Top End, Down Under

We just got back from a trip to the top end of Australia, where we spent two incredible weeks in Broome and Darwin.  Broome is in Western Australia, in The Kimberley region.  It is a remote and beautiful area, best known for the pearling industry and the second largest tides in the world (7 - 10m, second only to the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia).  This was an area that we learned about shortly after arriving here two years ago, when we caught a documentary about a recently deceased conservationist, based in Broome.  We got hooked on the Kimberley right away and planned to make it to Broome as soon as we could.

Shoreline in Broom (check out the beautiful blue water of Roebuck Bay, in the Indian Ocean)

The second part of our trip was to Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory.  There was so much more to see and do in Darwin than we imagined and we were so impressed by this little city in such a harsh climate.  It was severly bombed in World War II and almost completely destoyed by Cyclone Tracy on Christmas Eve, 1974.

Darwin Wharf Precinct

This was a trip that was filled with as much activity as we could find time for.  This is such a remote area that we really wanted to make sure that we did everything we wanted to, just in case we don't go back.  We rode camels on a beach at sunset, went sea kayaking, toured a pearl farm, took a sea plane from Broome to see the amazing horizontal falls, went deep sea fishing, hiked out at low tide to hunt for dinosaur tracks, took a tour of Darwin's massive harbour, saw jumping crocodiles, swam in a mountain lake, held a baby crocodile and, in the midst of all that, had our wedding anniversary!  It was an action packed trip and we will be doing many posts about it.  Now we are back at home and getting ready to go back to work, and reality, tomorrow morning.  Don't worry though, we have already started to plan our next trip!

Spring Arrives

We have, by Brisbane standards, had a very cold winter.  The overnight lows have been single digits and we have had windy days that keep the temperature down.  But finally, as of September 1, Spring has arrived.

Irresistible blue sky

We have had a complete turn around in our weather, from cool and grey to warm and clear, and we are having trouble keeping ourselves focussed.  On weekend mornings we make all kinds of plans for what we are going to do, but we seem to peter out later in the morning, and we end up cutting our plans in half.  Instead of a day of activity, we have a morning of activity, followed by an afternoon down by the river and an evening barbeque or dinner out. 

William Jolly Bridge

Jet skiers on a surprisingly green Brisbane River

This spring fever could also be due to the holiday that we start on thursday, spending two weeks in Broome and Darwin.  We only know a few people who have been to Darwin and only know friends of friends who have been to Broome.  We are really looking forward to this trip.  We are going to go to the Horizontal Falls in the Kimberley, ride camels on a beach, visit Litchfield National Park and about a hundred other things, or so we have planned.  This is our first real Australian vacation (of more than a week) and we might just find ourselves with big plans in the morning that turn into afternoons at the beach or the pool.  That's not so bad, is it?

Two Years

The beautiful Brisbane River

Not as scary as they used to be

On Friday, 24 August, we celebrated our two year anniversary of moving to Australia.  It is amazing when we look back at what we have experienced since moving here: an entire new way of life, moving from the arctic (practically!) to the subtropics, experiencing a massive flood event, seeing the Great Barrier Reef, visiting Melbourne and Sydney and, of course, living in an entirely new city!  We really have a tremendous amount of respect for anyone who makes the move to a new country...no matter how prepared you are, there are alway surprises.

Sunshine Beach a Noosa, a favourite place

The Daintree River in far north Queensland

The thing that we appreciate the most is being able to travel around Australia.  We are planning a trip to Broome and Darwin in three weeks, which is a big trip even though we aren't leaving the country, but the little trips that we have taken have been so wonderful.  We absoulutely LOVE Sydney and take as many trips there as we possibly can each year.  We love Melbourne for being a little taste of Aussie/Europe and, of course, we are very fortunate to live in beautiful Brisbane.  The subtropics certainly have their own flavour, and Brisbane does not disappoint.  The best thing about Brisbane is the attitude of the citizens.  No matter what happens, there is a real sense of "mateship" here.

Sunset in Port Douglas

Below the lighthouse in Byron Bay, NSW

 The time here has flown past and in some ways it still feels like we just got here.  Everything is still so new and we are constantly finding new things that are less than half an hour walk from our house.  We love learning Aussie sayings and have developed a true appreciation for what it must have taken to settle a country with such hostile weather (just the other day we heard on the news that the winter we have just had, with a wet cool beginning and a dry end, is prime "snake weather"!...how is that possible?).  On the other hand, we now feel like we truly belong here and we know when and how to queue for things, and when to just start making demands.  We love the food and wine appreciation here and the spirit that everything is worth celebrating.  We weren't sure what to expect when we got here, but we certainly have no regrets.  We don't know if we will stay here forever, but right now it is exactly where we want to be.  We will always be Canadians at heart, but it's nice to think that we have a little Aussie in our souls now.

Ekka - 2

As we mentioned before, the Ekka is really about showing the country way of life.  There are vegetable and fruit displays, Girl Guides and Boy Scout booths, and all kinds of different associations, such as the Country Women's Association and Junior Farmers groups that display different animals (like the 4H clubs in Canada).

Little Lamb

One big wooly sheep...the rest of them know what he has coming!

Big goat

They really make a huge effort to show city kids a little bit of farming life and they really do a good job of showing animals.  There are dog and cat displays and we watched a cat judge from the US talk about what she looks for in grading certain types of cat, then watched a dog show that was a parade for a certain breed.  The cat display was quite small but we saw 10s of different breeds of dogs, including a booth for retired greyhounds that was very well attended.  If those dogs were ignored while they were working, they certainly can't complain of that now.  There were line-ups more than 10 deep just to pet the dogs!

Little baby goat

The part that we liked was walking through and seeing the sheep and goats.  The sheep were being shown in a couple of ways, including as a part of shearing demonstrations.  We wondered what kind of discussions were going on between the sheep...all in the pen had been shorn and only one sheep, very nervous looking, still had the long wool.  He knew his days of being wooly were numbered!

The part that we liked best was walking through the goat pens and seeing all the different types of goats.  They had goats with long ears that hung down, perky eared goats, big goats little goats and just about every goat in between.  Who knew goats had so much going on?

Ekka

Every year in late winter in Australia, there is an agricultural exhibition in Brisbane, commonly known as "Ekka".  Ekka has been around since the 1870s and is a combination of agricultural, cookery, arts, crafts and a midway.  It is a lot like the Stampede in Calgary, but without the rodeo.

This is the first time that we have gone to the Ekka.  It is held at the RNA (Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland...you can see why they just call it RNA) showgrounds, the same place that it has been held since the first Ekka in 1876.  It has a permanent stables for all the livestock, plenty of room for rides and sideshows, a couple of good size pavillions for the arts & crafts and food fairs, and a cricket pitch that is used for showing livestock. 

Midway with rides

We lucked out with our first visit to the showgrounds, as we had beautiful weather and small crowds.  Every pavillion was full but we were still able to walk around and see all the displays.  We saw lots of handy-crafts and food displays, but our favourites were the livestock barns.  We saw lots of farm animals and the smells in the barns certainly brought back memories for JB of visiting her grandparents' farm in central Alberta when she was a little girl!

We certainly didn't understand everything that we saw, even though we have now been living here for almost two years.  Once again we saw a game with horrifying clown faces and there seemed to be a show that featured a man in long underwear and what appeared to be a walking water tower...or potentially some sort of animated barrel with spigot...we didn't ask.

Horrifying clowns!

Not a clue about this one

Ekka is pretty much what we expected: it is a county fair that blends city and country and seems to make everyone happy.  We will all have Wednesday off so that we can visit the fairgrounds if we wish, and the city gets a nice economical boost from all the tourism.  It gave us a nice glimpse of a different way of life (country) and we got see some animals.  What more could we want?

Adelaide

We just got back from a few days in Adelaide.  We were there for a three day course through work, and had part of the weekend to ourselves and to explore the city.

River valley near the Conference Centre

Adelaide is very different from the other Australian cities that we have visited.  The CBD is very small (1 square mile) and almost exclusively businesses.  There are very few residences and residents in the CBD, so it was incredibly quiet on the weekend (except for the 12,000 Anime and Video Game fans at the Conference Centre!)  It has a very pretty CBD, bordered on one side by the river and surrounded by hills. 

Adelaide Hills at sunset

Although we realize that we are a couple of years out of Canada and so have lost our appreciation for the cold by living in sub-tropical Brisbane, we still found Adelaide to be almost unbearably cold.  We spent about 90 minutes on Sunday, wandering the city, desparately searching for a place for lunch.  First we had a couple of things in mind: a cozy pub or bistro, then, as the realization sunk in that very few places were open, we decided we would go anywhere that wasn't gross...then finally lowered our standards to anywhere that was open.  We finally settled into a pub that was quite nice, but it took us almost all afternoon to find.  We have been assured that the suburbs are alive and vibrant all weekend but it was too cold to take the chance on a long walk to nothing.

Statue of Charles Sturt...perhaps looking for some warmer weather

It was a good way to spend the weekend but the next time we go we will definitely try to hit the Barossa or some other wine area.  The food and restaurants in Adelaide are fantastic and eating out was definitely the highlight. 

Horatio the Piggy

As much as we enjoyed Adelaide it was so nice to come home and walk out of the airport without needing a jacket.  Brisbane might have floods and 100% humidity with 35ºC in the summer, but you really can't beat the winter here!

Opera House

On our trip to Sydney a few weeks ago, we were lucky enough to see a show at the Opera House.  It was an afternoon concert by the Sydney Philharmonic, and it was a fantastic chance to see the Opera House from the inside, and to get a little bit of culture in our lives. 

Mini-concert

It was really fun to see a show in the afternoon.  We felt like young retirees!  There were a number of other, young(ish) tourists like us, but the theatre was full of seniors who were having a great time!  The wine was flowing and lots of people were really dressed up.  It was great at the intermission to look out over Sydney Harbour and then look around the mezzanine see everyone enjoying themselves.  We even saw a future musician practicing on the steps!

Inside the Opera House

The theatre we were in was nice, but it was more impressive just to be there than by anything in the theatre.  It was really nice and the acousitcs were great, but once the lights go down and the musician start, a person could be anywhere.  Still, we really felt the energy from the artists and from the crowd, that we were in a world class place.

Inside the theatre...apparently photos aren't allowed.  Oops.

We have seen a number of shows here in Brisbane.  We are constantly going to live jazz sesions at the Powerhouse, Era Bistro and, this past Saturday, at the Jazz Club.  We have been to numerous musicals at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) and we recently saw The Mikado at a smaller stage within Griffith University.  For all those great events and the fantastic acoustics and setting of each theatre, there is just something really special about seeing a show at the Opera House.  We will definitely try it again.