Mount Coot-Tha

Although Brisbane is built on the floodplain (obviously) of an estuary, there is are quite a few large hills right in the city, and we are really quite close to the mountains to both the north and south of the city.  Only a five minute drive from our house is a natural area called Mount Coot-Tha.  The area is full

 of trails, picnic areas and gardens. 

Walking trail on Mount Coot-Tha

We walked up the hill on Easter Sunday.  The set trail is about 2km and goes past lots of creeks and mini waterfalls.  There aren't too many views on the way up, as the trail is almost entirely through the forest.  Once we got to the top however, we had a fantastic view of the city.  There is a restaurant at the top and we will definitely be going there for an evening meal to take in the night-time views (which start at about 6pm now that we are in winter!)

View of Brisbane from the top of Mount Coot-Tha

We also went to the Anzac Day parade.  There are ceremonies all over Australia to commemorate the Battle of Gallipoli, almost everywhere there are services with bugle and marching at 4:35am, the time that the soldiers launched their attack in 1915.  In Gallipolli itself there is a sunrise ceremony, honouring the soldiers from both sides who died in the battle.

We did not attend the 4:35am parade but we did go to the Anzac Day parade that started at 10am.  It was really quite impressive.  There were a few WWII vets and many representatives from those who fought in Korea and Vietnam.  We saw marchers from the Army Corps, the Navy, many schools that have a military slant, the Salvation Army and two different types of Army Engineers. (Why are there no Army Geologists?  No, the Geologist can't launch the rock at the enemy, but without the Geologist the Engineer might try to use pumice as fodder instead of granite.  What good would pumice do unless the enemy had really rough heels and needed to exfoliate?  Maybe not a Geologist Corps, but a couple of singles who travelled from troop to troop might be helpful.)

The biggest surprise of the day was that no-one can have a drink in a bar until 1:00 in the afternoon (we're not sure why...maybe this is what time the first day of fighting ended?)  Most people had been standing for 2 - 3 hours to watch the parade, it was warm and it felt like it was a good time for a beer.  No such luck! 

Extra long weekend

In Australia we get Good Friday as a holiday, plus, unlike in Canada, we get Easter Monday.  This year Anzac Day, the day set aside to honour the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who died in the battle of Gallipoli in WWI, falls on Easter Monday.  Rather than double-dip and use up two holidays on one day, Easter Monday is observed on Tuesday, so we get a five day weekend!

It is really hard to go anywhere for this rare five-day weekend because many places get booked months in advance, but we lucked out and found a place in Tamborine Mountain, a small village area in the mountains about 20km west of the Gold Coast.  It took less than 1 hour to drive from our house in Milton to Tamborine Mountain.  We had no idea it was so close!  We also had no idea what it was like.  The village and areas around it have a European Alps feel and many of the buildings are finished in a Tyrolean style.

"Alpine" side of Tamborine Mountain

We had lunch on Friday at a Polish Restaurant with beautiful views over the alpine valley to the west of Tamborine Mountain.  The outdoor dining space was full of trees and the trees were full of very beautiful and very, very loud Rainbow Lorikeets.  These birds have the most beautiful feathers but they shriek and squawk at the least provication, and they also seem to enjoy flying straight at people's heads. 

Rainbow Lorikeet (in full screech mode)

We spent most of Saturday just poking around the village.  There are vineyards on the mountainside, but we aren't sure whether there are enough grapes harvested to make wine in commercial quantities.  We visited a couple of tasting rooms and tasted wines that were produced locally from imported Granite Belt area grapes.  Regardless of where the grapes came from, the wine tasted pretty good!

St. Bernard's Hotel (Leo the St. Bernard is on the porch at the right hand side)

The area was a great place to spend a couple of days.  We will definitely go back and try some of the restaurants for dinner, since many things were closed due to the holiday.   We can also catch the "Cork and Fork" tour out of Brisbane, which will take us to multiple tasting rooms and restaurants, and remove the burden of one of us being a designated driver.  And all of this is only an hour away!

View of Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast from our hotel grounds

Big Weekend!

Some situations just call for champagne!

On April 15th the sale of our house in Calgary officially closed!  It was a long haul 7 months while it was listed for sale, and the six weeks from meeting all the conditions to having the final sale felt like it was just as long.  It is a strange feeling to know that we no longer have a home in Canada.  It was a house that we both loved very much, but it really feels good to know that we don't need to worry about getting the sidewalks cleaned in the winter or having the eaves cleaned in the spring, no concerns with tree maintenance after a hard winter or taking care of a 1/4 acre garden.  It is a very good feeling...not without emotion, but a very good feeling.  We went out for a big dinner on the 15th here (the 14th in Canada) and celebrated with a 9-course tasting menu!  It was all very delicious but after course number 5 we were wishing that we had both worn either mumus or fat pants.  It was a lot of food!

We also had a big work celebration on the 16th (the 15th in Canada) so we pretended that everyone at the party was celebrating with us.  It was a fancy evening like neither of us had ever been to before.  The highlight was in the reception lounge when we all arrived, there were circus girls hanging upside down from trapezes, pouring champagne for all the guests.  It certainly made  our home parties look pretty tame.

April 15th also marks one year since we left on our two month trip to Europe, realizing a dream that we both had to have an extended European vacation.  No worries about schedules or going back to work, just enjoying travel.  Hopefully we will get a chance to do it again, but for even longer.

It is amazing how quickly the year has gone and it is amazing to look back at what was going on: the evil Icelandic volcano was spewing away, disrupting our travel plans and destroying many others; the BP well in the Gulf Coast was about to blowout, setting in motion millions of dollars in damages, many destroyed livelihoods and taking 11 lives; Silvio Berlusconi was involved in a personal scandal that threatened to topple his government and the austerity measures were hitting Greece and the other PIIGS countries, causing many of us to stare in wonder at the protests, unable to comprehend why a nation of people who retire at 50 and never pay tax are surprised that the government is bankrupt and starting to crack down on taxes and work hours. 

One year later the volcano is dormant, BP executives gave themselves some nice bonuses, a couple of Greeks have paid taxes and somehow Silvio is still in power, bunga-bunga parties intact and defended.  It makes our move to Australia seem almost unimpressive!

Break out your woolies!

Unlike in Canada, the official change of season in Australia is the first of the month in which the season changes, rather than on the 20th or 21st and being tied to the hours of sunlight and the position of the sun and all that jazz.  The daylight hours here are roughly 12 - 14 hours of sunlight, 365 days a year.  Plus we are in the tropics, so there is a rainy season but it doesn't get that cold.  This means we are only 6 weeks from the start of winter.  We have been told to expect to need jackets and scarves, but we just can't see it.  We think people here want to pretend it's cold, but they know that it isn't.

Today, for instance, was a beautiful warm day.  The sky was bright and sunny, it was about 16C overnight and got up to 25C in the afternoon.  Sunblock was necessary, extra layers of clothing were not. 

April 10, 2011 - a "brisk" autumn day

We went to the CBD to browse in the mall and what did we see?  People trying on fur hats and toques and looking at wool coats.   One man in a shop told us it was time to break out the woolies for an extra layer.  Maybe we just have too much Canada left in our blood, but we really doubt the need for a wool coat this year.  Yes, next year we might be whining about the chill in the air but right now all we can say is "Bring it on!"

Ella's Pink Lady

Ella's Pink Lady is the name of the boat that Jessica Watson sailed solo, non-stop and unassisted, around the world. Jessica left Sydney in October of 2009 and returned in May 2010.  She accomplished this amazing feat three days before her 17th birthday!

Ella's Pink Lady is only 10.23m long.  It needs to be a small enough boat for one person to handle, but big enough to survive ocean conditions.  Jessica had everything that she would need for the trip on the boat and was not allowed to moor anywhere during the 23,000 nautical mile voyage, including mooring to other ships to take on supplies.  She had full navigational equipment and satellite gear, and she was allowed to keep in contact with authorities (and her parents) during the trip.  She now tours all over the world talking about her journey and how she went about achieving something so significant as such a young age.

Ella's Pink Lady, the yacht, is also a bit of a celebrity.  After months of negotiations, she is now in preparations to be "permanently" moored at the Brisbane Maritime Museum and is property of the state and federal governments.

A 10m yacht sounds spacious, but it was much smaller than we imagined!  As cute as it may be, this is one small yacht and it is really tough to imagine spending 9 months in it.  No more complaining from us about the cramped quarters when flying economy to Sydney!

Ella's Pink Lady, the small pink boat in the background (fuzzy photo, taken with a Blackberry)