HOME

We’re home!

Tuscon – 2

SUNDAY, JUNE 1

John was up really early this morning so he went for a drive – he wanted to check out the Pinal Air Maintenance facility but couldn’t get very close. While he was driving out there, he spotted a well fed coyote crossing the road by way of a crosswalk. By the time he got stopped and got his camera out, the coyote had vanished. He also saw a couple of roadrunners (Lizz and I haven’t seen any of them yet). Once he got back, we got going early this morning so that we could visit as much of the Desert Museum as possible without melting. We arrived just before 8:30 and were invited to join a tour that started at 8:30. The tour guide was knowledgeable but rather scattered and long-winded. She “cut us loose” after about an hour and we headed to the desert loop walk before it got too hot. The park was really interesting – and it was fun to compare the Australian desert to the Arizona desert. We saw quite a few animals (in cages), including:

Bobcats

Margay

Gray Fox (note that he has a blankie)

and a

Javelina

Of course, there were coyotes and lots of birds and lizards. The walk had a lot of shade spots and water fountains and actually only took a half hour to walk. After the trail, we decided to find somewhere a little shaded so we visited the hummingbird enclosure. They had quite a few varieties of hummers – and the staff was spraying the trees in the enclosures when we were there.

This little guy was “bathing” in the drops left on the branches.

When we left the hummingbirds, it was very hot and we decided to leave. We headed back toward Tucson and then took a drive out to the Biosphere. Unfortunately, we weren’t there at the right time for a tour and it was too hot to sit around and wait. After a quick stop for dinner stuff (don’t like buying too much at once), we headed back to the condo to relax before dinner and a hot tub (again, it was our private tub).

Temperature: 39 C – sunny

Western Whiptail Lizard

Cardinal

Jojoba tree

Giraffe shaped cholla cactus

MONDAY, JUNE 2

No one felt like doing much today – so we went shoe shopping. Lizz and I were both looking for work-type shoes (not sandals) and we came to the conclusion that Arizona in the summer is not a time to look for closed toe shoes. We stopped at a Walmart grocery store (no clothes, just grocery items) and were surprised to find that the prices at the Safeway were better than at Walmart. Oh yeah – our Safeway cards work in the States – it even works if you don’t have your card and you give your phone number!

The afternoon was spent lazing around – Lizz napped, John watched tv, and I took the computer onto the deck and worked on photos and this entry. It was nice and hot on the deck – and I only came inside when the sun actually made it’s way toward me and my feet were starting to fry (they haven’t been exposed to the sun much as I’ve been wearing runners and socks nearly all the time). No photos today.

Temperature: 40 C – sunny with some wind

Tuscon – 1

FRIDAY, MAY 30

A very long day – we were up really early at the hotel in Sydney. The bed was one of the most comfortable we’ve had on the trip but the hotel was very noisy – we kind of expected that as it’s close to the airport – people were coming and going at all hours and while most tried to be quiet there were a few people who decided to hold conversations in the hallway – and they echoed. Oh well – we got to the airport before 7 a.m. and checked in easily. After that we wandered around doing some last minute shopping and finishing our coffees and then water before going through security. A little more shopping and then we went to the gate area. Prices in the international departures area were definitely better than ones outside that anyone could access. However, the best prices were in Alice Springs and Cairns (both at the airport and in the towns).

Boarding the plane went smoothly and then…. the pilot announced a “glitch” with the auxillary power – which would be ok once the plane had the engines running. After that, we had to sit at the end of the taxiway and burn off some fuel as the plane was overweight. We left Sydney an hour late, which had a lot of the passengers frantic because they had a short window to catch connecting flights in Los Angeles. We figured we’d be fine as there was a 3 1/2 hour window before our flight left for Phoenix.

The flight back was really rough. Apparently, there was “weather” that hadn’t shown up on the radar systems and we kept running into it. We had 4 Australian nurses sitting near us who were heading to Las Vegas – they were quite entertaining as was the male flight attendant who was giving them a hard time. After lunch (or dinner) was served, the lights were turned out to encourage people to sleep. (And yes, they got the food right for me again – I am so impressed!) I dozed for a couple of hours – not sound sleep but somewhat restful. John had a harder time napping – probably only about an hour. We got to LAX at 7 a.m. and the auxillary power failed again. This meant that the luggage had to be unloaded by hand instead of the conveyer belts so we had to wait for a long time to get our bags to take them through customs. By this time, another 747 (from Brisbane) had also arrived so there were a lot of people in line. There was a security official who was trying to speed things up – she was actually laughing and joking with people and a lady behind me said “Oh they must have given lessons in being nice to the staff at LAX” – this got a bunch of us laughing. Once we got through the line, we were supposed to put our bags on the transfer conveyer but, because our flight was just over an hour away, we were told to take our luggage and walk to Terminal 1 where we would need to recheck the bags and get our boarding passes before passing through security again. Terminal 1 was a long way from the Terminal we were in – when we finally got there, we checked the bags and got our boarding passes. Once in line to go through security, I went to hand John his boarding pass and noticed that both passes were in my name with my seat number!

I left John in the lineup (he was letting people go past him) and raced back to the airline counter – I got another client rep who quickly fixed the problem then I ducked back under the barrier and we started through security. There were 3 lineups to go through the checkpoint: one for casual travellers, one for people who needed extra assistance and one for experienced travellers. We started out in the casual traveller lineup and then decided that after all the airports we’ve been through on this trip, we could classify ourselves as experienced travellers. That lineup was moving quickly as everyone knew that liquids/gels had to be in a plastic bag, shoes had to be removed and laptops taken out of bags. It worked – we whipped through the line and got to the gate for the flight with about 15 minutes to spare.

The Phoenix flight wasn’t very full and we made good time – we actually got in a half hour early so we had collected our bags and were waiting when Lizz called to say her flight had arrived. The terminals were a distance apart so we decided to catch the shuttle bus (one shuttle for all the various car rental places) from our respective terminals and meet at the Dollar car rental desk. It takes about 10 minutes for the shuttle to get to the rental centre and John went to arrange the car and I watched the suitcases and waited for Lizz. Of course it was a tearful reunion when she walked in a few minutes later *s* (BTW – Thanks, Arke, for taking her to the airport so damned early in the morning).

Our rental vehicle is a Jeep Patriot – we had a choice between that and a PT Cruiser and John figured that we could fit more luggage into the Jeep. Lizz only brought a backpack (so she didn’t have to worry about checked luggage when she changed planes in Seattle) but we have 4 suitcases and we had to stop for some groceries. We all needed something to eat so we found a Macdonald’s and had a quick bite and then headed out to the condo in Oro Valley. By the time we got here (and stopped at Safeway for groceries) we were exhausted. We put the groceries away and chatted for a few minutes and then it was naptime. I set the alarm for 2 hours later so that we wouldn’t sleep too long – we really need to get back on track with the time (and Arizona was a great choice as they don’t have daylight savings time so the time here is the same as at home). After dinner, we talked a while longer and then headed for the hot tub. There are two on the property and we went to the one closest to our condo. It was wonderful – there was no one else there and one of the lights wasn’t working so we could sit in the tub and watch the stars. The hot tub helped take the travel kinks out and then it was off to bed.

Temperature: 40 C – sunny

Living room

Dining room

Kitchen

Bedroom

Sunset

SATURDAY, MAY 31

After a 9 hour sleep, we were feeling pretty good. We decided to drive to Tombstone to see the historic western town. It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive down to the town – our first stop was Boothill Graveyard. Admission was free and we wandered through the sites, reading the markers

and marvelling at the cacti which were flowering. After that, we went into the town. I think we were expecting a town like Barkerville but it’s not like that. It’s very commercialized and touristy (but not in a good way). We didn’t stay in the town long – just enough to take a quick walk down the main street and look in a couple of shops. We were only out of the vehicle about 20 minutes and it was sweltering when we got back in. We started back toward Tucson and stopped at a Jack in the Box for lunch (Lizz has been wanting to go to Jack’s since we stopped going to Tacoma for hockey games).

Another stop at the Safeway for more groceries (steak to bar-b-q since we have a bar-b-q on our deck) and then back to the condo to watch the hockey game. Erik called to say that he has Wednesday off so he can pick us up and to see how our flight(s) were. It was good to hear from him – and I was impressed to hear that he had used his computer phone program to call – it was clear and not much delay.

After the hockey game ended, we headed to the hot tub – and had it to ourselves again. Now it’s bed time – if we get up early enough, we’re going to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum – we hope to get out and see a lot of it before the temperature gets really hot in the afternoon.

Temperature: 40 C – sunny

Cactus Flower

John and Lizz at Boothill Graveyard, Tombstone

Sign outside the OK Corral

Pokolbin Hill – 3 / Sydney

Not much to say about today – we left Polkobin Hill at 8 a.m. and stopped at the Pokolbin Village Resort to check the internet and to look up travel directions to get to the hotel. We decided to drive towards Newcastle and make our way to Sydney via the coast. At one beach (the name is escaping me at the moment), we saw 17 freighters lined up waiting to make their way into port. As we were looking at them, I saw a movement in the water and we spotted dolphins. I actually managed to get a partially clear picture of one of them.

We meandered down the coastline until noon and then decided to head for Sydney as we didn’t want to hit the city at rush hour.

It didn’t seem to matter that it wasn’t rush hour – traffic was heavy. I was trying to navigate by the map we had as well as the road signs and somehow managed to point John towards the wrong exit – so instead of taking the Harbour Bridge we ended up taking the Harbour Tunnel. They are both toll roads but the tunnel doesn’t have cash booths. Ooops! Of course, taking the wrong way into the city meant the instructions we’d written down earlier in the day weren’t going to be much help. After a little agonizing, we pulled off the freeway we were on and headed into a residential type area. Finally we found a business and John went in to see if they could give him directions. The lady was fantastic – she even went out to her car and got her road map to help him see which way to go. It turned out that we were only about 8 blocks from the hotel.

The hotel room is pretty tiny – but we’re not going to be here for that long. We’ll be up by 6 tomorrow morning and off to the airport soon after. Our flight leaves at 9:45 and arrives in Los Angeles at 6:05 a.m. We have a 3.5 hour stopover in LA and then off to Phoenix where Lizz’s flight is supposed to land 5 minutes after ours (at different terminals of course!). Qantas has been having labour problems recently but, according to the tv, they are targetting domestic flights and Melbourne is the targeted airport. Whew!

Will post again from Tucson – when we’ve recovered from the flight.

Temperature: 20 C – overcast with showers

Shelley Beach

Coal loading docks at Catherine Hill Bay

Pokolbin Hill – 2

When I got up this morning, I opened the blind in the kitchen and found myself looking at a kangaroo. Of course, we headed outside with cameras and it was worth it.

I got this photo of a joey – first one we’ve seen.

We didn’t feel like doing much today – especially not sitting in the car for any extended period of time. I was going to call Lizz to confirm plans for meeting in Phoenix but the phone in our unit was not working and the reception staff didn’t know what to do to fix it. We decided to head to the info centre near Cessnock to find out where we could find internet access in the Hunter Valley. There were 3 choices – and one was just down the road from our condo – just not where the receptionist had told us it was. After a quick stop in Cessnock for some groceries and lunch at Maccas (who don’t have internet access) we headed to the Pokolbin Village Resort where we discovered FREE internet. We sat on their veranda and uploaded the blog stuff and chatted online to Lizz. We were there for quite a while and no one tried to speed us up or suggest that we leave. It was great.

Once everything was updated, we decided to drive around the valley a little more and see if we could find the lookout which was marked on a map we had. It was a fairly long drive up the hill – on another ridge at the top –

but the view was awesome. When we came down off the mountain, we noticed this mailbox

and it reminded me that we hadn’t mentioned the mailboxes here. It seems that you can use anything that will hold mail for a mailbox – we’ve seen old stoves, beer kegs, plastic buckets and lots of others. I can’t imagine what Canada Post would say if someone tried that at home.

After driving around awhile, we spotted a couple of winery signs that we really liked.

I can’t believe that our time in Australia is almost up. Tomorrow we head to Sydney to stay at a hotel near the airport before our flight on Friday. We’re sad to be leaving and we’re already trying to figure out how to manage another trip downunder.

Temperature: 19 C – mostly sunny with a few showers

Another mailbox

Kangaroo at sunset

Grapevines

Pokolbin Hill – 1

SUNDAY, MAY 25

Much better day of travelling today – we left at 8 a.m. again but before we got going, we stopped at Starbuck’s (yes, we’re back in Starbucks country – just wish it was Timmy’s though) for a coffee. Then, instead of heading back to the main highway, we headed down the coast. We stopped at

this lighthouse. While we were there, we came across a man with binoculars on a tripod – he was watching for humpback whales as they are just starting their migration. We watched for a while and John thought he might have seen something in the distance but he wasn’t sure.

We continued down the coast until we reached Forster Tuncurry where we stopped at the Info Centre. We found a couple of good road maps of the area and of the Hunter Valley and then John had a long discussion with the lady there about Canada, Australia and the United States. She was quite impressed to hear that we want to come back to Australia – there’s so many places we’ve heard about now that we’d like to see and some places we’ve been to that we’d like to see more of. The area we travelled through was called The Great Lakes – not as big as in Ontario but there were 3 quite large lakes very near to the ocean.

Had to stop for gas today – $1.53/litre now. However, we learned something (of course 5 days before leaving). If you buy $30 or more at either a Big W or a Woolworths (which is a grocery store here), there will be a bar code on your till slip. You can present that at a Caltex-Woolworths gas station and get an extra 4 cents/litre off the price. Too bad we didn’t know that before *g*

We saw a large number of these signs:

in a variety of styles. My guess is that by varying the sign, people might pay attention a little more. We did see two koalas asleep in trees (John saw one and I saw the other) but the road was too narrow and twisty to be able to stop safely.

On our way down the highway, we spotted a replica of Uluru – it was a truck stop (with restaurants, gas station and convenience store) that was done up to look like Ayers Rock. It was kind of strange but, of course, we had to take a photo of it.

We got to Pokolbin Hill at 3:30 and checked in with no problem. While talking to the lady at reception, she told us that she guarantees we will see kangaroos while we’re here as they feed in the grounds in the morning and evening. After putting all the stuff in the condo, we went for a walk. We saw ducks (who were following anyone who moved), swamphens, pelicans and horses but no kangaroos. I think we’re just jinxed. We’ll look again in the morning – especially since we’re still up between 6 and 6:30 a.m. each day. To make up for not seeing kangaroos, I’ll give you a photo of the fantastic sunset.

We’re not going to drive too much tomorrow but will probably check out a winery or two (and maybe a brewery too) as well as visit

The Hunter Valley Gardens (which are right across the road from the condos).

There is no internet access in the rooms here and I have to check to find out if there is internet in the office. If not, I’ll be looking for somewhere else to post this.

So far, we’re loving this area – it’s very pretty and there’s lots to do here.

Temperature: 20 C – sunny

Kitchen/Dining Room

Living Room

Bedroom

Bathroom

Condos

MONDAY, MAY 26

Success!!!

Kangaroos do exist in the wild *s*

John was up before 6 this morning and tried to encourage me to get up too but it was just too cold. He decided to go out and see if there were any kangaroos and while he was outside, he was startled by this (and came back to make me get up):

This hot air balloon was being inflated in the field right next to the condo. No kangaroos at this point, but we watched the balloon inflate and then take flight (For the record, I was wearing my jeans, 2 fleece tops, a pair of hand knit wool socks and my knitted headband – glad I had all those things with me).

After the balloon had flown away, we walked around the grounds looking for kangaroos with no luck so we jumped in the car and drove around the roads for a while (kind of like road hunting without guns) and eventually we were rewarded. The only problem was that they were quite a way from the road and didn’t seem motivated to move closer to us. We went back to the condo and decided to take one more walk around the grounds and guess what – there were 3 kangaroos feeding on the clover in the lawn. Two other roos were peeking through the trees and then went bounding up the treeline instead of coming onto the lawn. We watched the ones on the lawn for a while before heading in for breakfast.

Time to check out some of the wineries – the only problem was that we don’t have much time left to drink wine before we have to catch our flight on Friday. The first winery we went to was McGuigan Wines.

They had a cool old truck in front of the cellar door.

Then it was time to check out the Hunter Valley Gardens – when we identified ourselves as Canadian (a question that all the attractions ask), the lady at the ticket booth told us that the Gardens were inspired by Butchart Gardens. Apparently, the owner had been in Victoria and was so impressed with Butchart that he decided to try to do the same thing in the Hunter Valley. The gardens here are only 5 years old so they are not as established as Butchart but we really enjoyed them. One of the gardens is a Storybook Garden – it reminded me of the attraction that used to be outside Victoria (Beaver Lake or Elk Lake?) that had different nursery rhyme characters.

Once we had seen all the gardens (about 2 1/2 hours) we went to the Blue Tongue Brewery – we couldn’t resist the name or the logo. We bought some of their lager and premium light beer – it’s pretty good. We had thought about having lunch there but the menu was limited and not suitable for my allergy restrictions. Once the beer was in the fridge to cool, we walked over to the Hunter Valley Gardens area as there are shops there too. We had a fun time browsing through the stores and then headed to the reception area at the condo to enquire about internet access. The lady there told us there was a business centre at Sobels Wines so we drove down there only to find that they had no idea what she was talking about. We’ll try to post this on Tuesday when we go out for a drive towards the Blue Mountains.

Temperature: 19 C – sunny

Kangaroo

Topiary statues of Brokenback Mountain Brumbies

Orange trumpet flower

TUESDAY, MAY 27

We saw more wild kangaroos – they really do exist. Today we saw them in a field beside the road to Singleton. The area near Singleton is a coal mining area – the open pits are huge and they don’t seem to have to reclaim the land.

We stopped at a gas station in Bulga to see if there were any road maps and were told to just follow the road – it’s picturesque. I think that’s another word for narrow with switchbacks *lol* The road we were on used to be the main road from the coast to the Hunter Valley – we didn’t think we’d see any transports on it but we were wrong. There was one spot where we could pull off the road and we had our first glimpse of

the Blue Mountains.

It seems that a lot of the mountain roads here are built on top of the mountain ridges – there were times that both John and I were looking down very steep slopes.

A little further along the road, we saw these sandstone cliffs.

I thought the designs were so cool. Then we rounded a corner and found these fantastic gates

– wonder what the monastery looks like…

Our first look at the canyons in the Blue Mountains reminded us of the Grand Canyon.

It took 4.5 hours to get to Lithgow and then we started back towards Katoomba. We were looking for lookouts but most of them didn’t seem to be marked and we only had a basic map for most of the area. We did find one lookout at Mt. Piddington and it had

a fantastic view of the area back towards Lithgow. The mountains really do seem to be blue and there is a haze over them (from the eucyluptus trees) that almost looks like smoke.

When we got near to Katoomba, the lookouts were marked a little better. We stopped at Cahill’s Lookout and had a good view of

Boar’s Head Rock. A little further on was the Eagle Hawk lookout. There were fantastic views of the Three Sisters formation and the

Blue Mountains Skyway –

I decided I wasn’t brave enough to try this tram ride. On to Katoomba, where we were disappointed to find that in the lookout area, parking costs $4.00/hour. By the time we battled the large crowds of tour groups to get close enough to take a photo at the lookout,

we were almost out of time. There was an information centre at the lookout so we went looking for a map – surprise, they didn’t have any free maps and the souvenirs were really expensive.

Back on the road again, it was after 3 and we knew we’d better start back to the Hunter Valley as it would be a long drive. As we still didn’t have a very good map, we were depending on road signs. Once we were on the M2 motorway, we discovered that the signs just had road names and not where they led to. We were almost into Sydney when we spotted a sign for the turnoff to Newcastle. Of course, it was a toll highway (only $2.20) but at least we were heading in the right direction. We finally got back to the condo at 6 p.m. (and it was dark – it gets dark at 5 here right now).

Still haven’t found anywhere with internet so we’re heading to Maccas in Cessnock today to see if they have wireless internet.

Since yesterday was spent sitting in the car, today is going to be a day for a walk as well as getting the laundry done and the stuff packed up.

Temperature: 22 C – sunny

Port Macquarie

We left the condo at 8 a.m. and headed south. We detoured to Byron Bay – to see

Cape Byron, the most easterly point in Australia.

It was beautiful there – warm, sunny and lots of huge waves crashing onto the rocks. We admired the view for a while and then followed the “tourist route” down the coast – making a quick stop in Lennox Heads when we saw this display:

Australian Scouting is celebrating it’s 100th birthday

On the way down the coast, we saw lots of banana orchards, cattle horses and trees but not much in the way of ocean. There were also a few “big” items – a giant prawn and a big banana. We drove along another “tourist drive” but it didn’t get anywhere near the coast either. We had thought about stopping at Coffs Harbour but somehow managed to drive through the town without really seeing any of the hotels. We kept going (another 45 minutes) and stopped for the night at Port Macquarie. The beaches at Port Macquarie are fabulous –

there was even a wedding taking place on one of them.

Lots of driving, lots of road construction and not many photos today.

We are staying at a Best Western here and will check in to the condo at Pokolbin Hill tomorrow afternoon.

While we were driving today, we remembered something that we hadn’t mentioned before – while we were on the tour in Brisbane, all the lights at an intersection would turn red and it would be mass pandemonium for pedestrians – they were crossing the road in every direction but somehow they all managed to clear the street before the lights changed. It was like watching some strange dance.

Temperature: 20 C – sunny

View of the pool at Worldmark, Kirra Beach (from the 12th floor)

The Big Prawn

Byron Bay

Banana trees

Kirra Beach – 3

Two lazy days on Thursday and Friday. The idea was to sit in the sun and just relax but the weather had other ideas. We woke up to rain showers on Thursday morning putting an end to the idea of sitting in the sun. After a leisurely breakfast, we decided to go and find the Currumbin Rock Pools – which were shown on a local map as a tourist location.

Hmmm, okay…. I guess we’re just used to rivers and pools on the river. The only animals we saw were a few cows and horses and this alpaca.

Next up was looking for a few souvenirs from this area – not a very successful mission. There doesn’t seem to be many stores with souvenir items – mostly just surf stuff. We drove up to the cliffs above Point Danger and watched the surfers for a while. They are definitely more advanced in this area than the spot where we were watching earlier in the week.

When we got back to the apartment, there was a short period where we had sun so we sat on the balcony and watched the beach (and wondered why there were 4 boats and 3 trucks parked on the edge of the water but were never used).

Friday started out nice and sunny but the clouds quickly moved in. We took the car out to get gas (it’s $1.49/litre now) and then found a fish and chip takeaway shop for lunch. You wouldn’t believe the portions! We only ate part (maybe a little more than half) of what we got and we’re still not hungry 7 hours later. The sun came out for about 1/2 hour and we enjoyed it until it started to rain so we watched Australian Rules Football on the television (and I knit while watching).

Evening sky

We’re leaving Kirra Beach a day earlier than planned so that we can make it a leisurely drive to Pokolbin Hill (it’s about a 9 hour drive). Not sure where we’re going to be tomorrow or how much internet access we’ll have at Pokolbin Hill. I’ll post when I can.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that when we were in Springbrook National Park, John saw a bandicoot peeking out from under the bushes to see if it was safe to cross the road.

Temperature: 20 C – cloudy, showery

Kirra Beach – 2

TUESDAY, MAY 20

The bus from Australian Day Tours was ready and waiting when we got to the lobby 10 minutes before pick-up time. We were the first passengers – and the only ones until we got to Surfer’s Paradise. The driver, Neville, entertained us with a variety of stories before we picked up the next people.

It was a full day of touring around Brisbane – both on the tour bus and on a river cruise. Our first stop was the cliffs at Kangaroo Point where we had a view of Brisbane’s Central Business District and the Brisbane River. Neville offered to take photos of anyone who wanted one so, of course, we had him take one of us with Brisbane in the background.

We had morning tea at the

Breakfast Creek Hotel.

They served tea or coffee and scones (or you could purchase something “stronger” at the bar which opens at 10 a.m.). After tea, we were dropped off at the dock for the hour long river cruise. Some of the homes along the river are fantastic – and we saw a lot of examples of “Queenslander” homes – houses that are built on “stumps” so that they are raised up off the ground. There were also a lot of old factories and storehouses which have been made into apartments. The cruise ended at South Bank, at the site of Expo 88 (it reminded us a lot of the Expo 86 site) where we had just over an hour to explore on our own before meeting the tour bus again. As it is the 20-year anniversary of Expo 88, there were a lot of photos and

markers on display commemorating the event.

Once back on the bus, we toured around Brisbane a little more before heading to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary for an hour and a half. There were a lot of koalas – and they were separated into different pens – there were the mothers, the “kindergartners” (koalas who had recently been separated from the mothers), the bachelors and a retirement centre. We spent most of our time watching the kindergarten – it was time to change the feed trees so the little guys were quite active. I found the map of the complex, that we were given, confusing. We really didn’t see many of the animals at all. We were looking for the pademelons (a type of small kangaroo) but couldn’t locate them. We did see a kookaburra and a

Tawny Frogmouth. Isn’t he cute?

Our last stop was at Mt. Coot-tha Lookout – where there was a panoramic view of the coastal area and some of the mountains. It was a short stop at the lookout and then we started for home. We were the last drop off and were pretty tired when we got back. It was a great tour, though, and Neville is a walking encyclopedia. It seemed like he could answer any question thrown at him and he didn’t mind all the questions.

Temperature: 23 C – sunny

John with the kindergarten koalas

Artwork statues from Expo 88 – now along the Brisbane River

Brisbane from Mt. Coot-tha

A mommy koala

WEDNESDAY, MAY 21

Refreshed again, we decided to drive to the “hinterland” and look at the

Mt. Warning caldera

and mountain. We didn’t have a very good map of the area, so we stopped at the Murwillumbah Info Centre. The gentleman there liked to talk – and we heard all about the area we were interested in plus a lot of others *s* We finally got on our way again, only to be stopped rather suddenly. A campervan was backing out of his parking spot and didn’t see our car. Luckily, his bumper hitch hit our tire and the only damage was that the plastic bumper popped out – easily fixed. It turned out that the fellow driving the van was from Canada (originally) and he and John had a great talk before we got on our way again.

The drive was beautiful – a lot of it seemed to be on the mountan ridges, with steep drops on either side of the road. We saw quite a few banana “orchards” in the distance but the road was too narrow to stop for photos. The first place we were heading to was a

Natural Bridge. It was well worth the hike down (and back up). One of the viewing areas was under the bridge.

Springbrook National Park was the next destination. We stopped at Purlingbrook Falls lookout – there was a loop walk that actually took you under the falls but it was closed because of recent flooding.

John had looked at photos (on Google Earth) that were taken at “The Best of All” lookouts – we were disappointed when we got there as the lookout was closed due to maintenance on the trails.

On the way down the mountain (a 15% grade, very narrow and full of switchbacks), we decided to check out the Hinze Dam. Guess what – it was closed to the public due to construction. We weren’t having a very successful day.

On Wednesday (and Friday) nights, there is a beachfront night market at Surfer’s Paradise. We decided to go there and see what goodies they had for sale. When we got there we discovered that most of the vendors are of Chinese descent and were observing the 3 days of mourning so there were not many stalls to look at.

It was a good day though – we really enjoyed the Natural Bridge and the trip through the mountains. I think Thursday is going to be a laid-back day though. We might go to Point Danger to watch the surfers for a while but not much more than that has been planned.

Temperature: 21 C – sunny (in the mountains)

Tree root

Kirra Beach area from the Canyon Lookout

Strangler Figs making a pattern

Caloundra – 7 / Kirra Beach – 1

SATURDAY, MAY 17

Lazy day today. We checked out a “garage sale” (don’t fall over Karen!) at the Caloundra refuse site – kind of like the “free store” at our landfill. This one was run by the air cadet association and had everything you might possibly be looking for. No, we didn’t buy anything *s*

Then it was off to the Holden car dealership (the same as GM in Canada and the States) to find out what the car-type truck we see everywhere down here was.

This is a Holden Ute – and John wants one. Apparently, they’re starting production of these in the States soon.

Next stop was the mall – we hadn’t done any shopping other than for groceries so we wanted to see if there was anything we desperately needed (there wasn’t). While we were there, we saw a shop called “Baaz, Mooz and Oinkz” – would you believe it was a butcher shop?

That was about it for the day – we went back to enjoy the balcony and some good-sized beers.

John after a few too many of these beer

Temperature: 23 C – sunny but windy

SUNDAY, MAY 18

The first thing we heard this morning was the sound of a helicopter very close to the condo. Turned out that it was a search and rescue team and they were searching Pumicestone Passage before moving off. There was a terrific windstorm last night – and when we went to bed at 10:30, there were still pleasure boats fishing out in the passage. We didn’t hear what the team was searching for but hopefully they found their target safe and sound.

Since we were up so early, we finished packing up and then headed south. On the way, there were more wild kangaroos – only I didn’t realize that was what they were at first (thinking it was cows grazing) so I didn’t mention them to John in time to stop for a photo. Oops….. Our first stop was

Iceworld at Boondall.

This is the rink that Justin used to play at (and where the Brisbane Blue Tongues played last year) so of course we had to stop. There was a figure skating competition taking place and no hockey scheduled until late in the afternoon. We were surprised at how small the seating area was but the rink was nice and bright. They have netting that is pulled around during hockey games and this sign

was on the end boards

Off south again, we found ourselves on the Gateway Toll Bridge – luckily the toll was only $2.60 which we had in our pockets. Soon we were at our next stop

Iceland at Bundall.

This is where the Blue Tongues are playing this season – if we thought the rink at Boondall was small this one is tiny. There are only 3 rows of seating (on benches that make the old ones at the Cowichan rink look wonderful) and the seating is only on one side and it doesn’t go all the way down. The seating stops at the player benches (at least as far as I could tell – there wasn’t anyone sitting further down and I think they’d have to walk through the player benches to get there).

It was public skate when we arrived ($15 for adults/$14 for students – with ID/$12 for children. Of course, these prices do include the skate rental). We discovered that there was a Divison III hockey game on at 5 before the Blue Tongues scrimmage at 6:50 so we headed for Kirra Beach to check into the condo. Of course it was too early to do that, so we decided to

explore the coast a bit and find some lunch (which ended up being Pizza Hut). We came back to the timeshare and spent some time sitting in the pool area until our room was ready. John had noticed the number 125 as our room number and we were disappointed that we wouldn’t have an ocean view – to our surprise, 125 means apartment 5 on the 12th floor.

We have a fantastic view.

Once checked in, it was back to the ice rink at Bundall to watch some hockey. What better way to celebrate an anniversary than to do something you both love, right? We arrived at 4:45 and the players arrived just after us! Guess they don’t get to the rink 2 hours early – the game started at about 5:10 and was quickly a blowout for the visiting team. There were only a handful of people watching – parents, grandparents and a few friends. The home team had only 6 players dressed so no one got a rest and the time between periods is only 1 minute (no ice cleaning until the game is over) so they were pretty exhausted when the game finished.

Then it was time for the

Blue Tongues scrimmage game. It was a pretty good game (although you could tell it was not as intense as a game against a rival team would be). The blue team dominated the game – guess they were making up for losing the week before. There weren’t many fans (or curious people) there and it was a pretty quiet crowd. The periods were 15 minutes long with 1 minute between periods (again, ice clean only after the game was over – if then!). After the game, we met up with Wendy (secretary of the Blue Tongues booster club) and her husband, Sam. They are hockey nuts and we really enjoyed meeting them and their friends (sorry can’t remember the names). All too soon, it was time to head back to the condo as Wendy and Sam had a 90 minute drive back home. See, I told you they were hockey nuts!

I can’t imagine how a professional team can make ends meet playing in such small rinks. The rinks we saw today make Fullers Lake and Lake Cowichan Arenas look huge.

Kirra Beach kitchen

Kirra Beach living room

Kirra Beach master bedroom

Kirra Beach second bedroom

MONDAY, MAY 19

John was up early and went for a walk on the beach – he got some wonderful pictures of the sunrise and saw about 50 people doing this:

Looks like a great place to use walking poles. When he was on his way back, he spotted me on the balcony of our apartment.

It’s the 3rd from the top on the left hand side of the front section.

Weren’t sure what we wanted to do today so we spent the morning on the deck soaking up some wonderful sun. Unlike yesterday, there was no wind at all. We’ve kind of planned a couple of trips we want to do in the next few days – one of the things we were hoping to do was to go into Brisbane but we really are not fond of driving in cities (especially since it’s difficult to find a road “map” – most of the ones you can find are either very basic or they are in huge books like a telephone directory). We looked at the brochures in the lobby and found a day trip to Brisbane that covers what we wanted to do – so the tour is booked for tomorrow (Tuesday) and we get picked up at 6:45 here at the condo.

We drove to Tweed Heads and found a grocery store and

a Big W (better known to us as a Walmart). We spotted a few other signs that made us think we’re in an area that drinks a lot – there was a Liquor Barn, a Liquor Warehouse and this:

After leaving the groceries at the condo, we drove up the Gold Coast Highway in the opposite direction (from Tweed Heads) and found a surfing beach where we could watch the surfers. There were quite a few surfers as well as two kayakers and a jet ski. They all seemed to be having fun.