
High: duh….. the Rock of course!!
Low: it’s going too fast 😦
WOD: itchy grub. a caterpillar (the processionary caterpillar to be exact), their hairs will actually make your skin itchy, sometimes for days!!

Day 25 – More Sydney

We started the day visiting the Queen Victoria Building, it’s a beautiful old building building that was completed in 1898, and restored in 1986. I asked what it was originally used for (as its now like a shopping mall, but way nicer and more quaint), and it turns out it was designed as a big shopping centre! I don’t think I’ve been in a mall that old before! It’s so beautiful! Inside there’s a hug clock called the Great Australian Clock, it has a little ship that sails around it, through different tableaux’s of the places Captain Cook sailed past when he first discovered Australia. It also has other depictions of life here pre and post occupation. Including ‘the taking of the children’. Kinda gruesome. It also has a big arm that will show you the date.

After the QVB, we went to Vaucluse House, an old homestead that was used from 1827-1862. It has beautiful gardens around it with walking paths all through it. The house is only open for tours on the weekends, so I didn’t get to see inside which kinda sucks, but still walking around the place was nice. Much different architecture here than Newstead House in Brisbane, this place was all stone compared to wooden structures up north. Which goes the same for all the houses, lots of stone and brick, as well as some beautiful sandstone, all designed for a bit cooler weather.

On our way to our Captain Cook “Highlights” cruise, Lori and I happened to stumble upon my favorite Guylian shell chocolates, in the form of a CAFÉ!!! Brilliant. Chocotastic!!! Moving on… So we went on a nice harbour cruise and saw all the Sydney highlights, some of which I’ve already seen myself on land, Circular Quay, Royal Botanical Gardens, Mrs. Macquarie’s chair, Opera House, Harbour Bridge, Darling Harbour and of course all the multi-million dollar homes all around the harbour (upwards of 30 million, plus!!).

As we were walking back to our hotel, which is on the closest pier next to the bridge, we walked through the oldest area of Sydney called “The Rocks” as most of the buildings were made of local sandstone (I google all of my grand assumptions first). It reminded me a bit if Old Town Quebec, with stone cobble streets and really gorgeous old buildings. And chocolate cafés. Yes.

High/Low
High: gotta love the Queen Victoria Building – so ornate!
Low: the diesel stink on the cruise. It actually reminded me of a dinner cruise we had our last night in Cairo – and not in a good way 😖
WOD: Budgie smugglers. What we would call “speedos”‘ or a banana hammock. Lol!!

Day 23 – Bathurst & Leura

Today we took a drive out in the country, further west toward Bathurst. Apparently it’s been known to snow in those parts. Being in a new state, I’ve noticed a big change in the landscape as well, trees are much more dense, and they have more deciduous trees that are leafless due to the colder weather. You really can notice how much it feels like winter here. Not OUR winter, mind you, but winter nonetheless. And it’s a good reminder of the saying about Queensland; beautiful one day, perfect the next! SO TRUE! Not sure what the saying for New South Wales is, but I do find myself pining for summerland up north!!

The weather was a little bleak today, and we thought we may see snow, but didn’t. We did however see big things!! I got pictures of a big gold miner, and we also passed a big miners lantern.

Once we got back to town, we stopped in Leura. It’s similar to a Niagara on the Lake type place, lots of neat little shops, cafés and restaurants, just a small little place nestled in the blue mountains. So quaint! We ate at a neat little cafe called the Wayzgoose, I had pumpkin soup, toast and peach iced tea – yummy, and such an autumn like meal.

Oh yes, and as we were settling in for the night, it snowed briefly! Wet snow, as it was hovering around 0°c. Didn’t last long, but it was neat to see. Amazing that I was up at the Great Barrier Reef last week snorkeling among the coral!!! Goodness!!

High/Low
High: Leura – quaint place!
Low: seeing snow! Brrrr I’m not ready!!
WOD: Quince: a type of fruit that grows here (and lots of other places like Nova Scotia I’m learning!) that is shaped and smells much like an apple or pear, but is too butter to eat raw. It’s generally used in jams and sweet treats 🙂

Day 18 – Country Drive

We are between road trips right now, the Great Barrier Reef behind me, Sydney and the Blue Mountains ahead. We leave Friday afternoon on our next road adventure, so until then what do we do? Well, it’s all about visiting things I’d like a second look at! Definitely I’d like to hit the Sunshine Coast again, and I loved the Hinterland which is just inland from the Sunshine Coast.

So it was off to the Hinterland. Thus time we were going to stop in Maleny, as we only cruised through there before, but stopped in Montville. Both are up in mountain ranges and are absolutely beautiful! The only downside is they don’t leave a lot of room for photographers to pull over and take pictures!! Last time I didn’t get enough snaps of the landscape so we were determined to make it work this time 🙂 This time, we were more successful which was great.

We tried stopping in Maleny but there was no where to park. It was a Brisbane holiday for the Ekka – similar to our CNE, and they get a public holiday to go, so we figured it was busier because of that. We decided to find this dairy farm Lori had heard about. What was it called Carolyn? Well, Maleny Dairy of course!! Keep it simple!! Got some great photos of cows, sheep, landscape. It’s a good place to bring families, they do sell milk products, and food, but they don’t mind if you bring your own and have a picnic there – which is nice.

After the dairy farm, we drove back to Brisbane via Mount Mee. The roads are so twisty-turny, uphill and downhill that they have a real problem with motorcycle crashes. And it’s true! We must’ve seen at least a dozen bikes speeding up and down the road, passing people, being crazy risky. They even have road signs with motorcycles on them telling them to slow down, and marking out crash zones. So if you ever feel inclined to die on a bike in Australia, go to Mount Mee, they can hook you up. Come on people!! It’s 2013 not 1950! Be safe for goodness sake!! Moving on….

This evening the girls (Lynny and Kerri) came over for supper, and to look at photos from Dreamworld and Lori’s birthday breakfast. Always good to see them, they’re good people – Lynny’s a nut…she reminds me of me!! Tomorrow (technically today once I get my butt in gear) is the dunny spider!! Stay tuned!!

High/Low
High: the beautiful country side
Low: Lori was trying to decide where we should go for my last supper here. How depressing!!
WOD: Yobbo. Like a drongo, a general insult basically calling someone an idiot. 😉

Day 14 – Party Boat!!

We had an early start to the day, out of the house by 6:30 to be at the wharf by 7:30. We drove into Airlie Beach to the Able Point Marina and caught our vessel that would take us to the reef.

It took 3 hours.

Apparently I greatly underestimated how close the reef is lol!!

Mind you, we stopped part way at Hamilton Island to pick up passengers. Such a beautiful spot. Matt is pushing to by the post office there – I say go for it!! But the cheapest place we found to live was $1.8 million!

We arrive at ‘Reefworld’, an oasis in the middle of the ocean, right next to the reef. The colors are amazing, blues & turquoise, from the platform above it kinda just looks like a sand bar. We decided to go in the semi-submerged sub for a tour. It drives right along the reef – so nice, until I had a panic attack. What was a claustrophobic person thinking about being trapped inside a metal death box. I was breathing rally shallow, told Matt I was “panicking a little”. He looked at me like “really? Northern Hemisphere Lori?” I told him I was a bit claustrophobic and he said, “that would have been good information to know before hand”. Ya I guess!! So we pulled Tabby out and I started taking pictures of him and it passed. Whew!!

We came back and it was lunch time already, the tour describes the meal as a ‘sumptuous’ lunch. I think they hired a spin doctor for that one. But I did try a prawn, and it was good! They’re so huge compared to our shrimp that it literally tasted like mini lobster!! During the meal I was trying to decide if I was going to snorkel or not. For one, I’ve never snorkeled before so I was nervous of that, and for two, Matt said he wasn’t going and I didn’t want to do it alone. You can take a guided tour but that costs $45. And lastly, they encourage you to wear a wet suit, and I obviously have issues with my size, and don’t fancy looking like a giant bald tire. So finally Matt agreed he would come with me, and I agreed to go without the suit so off we went! Got down there, grabbed our snorkeling gear and the guy threw a suit at me, I told him it won’t fit, he looked at me and said “Ya, it will, no worries”. Magically I transformed into a bald tire and off we went!!

After I figured out how the snorkeling worked, and got over the fact that there was no bottom, and I was in an ocean with sharks, it went amazing!! I saw the biggest clams ever!! The colors were amazing, like opals, and it was so overwhelming. I kept saying “you’re snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef!!” and that thought make me break out crying. But when you scrunch up your face it lets water in so I had to get a grip!! We were on the reef for want seemed like not that long but was more like an hour and a bit!

We had just enough time to get out and dry off the. We were back on the catamaran for our 3 hour tour home. WHAT A DAY!!!!

High/Low
High: the reef snorkeling of course
Low: the long ride to see the reef when you are crazy excited like me!!
WOD: Larrikin: a man who is happy-go-lucky, nothing phases him, jovial.

Day 11 – Lori’s Birthday at Dreamworld

Today was Lori’s 40th birthday!! It’s the major reason why I came when I did, and I’m certainly glad I did 🙂 Instead of singing the traditional Happy Birthday song, we decided to go with the less traditional Oi Oi Oi song. So when I say Lori, you say <>

Lori, Lori, Lori!!!
<>
Lori, Lori, Lori!!!
<>
Lori!! OI!!
Lori!! OI!!
Lori, Lori, Lori!!!
<>

Aannyyywwaayyyyy…..

We went to Dreamworld which is a little like Wonderland, run by Dreamworks Entertainment, so they have movie themed kids areas like Madagascar Land, a Shrek part called Forever After, and a Kung Fu Panda section that looked like little China! So cute!!

We went and saw the tigers first and had our pics done with a beautiful 175kilo (385lb) 14 year old tiger named Rama. I have to admit I was kinda freaked out – they are huge!!! This is a bucket list thing for Lori and its amazing seeing someone’s bucket list thing get crossed off! Such a great feeling! Then we were off to cross off MY bucket list thing and that was cuddling a koala!!!! His name was Artie and he was a year and a half. Don’t know how heavy, no more than either of my cats I suppose. They move very slowly like sloths, are generally considered lazy aka “drunk on eucalyptus” but are SOOO friggin cute!

After that we fed some kangaroos, went on a couple of water rides, and it was already mid afternoon! We spent the day with Lori, Lynda & Matt as usual, but also had Lori’s friends Lynny and Kerri with us, who were great fun — my kinda peeps!! And made me feel very welcome and just like one of the gang 🙂 Thanks ladies! Hoping to see more of them before I go, even if Lynny refuses to go on Facebook.

High/Low
High: koala cuddles!!
Low: how my hands smell after koala cuddles :s
WOD: snag. A slang term for a sausage.

Day 6 – Sunshine Coast

Today was an early start as we drive north to the Sunshine Coast! We made sure yesterday to get a whole whack of brochures of all the places were going, so we brought the Sunshine Coast ones with us 🙂 The Sunshine Coast starts about an hour north of Brisbane. We contemplated being there for the sunrise, but instead I, going to try sunrise shots in Airlie Beach and see how they go (that’s next week).

On the drive up we past Aussie World and the Ettamogah Pub (like a them park), as well as the BIG PINEAPPLE!! Lori has this book of big things in Australia (roadside attractions) and her goal is to see all of them. So next to the Big Pineapple is the BIG MACADAMIA NUT!! So we snapped a couple pics and kept moving 🙂

First stop was Mooloolaba Beach where I took lots of picture of the surf, and we found our first willing guys to say hello to Elissa. In case I haven’t mentioned that, I’m taping Aussie guys saying hello to my friend Elissa because she couldn’t fit in my suitcase and she JUST LOVES the Aussie accent. So “Project Elissa” is all for her!! Haha They were lifeguards (they call them lifesavers) named Ricky and Trey? Tr-something. I called him Trey so I hope he wasn’t offended! 75

Next beach was Coolum. I was standing by some rocks shooting video of this, and the water came right up to where I was and I couldn’t back up as there were rocks behind me. I was so far from the water I didn’t think it would get to me! So wet shoes it is, luckily I wore my Croc sandals! Sneaky surf.

Then we went to Noosa, and a national park lookout spot. Saw some scrub turkeys too! Black feathers, bald red heads and a yellow wattle. Met a lollipop man along the way in Noosa (what we call a flag person) but their stop signs are round and look like lollipops! Haha. Noosa is known for being a high end shopping destination so everybody who’s anybody shops there, we were part of the elite; even driving by….

On the way home we stopped in Montville. Once you get away from the coast, more inland they call it the Hinterland. Montville is part of the Hinterland in the Blackall Range (mountains). Absolutely beautiful country — and one I’m thankful I got to see having Australians tour me around, rather than just coming myself! Montville had these great quaint shops — reminded me a lot of Niagara-on-the-Lake. We passed through Maleny on our way back to the highway (and grabbed snacks at the smallest cutest McDonalds ever! We were also driving on the ‘Steve Irwin Hwy’ and passed Australia Zoo which he founded 😦 I loved his show, he was a crazy person! Lori doesn’t like him though hahaha!!!

High/Low
High: I loved Mooloolaba beach and those lifeguards letting me film them 🙂
Low: Still getting the dizzies every afternoon. Very unpleasant.
WOD: Pokies. These are slot machines 🙂 I saw a sign for Pokies at a pub and had to ask!!