A visit to Tamborine Mountain

A number of years ago as a family we had holidayed at the Gold Coast and during that time we overlapped our visit with that of friends who lived in Auckland (Gillian and Nick for those who know them) and we had enjoyed a great holiday together.  As there were six of us (Peter and I and our two children Roanne and Cam plus Gillian and Nick) we had decided the best way to decide what we would do each day was for each of us to choose one activity per day and the whole group would attend.  This worked really well for us all and we had some great experiences that suited everyone.  One of those visits was to the Skywalk at Tamborine Mountain.

We had not visited the Tamborine Mountain area since that time but with nearly seven weeks in Brisbane Peter and I had decided a repeat visit would be ideal.  However, the weeks had slipped by and now he was in New Zealand for a little over a week so Sharryn and I took the opportunity for that visit.

I have to say that the actual elevated bridge was shorter than I had remembered.  After coffee in the cafe we entered the bridge from the gallery where it enters directly into the upper and middle canopies of the lush rainforest.

From the walkway we had a great perspective of the height of the trees with their long trunks descending deep down to the forest floor.  The giant strangler fig trees are just amazing.  The signage provides information about these trees.

Once at the end of the elevated bridge the track descends through the lower canopy to the forest floor and the stream running through.  There were a group of young guys taking no notice of signage and had wandered further up the stream rock hopping there way.  They were enjoying themselves but for everyone else they were just a nuisance getting in the way of photos.

We saw a lovely display of rainforest orchids which were flowering.  Although we could hear the birds we didn't see any nor any other wildlife.

There is a free-standing cantilever which soars 30 metres above Cedar Creek which has beautiful views of the valley and the rainforest - however for us it was quite hard to actually see anything as the group of young guys had finished their rock climbing and were taking the vantage point on the cantilever.  They appeared to not understand normal courtesy of moving so others could also see!  Surprisingly I held my tongue and didn't ask them to move on.

We enjoyed our walk - it is well built with no stairs so accessible for those with very young children and also the disabled.  However the price of $19.50 per adult (and $9.50 for each child) seemed a bit steep for a wander in a rain forest.

From here we moved on down to the Tamborine village and enjoyed lunch in a lovely cafe overlooking the Curtis waterfalls and then further on we took a stroll through the village shops.  We finished off our visit with a brief visit a boutique brewery with cheese manufacturing company - the venue also has a bistro and grill and is a popular venue.

From down the hill a little we could see a distant view of the Gold Coast - just a reminder that the coast is not that far from the hinterland.

Gold Coast view

The next day it was time for Sharryn to return to New Zealand - so after a leisurely day doing what we do best (relaxing in the outdoor lounge area, shopping at Paddington and enjoying cake and coffee) it was time to go to the airport and say good bye.  Until next time - I wonder where we will next holiday together?

Grease - the musical

The production of Grease, the musical commenced at the Lyric Theatre in the Queensland Performing Arts Centre on the 20 August.  Sharryn and I decided that as we have enjoyed going to many productions, especially while we both lived in Melbourne, we needed to keep up our reputation by booking to go and see Grease.

We chose to go to the matinee on the Wednesday afternoon - mainly because we wanted to take the bus into the city and didn't want to be travelling at night.  Neither of us had clothes that were dressy up, but we did our best - however no leather jackets or bobby socks for us!

The story line of Grease is well known and although neither of us knew the two actors playing the lead roles of Danny or Sandy, we did know the ever popular Bert Newton (who took absolutely no mistaking) played the part of the veteran disc jockey Vince Fontaine.  Another favourite was Todd McKenney (who was one of the judges on the popular Australian Dancing with the Stars television program) who starred as Teen Angel.  The other star we recognised was Anthony Callea who was the runner up of the 2004 Australian Idol however he didn't sing his most popular single "The Prayer". Instead he took the role of the All-American rock star student, Johnny Casino.

The production commenced at 1.30 p.m. and we did well to sort out which bus to catch which took us across Victoria Bridge from the sitting with a stop directly outside the theatre - thank goodness the Brisbane public transport system has a good website.  The bridge looked very bright and inviting with the coloured Grease flags flapping in the wind.

Bridge with flags with city scene

We arrived in plenty of time so that we could join the crowds of people who had the same thought in mind as us - to arrive in time to eat lunch at the cafe in the foyer. From the crowd around us we were with the right group - large numbers of women friends out for an afternoon at the theatre but I must say a lot were dressed to impress.

S & G before show

There were no photographs allowed during the production, which is quite normal, but we were able to take a photo of the stage with the Grease lightshow prior to the beginning.  The Lyric Theatre which opened in 1085 was quite impressive and seats 2000.  Although we had chosen to sit in the gallery we had an amazing view as the seating is tiered and not close together, and there were plenty of spare seats so our view was not impaired in any way.  In fact we changed seats at the interval (to save having to walk further up the stairs) and even then we had no one sitting in the same row as us.

We had a great afternoon.

Next day we decided that lunch out was the norm for us so we made our way to "our local" with is The Gap Tavern.  Here they have an expansive deck with tables and we were able to enjoy a really nice lunch together.  From here we spent the afternoon shopping with the desire of buying an outfit for Sharryn to wear to the upcoming wedding - Toowong Village was our venue.  However, we weren't successful and the only shopping actually purchased was some goodies for Sharryn's grandchildren.

How we filled in our Sunday

One of things I always check out when we are in a new area is where the local markets are held.  This is not that we necessarily want to buy heaps of gear, but the produce direct from the farmers is always great, and it is a good way to mix with locals and other visitors.

Before Sharryn had arrived in Brisbane I had watched a television program on South East Queensland and a segment was on the Boggo Road markets.  So come Sunday morning we headed off to find these.  The markets were held adjacent to the historic Boggo Road gaol (between 1883 and 2002 more than half a million people passed through the gates as staff, visitors and inmates).  It is known as one of the most notorious prisons of the 20th century and is now open for cultural-historic tours.  We could have joined a tour but there queues and it didn't hold a lot of attraction for us so gave it a miss. Instead we came for the markets!  Boggo Road is in the suburb of Dutton Park which was nearly fifteen kilometres from The Gap, and we passed the well known sports complex "The Gabba".

The only shopping was for edibles - and the beautiful fresh strawberries were first items purchased and I must say consumed before we got home.

We enjoyed wandering around the market which was quite small really and had a good variety of stalls.

From here we went back to Southbank where we parked and meandered along the parklands - I had already visited a couple of weeks earlier but for Sharryn it had been sometime since she last visited. Again as it was a beautiful day there were lots of families have BBQ's and picnics and swimming in the beach area.  We headed down to the jetty and caught one of the City Hoppers.  Again the views of the city and the bridges were wonderful.

Story Bridge

City buildings

We had initially planned on going the full length of the river to Bretts Wharf where the cruise boats berthed.  This required us to disembark from the City Hopper (as it doesn't go that far down the river) and join a City Cat.  It took much longer than we had initially thought and we realised that we were parked in two hour parking and we didn't have time to go as far as Bretts Wharf.  We got off the City Cat at Bulimba and was that a mistake.  We had not realised that the Bulimba Festival was on - this family friendly day has live entertainment, fashion parades, buskers, demonstrations and apparently 250 market stalls and as in excess of 100,000 attended you can imagine the crowds.  We were really disappointed that we didn't have time to wander the festival (poor planning on my part!), instead we just had to join the queues and wait for a City Cat to return to Southbank and our car.

It was a relief to arrive back at the car and no parking ticket - I didn't want to be the first person to get a ticket in this car.

Time for our friends to say good-bye

Jocelyn and Greg stayed with us from Saturday until Thursday morning and we had a great time enjoying their company.  For them it was a first time experience of "house sitting" and they were quite taken with the opportunities that are available.  However they do travel with their little companion, Marley, who is a young spoodle so that poses a few difficulties.

On the Wednesday it was Jocelyn's birthday.  After a relaxing morning, with Jocelyn receiving a number of birthday wishes by 'phone, we all had a swim in the heated pool and walked the dogs. We then left the dogs at home to entertain themselves and we headed to Samford Village.

Samford Village is about twenty minutes drive from The Gap.  It is a very popular area with a number of cafes and as it is on the rural edge of the city encourages lots of day visitors.  We had missed the fact that it was a public holiday (Brisbane Show Day) as these days make no difference to us now that we are not working.  However, on this occasion we should have thought ahead and made a booking at a cafe.  We tried three different cafes and were told that it would be forty minutes to an hour and a half before a table would be available.  A number of other cafes we didn't need to even ask as it was clear the answer was going to be the same.

So we chose to go to the village hotel.  This is far from second class as it had a huge open dining area, plus verandahs and outdoor gazebo.  We were able to get a table, the menu was impressive, and we placed our orders.  It was really pleasant and we enjoyed sharing Jocelyn's birthday with them in this way.

Back home it was time to bake a cake so that the birthday celebrations could continue.  We had a delightful day, and it was a bit sad to say good-bye next morning.  Jocelyn and Greg have a time
frame in which they need to be back in Melbourne so it was important that they head back to the caravan and begin their meander down the country.

Birthday lunch

A visit from friends

When you are away from home as long as we are (it has now been over four months) we do miss family and friends.  We were delighted to hear from Melbourne friends, Jocelyn and Greg, that they were staying in nearby Tamborine Mountains in their caravan.  We invited them to come to stay with us at The Gap for a few days and it was great that they took us up on that offer.

They arrived on Saturday and stayed through until Thursday morning.  They enjoyed their first experience of "house sitting" and particularly enjoyed sleeping in a lovely comfortable bed after the single beds in their caravan.  After travelling for a number of weeks they enjoyed just being able to "stay home" for a while without being on the constant move.  So Saturday was spent catching up while enjoying the lovely surroundings in the outdoor lounge area.

On Sunday we went into the city by bus and made a visit to South Bank Parklands.  It is situated on the south side of the Brisbane River and is seventeen acres of parkland.  This area has been beautifully developed and was the original site of the 1988 Expo.  One of the areas has lovely tropical plantings and apparently was one of the Expo pavilions which has been redeveloped.

We got off the bus in the centre of the city and walked down the main shopping precinct and across Victoria Bridge to South Bank.

Our first stop was at the Wheel of Brisbane but no one was that keen to ride so we kept walking.

From here we joined the Sunday afternoon crowds and wandered along the riverbank until we got to
Streets Beach.  This is a man made beach lagoon with sandy foreshore, rock pools,  and streams and is a very popular spot.  As it was a very warm afternoon there were lots of people in swimming and lounging around.  The beach, with its varying depths which are well sign written, is patrolled by lifeguards so very popular.  We certainly didn't have bathers or a picnic with us but we made a stop for an ice cream instead.

We continued walking through the picnic areas to the Queensland Maritime Museum.  We decided that visiting the museum wasn't on our list for the afternoon.  The museum is housed in one of the original pavilions from the World Expo and includes an exhibition of models from historic sailing ship, early cargo ships through to modern container ships, tankers and cruise liners.

After lots of walking we decided it was time to cruise the river so made our way down to the closest jetty.  The City Hopper was the first boat to call in - this is a free service that stops at about eight different terminals heading down stream from the city and operates on week-ends and public holidays.  We climbed on board the very full boat and soon we were passing under Story Bridge which is a well known heritage listed steel cantilever bridge spanning the river.  It provides vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians access between the northern and southern suburbs and is 74 metres high.   There is a very popular tourism Bridge Walk available which would certainly provide a different perspective of Brisbane but none of us wanted to be starters.

City Hopper

After travelling for about half an hour we got off the City Hopper at one of the stops and decided to take the City Cat back upstream.  The City Cat are catamarans and operate seven days a week and are the commuter service on the river and stop at some different terminals to the City Hopper.  We stayed on as we passed the central business district and headed further upstream to the last stop. There are sixteen major bridges that cross the river and they are all unique in design.

We were surprised at how fast the City Cat travels and is certainly a fun and inexpensive way to see the sights of the city.  There are a number of stops upstream and we travelled all the way to the last stop being the University of Queensland.  Here the attendant on the Cat explained that during the 2011 floods the water was over the height of the second roof level (at the top of the ramp) of the terminal.  This certainly gave us a good understanding of the devastation caused during these floods. Apparently many of the private jetties have not been replaced as yet.

On arrival back at North Quay we disembarked and walked back along the city streets to the bus to return to The Gap.  We were somewhat surprised to see some of the locals resting

Of course, the kangaroos were statues but from a distance they certainly looked authentic.