Travels with Zen-Aida » Australia

Australia: Far North Queensland

zda — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:49:40 +0000

As my blessed mother would say “it happens in the best of homes” when something went wrong. She certainly did not have a complete computer crash – and an external hard drive back-up! - in mind, but that is what I had to contend with, at the end of my trip to Australia. I won’t bore you with details, just keep your fingers crossed that my trusted IT man in Germany will be able to recover the data (most importantly, about 5000 photos of these last four months of my trip) from the hard drive. The upshot of the story is that the few photographs I still had in my camera after the crash will have to make do to show you the wonders of FNQ – Far North Queensland – as the locals call it.

All the promotional photos that you have seen umpteen times on flyers and advertisements are true. The Queensland beaches are really spectacular. Fine sand, palm trees, mostly empty of any crowds, clear waters – but watch out from November to May (in other words, their Summer months) for the Stingers. Every beach I’ve been to has large signs warning of these jellyfish, which, even though beautiful to look at (if you see them, they are mostly transparent), have long floaters that inflict searing pain if they touch human skin. Pain and irritation that may make it necessary to be hospitalized. That is why every beach has at least one bottle of vinegar for victims to douse the affected area with, as a first aid measure. I remember these beasties in a much milder form from my childhood on the beaches of Argentina and the memories of that pain is still with me. But enough of that and back to Queensland.

The photos are of Mission Beach, south of Cairns. But they can just as well be of any of the lovely beaches north of Cairns, known as the Northern Beaches and fast becoming a favorite vacation place for Australians or have a second home in. The most mundane of these is Port Douglas, could be also called the Marbella of Queensland, with its swanky boutiqes, elegant restaurants and vibrant nightlife (this is sounding like a promotional brochure!), but all with the Australian laissez-faire attitude. Very sympatico!

My base of operations was one of the Northern Beaches – Trinity Beach. Based purely on internet research, I found the Roydon Apartments, separated by the beach by a one-lane road. A large and airy apartment with a gorgeous view and all the amenities I could want, I was a happy puppy for the week I spent there, being able to pop into the sea at will and do a walk along the fairly narrow but soft sanded beach every morning and/or evening.

My most memorable trip was up to “the Daintree” and Cape Tribulation: I rented a car for the day and drove up the coast on the Captain Cook Highway, past innumerable small golden sand beaches that all looked ever so inviting. I did stop over briefly in one such beach, actually in the lodge next to it, because it looked extra-special: Thala Beach Lodge is a bit of heaven set in a heavily wooded (and thus shaded) area; it prides itself in being a true eco-tourism venture. I would love to stay there the next time!

Then the highway bends inland and on through sugar cane fields as far as the eye could reach. And then the road stops abruptly. The Daintree river creates a natural barrier and there is no bridge. Instead, a simple large raft, a cable ferry, shunts about 10 cars at a time to and fro. As I mentioned, there was not much traffic, only a couple of other cars and I waited for the ferry to cross the 400 meters or so. Parrots were jabbering away in the tree-tops. Otherwise, silence. While waiting, I went over to a large billboard, severely warning of crocodiles on river banks.

By the time the cable ferry came and we crossed the Daintree, it felt like crossing the mythical river Styx, into another world, maybe not the mythological underworld of Hades, but close to it. In this case, the other side was the Daintree tropical rainforest, the diametrical opposite of the desert-like center of Australia. Tall trees tangle to form a dense green canopy. In 1988 its ca. 1200 sq. km were added to the World Heritage List in recognition of the enormous diversity of the Rainforest’s flora and fauna. To quote some numbers: The Rainforest contains 30% of Australia’s frog, marsupial and reptile species, 65% of its bat and butterfly species as well as 20% of the country’s bird species. There are also over 12,000 species of bugs. And we haven’t event started on the flora yet! And all this on just 0.2% of the landmass of Australia!

The people who live in the Daintree also seem very special: Ecologically oriented, some of an antroposophical bent (like the delicious ice cream maker, with over 26 flavors to chose from), all with a love, no passion, for keeping the Daintree in as natural a state as possible.

I reached my destination by early afternoon. Cape Tribulation – so named by the explorer James Cook in 1770 when his ship ran aground on a reef and “here began all our Troubles”. The beach itself cannot be described except with superlatives. The sand is soooo soft and sooo white, I am sure it glows in the moonlight. No doubt because a major component is white coral. Mind you, the sleepy town (a couple of backpaker accommodations, two supermarkets, five restaurants and a couple of understated and expensive resorts) is not high fashion, but it would be lovely to spend a week here and visit the Great Barrier Reef from here and “let it all hang out”, 70s style.

The paved road ends shortly north of Cape Trib. Since the terms of my car rental contract stated I was to stay on paved roads, it meant that this was the return point for me. The road (unpaved) continues for another 800 km or so up to Cape York, the northern most tip of Australia. But that adventure will have to wait until another trip...

Australia: Delights of “the Hunter”

zda — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 03:16:32 +0000

The northern Hemisphere is getting ready for the golden colors of Autumn, but in Australia, Spring is being welcomed with open arms. So, too, at the Hunter Valley Gardens. This 25 ha. (60 acre) privately owned, themed garden was created from scratch in 1998 and opened to the public in 2003. By far the most fun (and delightfully kitsch!) is the “Storybook Garden”, with lifesize plaster figures making nursery rhymes come alive.

You can stroke Mary’s little lamb, hug Humpty Dumpty, roll down the hill with Jack and Jill, have tea with Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter. If you think this is just for children, think again. No matter how old you are, it will bring out the child in you!

On the more serious side, there are ten gardens that show horticultural traditions in various countries or periods in history: the Chinese Garden, the Italian Grotto, the Formal Garden, the Rose Garden, etc. Sixteen full-time horticulturalists (and no volunteers!) care for “eight kilometres of walking paths, more than six thousand trees, one million ground covers and six hundred thousand shrubs. A floral display featuring a variety of plants and statuary, all of a standard that you won't see elsewhere in Australia,” according to the official website. And it is true – I spent a most enjoyable day there, enjoying the various scarecrow figures that had been created by schoolchildren from the valley, walking around the lakes and enjoying a good lunch at the restaurant. This was the time of the Spring Flower Festival and thousands of annuals were in full bloom.

Bill Roche and his wife Imelda have created a stunning attraction, rightly called "the jewel of the Hunter" – and all this after retirement (well, yes, and the necessary small change to be able to undertake this venture in a most professional manner).

But this is not the end of my visit to “The Hunter” as the valley is locally referred to. In fact, most people come to this part of the world for a completely different reason: vineyards and winetastings. Even I, a non-drinker, tasted a most subtle “Sweet Shiraz” – almost a port – at Golden Grape Estate, that I would definitely want to have in my cellar. And as we all know, where there is good wine, good food follows, or maybe it is the other way around. At any rate, you can easily spend a week here and not be bored, visiting the vineyards, tasting the local specialties – olives, olive oil, cheese and all the good things that go with it...

Australia: Paronella Park – a Spaniard’s dream

zda — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:12:54 +0000

Hearing of my Spanish (well, Argentine) roots, my friends decided that I must see how one Spaniard fulfilled his dream...

Off we drove away from Innisfail, Queensland, through a landscape of alternating banana and sugar cane plantations. I commented on the many small railway tracks we were crossing: these are for the sugar cane trains that collect the cut canes and transport them to be processed. Sugar and bananas are the area’s top crops, that is easy to see.

After what seemed quite a meandering tour onto ever smaller roads, we arrived at Mena Creek and there, in the midst of jungle vegetation, rose the ruins of Paronella Park. Now a tourist attraction, Paronella Park was the fulfillment of José Paronella’s dream. A baker’s son from a village in northern Catalunya, José Paronella set out to Australia to make his fortune in 1913. By working hard at buying and selling sugar cane farms, he made his fortune in only 11 years. José then returned to Spain to marry his fiancée Matilda, only to discover that she had married another man. However, there was a younger sister, Margarita, whom José proposed to, married and took back with him to Australia.

By 1929 he had purchased the land at Mena Creek and was ready to start building his dream castle, inspired by the architecture of his homeland. With only a small crew of workmen and with the crudest of building instruments and rudimentary concrete, José built a 47-step staircase, a large ballroom -which also was used as a movie-theater, complete with revolving mirror-type disco ball hanging from the ceiling – refreshment and changing rooms and a turret. In order to provide the power for the castle and the lighting for the 5 hectar (13 acre) park, he had North Queensland’s first hydro-electric power plant built in 1933. In addition, over 7000 trees were planted, including an avenue of Kauris (which now tower like cathedral spires in a sacred forest), and many rare plants.

By 1935 the grounds were ready to be opened to the public: movies on Saturday nights, picnic grounds and swimming in the lake formed by the waterfall, tennis courts, dancing or just walking down the lover’s lane...

José Paronella died in 1948. His widow and then his sons looked after the place until it was sold in 1977. In 1979, a fire badly damaged the castle, followed by more damage in 1986 by a cyclone. By the time the current owners rediscovered the place in 1993, it was in a very bad state of disrepair. Now, slowly, it is being lovingly brought back to life, even though cyclone Larry buffeted it badly in 2006. Today, Paronella Park offers many nature walks (day and night) and it has been used as a location for several films as well as a wedding and party venue.

It was a most interesting visit and one that, once again, showed what a dream – some may even call it obsession – and perseverance are able to accomplish.

Australia: The magic of the Great Barrier Reef

zda — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:31:05 +0000

When I dutifully booked an excursion to the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns, I did so more out of a sense of duty of having to visit this one of Australia’s most iconic destinations. I owed it to myself, I said, since I am in FNQ – Far Northern Queensland – as the locals call the area. But once I was on the boat, had reached the moored pontoon out on the Reef and had my snorkeling gear on, I really got excited.

There were about 15 of us who went on a small boat to visit an accessible reef area about a kilometer away from the pontoon. As soon as I jumped into the water, I turned on my rented underwater digital camera and, head underwater, snorkel on top, started shooting anything that came within my range of vision. What a wonderland! Different types of branch coral, mushroom top coral, all sorts of colorful fish, sea anemones. No turtles this time, unfortunately. The water was a pleasant 22 degrees or so and quite clear, although agitated because of light winds. Our guides took us around a special open outer reef area and kept a running commentary of what kinds of coral and fish we were seeing. Quite honestly, I did not hear much of what he was saying because my head was almost constantly under water, taking in the unfolding landscape as I swam with my flippers hither and yonder.

There are many day tours out of Cairns to chose from; I was recommended the locally owned and operated Reef Magic Tours and was totally happy with their service. The boat was a confidence inspiring size but not too large and it was not too crowded, either. I felt the young marine expert staff really enjoyed what they were doing and knew their business, too. On the pontoon, I was even able to get a massage (without the wet suit) to round out the relaxation experience. All in all, a very enjoyable and informative day! And my awareness of and respect for the fragile eco-system of the Reef was considerably heightened.

Australia: Daylesford and Hepburn Springs

zda — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 13:25:26 +0000

No, I didn’t find any alluvial gold in Daylesford, an easy two-hour drive north-west of Melbourne. Unfortunately, the days of panning the river bed for gold are over. But back in the 1850s, it was gold that made this small city rich, along with a host of others along the so-called Goldfields Touring Route (Ballarat, Clunes, Castlemaine, etc.). In its prime, Daylesford had about 40,000 inhabitants, compared to approx. 3,500 nowadays. But this is not to say that the area is depressed. On the contrary, because of its vicinity to Melbourne, it has become a welcome weekend destination, when the population easily swells to 7000 visitors, sometimes up to 25,000 (for example for the very popular gay and lesbian festival in March). Maybe also because at 700 meters over the sea, it is cooler at night than Melbourne in the summer. Last year, however, it did not look good for this area, as the fires drew alarmingly close. A local resident told me “the dead saved the living” meaning that the fire stopped at the treeless cemetery and thus saved the town. Nature’s power of recovery never ceases to amaze, as the photo of the darkened trunks show, showing a veil of new grass growth.

My main reason for wanting to visit the region was – you guessed it – the mineral water springs in Daylesford and Hepburn Springs. Many of the over 100 different cold water mineral springs were discovered as a result of mining activities; they are now fitted with a manual hand-pump and can be accessed by the general public free of charge. You can even bring your containers and take as much water as you want. As the most helpful and friendly lady at the visitor’s center told me, everyone has a favorite spring as every spring has a different taste. The newly renovated Hepburn Bath House was a disappointment, though: for all the multi-million dollars that were invested in a facelift for this historic institution founded in 1895, it is too small and too expensive for the very limited offerings ($70 – approx. €35 - for 2 hours at the weekend for just four different small pools and one steam sauna).

From about the 1970s, the area became an alternative lifestyle center, and now is a veritable hot spot for everything to do with the wellness craze: day spa treatments galore, all sorts of massage treatments, with a plethora of restaurants and clairvoyant/tarot card reading establishments thrown in for good measure. I stayed at the very English (but run by a charming French lady and her Australian husband) Mount Stuart House and felt like a veritable princess sleeping on the highest mattress ever.

As you can see from the photos, you would hardly think that this is the Australian bush, so lush the green fields, with their picturesque cattle, horses (lots of studs along the way) and sheep, dotted here and there with gigantic eucalyptus gum trees and, right now, iridescent yellow mimosa trees. Traffic was very light, allowing me to stop freely along the way for photos. Every now and again a clutch of home-made post boxes signalled human habitation somewhere down the adjacent dirt road. This is also wine country, with lots of “free degustation” signs dotting the roads. So far, though, I still haven’t seen a live kangaroo in the wild, let alone a koala, just the signs for them…

Sydney: Museums

zda — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:22:50 +0000

Being a museum mouse, I do try to visit at least a few representative ones in each city. In Sydney, it has been the Museum of Contemporary Art, centrally located right next door to Circular Quay, in the building from 1952 formerly occupied by the Maritime Services Board.

The MCA came into existence in 1991 and usually has six different exhibits at any one time. I was most taken with the “international pairing project” work of Australian Louisa Bufardeci and Japanese Zon Ito. Bufardeci interprets statistical data into art. An example is her wall covering “Ground plan” showing the world’s population as the ground plan of a world house. Australia, having a small number of inhabitants in comparison to the area it occupies, is depicted as a tiny room; Japan, on the other hand, is a very large room, and so forth. Zon Ito creates intricate embroidered canvases, many entirely abstract and all quite unconventional.

The much larger and important museum is the Art Gallery of NSW. The original building dates back to 1896 and 1909, very much in the tradition of the grand European art galleries. The latest extensions to the gallery date to 1994 and they make use of a downhill slope, so instead of taking the elevator up, you go down. It has fine collections of European, Australian, Asian and Aborginal art as well as commodious spaces for temporary exhibits. I saw a small but very fine selection of silk Ikats of Central Asia from the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia (until 11 October 2009). Definitely a museum worth a wander through.

Sydney: Views at every turn

zda — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 07:01:05 +0000

At the risk of stating the obvious, Sydney really is a beautiful city. Wherever you turn, a panoramic view opens – of the harbour, a cove, a bay, an inlet, a beach, a bridge, a point, a head, a park, a dip, a summit feature, etc. etc. And from very many places – a glimpse of the iconic opera house. Couple that with many tidy residential neighborhoods full of leafy trees, trimmed lawns and Anglo-American villa-style homes (Northshore) or a more dense urban landscape (Eastern Suburbs) with smaller houses featuring fancy lace-like wrought iron balustrades, dotted with condominium highrises commanding, no doubt, spectacular harbour, sea or downtown skyline views and you have a city that rightly ranks in the top desirable lifestyle cities worldwide.

I haven’t had much time yet to see the official sights (other than the opera house), but have had the pleasure of spending a weekend with friends who have two delightful little girls, 4 and 6 years old. As a result, I’ve visited several playgrounds with lots of different equipment: monkey trees, swings, spirals, chutes and other apparatus that I wouldn’t even know how to name. Gone are the days of just a plain (mostly dirty) sandbox and a swing as the ultimate in playground equipment. Now even the ground surfaces are child-friendly, made of some sort of bouncy rubber material so that even if a child falls on it, chances are the hurt will not be as dramatic.

On this particular weekend (I was told many neighborhoods have events of this kind), Balmoral Beach hosted a Mudgee Region Promotion Festival. The Mudgee region is not far from Sydney, just a few hours drive on the other side of the Blue Mountains and home to excellent wines, vineyards, olive oils, etc. So what better occasion than a popular park / beach area to set up several dozen tents showcasing the regional products with ample wine degustation on the spot (with real wine glasses I might add, no plastics here!). Add to that a guitar/vocal duo, a petting zoo for the kids and lots of different ethnic foods, sunshine and voilà – great atmosphere!

I never expected Sydney to be so hilly – San Francisco and Seattle, eat your heart out! Although there is a grid system in place, the geography of the various hills and harbours makes it difficult to adhere to. There are endless dips, slopes, curves and cusps to maneuver. Even though Sydney has an extensive suburban train system and certainly many bus routes, it remains a car-based society. In order to cope with its approx. 5 million inhabitants moving through a bottleneck that makes up the CBD, the freeway system is sophisticated and woe unto you if you happen to land in the wrong lane – instead of a tunnel you end up on a bridge going tangentially in a different direction very easily. Toll booths have been eliminated and now an e-tag beeps everytime a toll is collected with an automatic debit system in place. The bus system, however, is in serious need of modernization and updating. Not only are the buses old-fashioned, the entire ticket system can do with a major revamp – right now it is confusing, not well signposted and generally not consumer-friendly – meaning that I had several very frustrating experiences. Even a provincial city such as Valencia was better organized, let alone Munich! My Sydney friends corrobated my comments, saying that the city is slowly working on improving the system.

All in all a delightful start to my exploration of the Australian continent!