Ballina

What a great week we have had!  We went to the k.d. lang concert on Tuesday night in Brisbane at the outdoor RiverStage venue in the botanic gardens.  It was a perfect night to sit out under the stars and hear k.d. and her beautiful voice.  It was fantastic!  On Friday we drove out to Ballina for a long weekend, so we had a nice short work-week, which is always a bonus.

Ballina is about 2.5 hours south of Brisbane, in New South Wales.  We originally booked Ballina because we couldn't find accomadation in Byron Bay.  What a lucky accident for us that we "settled" for Ballina.  We absolutely loved it!  Unlike Byron Bay, it is not right on the ocean but sits in an estuary with the Richmond River, much like Brisbane does with the Brisbane River.

The Ballina Richmond River walk

When we got there on Friday afternoon we decided to check out the beach, which is about a 7 minute drive from the town centre.  While we were walking to the beach from the parking lot we spotted a few dolphins in the bay (we actually thought they were sharks at first, but that might be from the fact that the movie "Jaws" is on TV here every couple of months).  Once we figured out what we were looking at, it was pretty exciting and we felt much safer about going in the water.  The waves were MASSIVE so we stayed very close to the shore but it was very nice to get out for a swim.

The beach at Ballina

Lighthouse at Byron Bay

On Saturday we went to Byron Bay to see the town and do the Lighthouse walk.  The town was pretty full of kids on "schoolies" (high school grads having an absolute drunken blow-out) so we didn't spend too much time there.  The Lighthouse walk was very impressive.  It takes one to the most easterly point on the Australia mainland, and has an exhausting number of steps.  As we were whining to each other about how hot and tired we were, a lady ran past us on some kind of crazy circuit that involved running up and down stairs when it is +30ºC!  Not for us though, after the walk we went back to Ballina and sat by the river for a lunch and a glass or two of wine to close out the afternoon.  The highlight of the day, however, was JB losing her hat from a gust of wind blowing it off her head and into the river and JT risking his life (not really) to fish it out.   The hat was about 2m down from the boardwalk and floating in the water.  JT had to search through a nearby park until he found a stick long enough to reach.  There was talk of JB standing on JT's legs while he hung down over the water's edge and risked his life to get the hat back...it didn't come to that, but he was willing. What a hero!

JB at Australia's most easterly point

Fancy Town

Even though there is continual talk of the recession here, Brisbane shows very few signs of an economic downturn.  The interest rates have just been lowered and consumer activity is increasing nicely just ahead of the gift-buying season.  There are high end stores here such as Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Hugo Boss and, as of last week, a Chanel store!  They have a hand bag exclusive to the Brisbane store that retails for ~$3,500 and one very special hand bag that retails for $34,000!  We stopped for a look around (looking, not touching and definitely NOT buying!) and saw all the pretty things up for grabs.  Sadly even the thongs are out of our price range, but it was nice to go in.

Brand new Chanel store on Queen St Mall

There have also been a couple of new restaurants opened recently, both with a nice aspect overlooking the river.  They were under construction when we first moved here in September 2010 and probably would have opened in February or March but, as they are right on the river, they were completely decimated by the flooding in January.   It is now ten months later and we have nice new places to sit on a Saturday afternoon and watch the world on the water go by.  It's really great to see all the effort going in to retail and services in city.  No accepting the GFC here!

The Kookaburra Queen, as seen from the deck at The Cove wine bar

We can't believe how quickly the end of the year is approaching.  It is Christmas party season so we are busy with socializing and work functions, plus we are going to a town just south of Byron Bay next week, followed by Noosa two weeks later.  Then we have Christmas Day here and leave for a trip to Sydney over the Christmas/New Year's break.  It might almost feel good to get back to work in January just so we can get some rest!

Spring is fully sprung

We're not sure if this spring is really that different from last year, or if we are just that much more observant now that we have been here for more than a year, but this spring seems so different from the first one that we experienced in 2010. 
Last year we managed to walk in every morning right until the start of December.  We did arrive every day as hot and melting messes, but we didn't want to be the wimpy Canadians who couldn't handle the heat.  This year we started taking the train in every morning about half way through October.  And we don't feel wimpy about it, either.  It is hot when we leave the house and we have no route into the CBD that isn't completely in the sun.  By the time we get to work on any sunny day our skin is prickly from sun exposure, regardless of the temperature.
We know that we have had less rain this year.  2010 was a record rain-fall year, but it was the end of a drought.  The 2010 rainfall to this date was 1042.8mm.  The average rainfall is 934.6mm but this year we are only at 886.6mm.  There was no thought given to opening up the Wivenhoe Dam to let the water levels drop.  This year they have already made the decision to allow for a 12 day run off to maintain the water level at 75% capacity.  We won't get fooled again!

Trees and reflecting pond outside of the museum

It could be because of all the fall, winter and spring rain last year or because everything was so new to us when we arrived in the spring of 2010, but we can't believe how beautiful the flowering trees are at this time of year.  The jacarandas are almost finished but there are the fabulous red-flowering trees all over the place.  These are called "Poinciana" and flower in late spring.  They have a wonderful natural canopy and are very inviting to sit under!

Poinciana tree at Kurilpa Bridge

Melbourne Cup

Horse racing is huge in Australia.  Starting in October we have the spring racing season with the highest profile race, the Melbourne Cup, running on the first Tuesday of November.  All over the country people stop what they are doing to watch the race.  This is a holiday across most of Victoria. 

This is a really special horse race.  It has been run since 1861 and this year had a massive field of 25 horses running on a track that is 3200m long (almost 2 miles), making it one of the longest races in the world!  For comparison to the biggest races in the North America for the Triple Crown,  the Kentucky Derby is 1.25 miles, the Preakness is 1.125 miles and Belmont is 1.5 miles.  Many horses just aren't cut out for such a long race.  With so many horses on the field there is a lot of strategy that goes in to where to let the horse make it's move.  Too soon and he could peter out, too late and he could lose his chance.  This year was the closest finish in history.  It was a photo finish that took two reviews by committees and marshalls before they could agree on the winner: by a quarter of a nose, Dunaden!  In the photo below Dunaden is the nose at the top.

Dunaden by a nose (from a Channel 7 screen grab on smh.com.au)

This was a great result as JB had Dunaden in the office sweeps and won $58!

It is also a massive fashion event, with an on-field fashion show held during the day of the race for both men and women.  The men dress in their best suits and women have frocks of varying lengths and colours, but the major focus is on the hat.   Even people who are not at the race will get dressed up in their racing finest.  JT had a break for the race but JB had an afternoon party at work and did her best Canadian interpretation of racing day fashion.  It must have worked, she was the winner of the fashion show!

JB ready for the race (we really could have picked a better place to pose than the kitchen)

The all important hat