Recent Visitors

Just a couple of weeks ago, we got to put our spacious new house (and our water heater) to the test with three people visiting at the same time! My aunt Jean flew in from California for a quick, one-week visit, and our friends from Davis, Tara and Dani, were in town at the same time. 

Jean arrived mid-week and was eager to check out some of the Australian wildlife. We first visited the Daisy Hill Koala Sanctuary and got up close and personal with a few grazing wallabies and the recuperating koalas. The next day we decided to check out the Queensland Museum near the city to check out the preserved animals that we probably wouldn't see in the wild. That afternoon, we took a hike around Mt. Gravatt, which is a little forest park just a few minutes' drive from our house.

On Saturday, we left Roxy and Nate at home and drove down to Springbrook National Park. We haven't been there since my sister Becky visited a year ago, and it's just as gorgeous as ever! We did the hike to Natural Arch and then drove over to a new section for a spectacular hike to a few waterfalls.

Natural Bridge

Jean beside a waterfall in Springbrook. Should be a great swimming hole come summertime (it was a bit chilly during this visit).

From the trail behind the same waterfall. Definitely want to see it after a storm.

That night we had delicious pizza in Mt. Tamborine and drove home well after Roxy had gone to sleep. 

Tara and Dani arrived back from Papua New Guinea the next day without their luggage (it was lost on their flight from Brisbane to Port Moresby), but with high spirits! 

Nate went to work and the rest of us crammed into the car and drove up to the Sunshine Coast hinterland for a visit to the Australia Zoo, which should be called The Crocodile Hunter's Theme Park, because Steve Irwin was EVERYWHERE (yet somehow I managed not to get a single picture of him)!

Waiting for the show at the Crocseum.

Dani looking a bit nervous with the 'roo.

Super photogenic Tara seems much more relaxed.

Rox practicing her haka face at our 'roo. Check out the size of my belly! Amazing!

Dani and Tara beneath the display that shows how high a kangaroo can jump - see the feet suspended from the ceiling above them?

I'm not the biggest fan of zoos, but The Australia Zoo isn't too bad. There was an emphasis on conservation, they don't use disposable plates (cookery) or silverware (cutlery) in their Food Court, and they even have a big gift shop that sells wares made by Australians in Australia from Australian materials. But, a zoo is a zoo, and the animals were in cages and pens. They had imported elephants and tigers putting on shows and lines out the door to get a $20 picture taken with a bored carpet python. 

Our next adventure was to North Stradbroke to spend the night and wake up to do some whale watching. During my sister's visit at the same time last year, the whales were jumping out of the ocean like popcorn and I was really hoping that would happen again.

We woke up to a cold and rainy day and because we didn't all fit in our car (4 adults + 1 toddler = not enough seats in the Laser), we had to take the train to bus to ferry to bus to get to the hostel on the island. Not so much fun in pouring down rain.

Our hostel was nice and clean and 3 km from town. We took a cab into town for dinner and settled in back at the hostel for a night of movie viewing (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Jurassic Park - classics!). 

It rained all night, but cleared up when the sun came up. The guy at the front desk warned us that whales don't really like storms and we probably wouldn't see many. Unfortunately, he was right. On the bright side, North Straddie is a gorgeous place to visit and we spent the morning checking out the crashing waves and managed to spot a couple of whales.

Walking into town.

Playing in the puddles and waiting for whales to surface.

Napping on our hike around the island.

Jean and me with the whale-less Pacific in the background.

Back at home: Coloring on a rainy day with Aunt Jean

Jean had to fly home the next day, so Dani and Tara took advantage of some downtime and read those addictive books from the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" trilogy. Roxy loved loved loved hanging out with the big girls and nestled herself right in with them on the couch. (I think she was reading a book about colors.)

Get comfy!

Dani and Tara had to leave a couple of days later and we had a great time reminiscing about grad school and catching up on the past 2-3 years. 

Happy to report that our full house is a happy house. Jean was a trooper and slept on the couch cushions for a couple of nights in our empty 3rd (!) bedroom and Tara and Dani shared the futon, even when they didn't have to. Nate's big pot of Mulligatawny Stew was a hit with everyone (although I'm sure my Asian-inspired pumpkin stew would have been just as popular).

Becky's Week

After Eliza and Andrew left, we had a full week of Becky ahead of us. Because she had just spent the week driving along the coast of Queensland, she was perfectly happy to hang out around the apartment while Roxy napped. We didn't spend every day at home, though.

We drove down to visit the Daisy Hill Koala Centre and Conservation Park. I went there with Eliza and Andrew and loved it, so I took Becky there. We also wanted to spot a koala in the wild and figured it was a pretty good place to do it. It's over 400 hectares of eucaplyt bushland just south of Brisbane. The Koala Centre is one of the best free educational nature centres I've seen, and I've seen a lot in my time. We've been back a couple of times since Becky went home and I will take all of our future guests there.

Mama wallaby and her joey in the picnic area.

We struck out on seeing koalas in the bush and settled to gawk at the guys living in the educational center.

It's true! There are eucalyptus trees in Australia!

That night we took the train into town for a tour of the Castlemaine-Perkins Brewery, better known as the XXXX (Four X) Brewery. I've toured a couple of breweries and my sister has toured a few. Nate's never been on a brewery tour, and we all agreed that the Four X brewery tour is extremely bizarre. You start off in a weird room with televisions all around, and then you're ushered into a theatre in the round where illuminated statues tell the history of the brewery. Then it gets weirder... we weren't allowed to take pictures, but trust me. It was weird.

The joke is that it's called XXXX because the Queensland rubes didn't know how to spell beer. Har har.

XXXX...X

Each tour participant is entitled to four beers in the alehouse after the tour. I wasn't drinking as much as my compadres and the BBQ dinner included in our ticket was shamefully meager, so we didn't drink all 12 schooners. I think we maybe only drank 10.

The next day, Becky and I struck out for North Stradbroke Island. When I was there about three weeks earlier with Eliza and Andrew, we had a mediocre whale watching experience. This time, the waters were thick with whales! The guidebook didn't lie when it told us that Straddie is one of the best land-based whale watching sites around.

That's the splash from a breeching whale. We couldn't look out to sea without seeing a breech or tail slap or whitewater. It was awesome!

There were also plenty of body surfing dolphins.

Waiting for the waves.

We were also surprised by a big kangaroo who hopped across our path and through the playground. He gave both of us quite a start - we whipped out our cameras just in time to snap a few photos.

Well, here's something you don't see every day.

Beautiful blue waters of Straddie behind beautiful blue-eyed Becky.

The next day, we headed out to D'Aguilar National Park. We got a late start to the day (Roxy decided to take an epic nap), so we didn't get to do a lot of exploring. It was kind of a disappointment, but there are lots of other trails to investigate and we shall have to explore it further before writing it off.

The next two days were the weekend, so with Nate joining us, we decided to head south and explore more of the Gold Coast Hinterland. We had already visiting this beautiful area for my birthday back in May, so we picked a couple of different spots for day trips.

On Saturday, we stopped first at the Brisbane Markets on our way out of town to check out the produce. It wasn't nearly as good as the Cairns Market, but there were plenty of stalls full of cheap, fresh produce and we will be making it a regular weekend trip.

Aussie-grown produce. Yum!

We continued south toward Tamborine Mountain. The guidebook describes it as, "A mountaintop rainforest community." Tamborine Mountain National Park is split up into 13 sections of land scattered around the community.

Roxy telling Nate what she thinks of the new baby backpack. In case you can't tell, she wasn't a fan.

Bek and me overlooking Witches' Falls

After Witches' Falls, we visited another section of the park. Nate and Becky went hiking while I stayed behind to feed Roxy. We sat in a little picnic area with a great view of the Gold Coast. It wasn't too long before we started being circled by a brush turkey. With each circle, he got a little bit closer. It wasn't until he got a little too close for comfort that I shooshed him away and discovered that he had only one eye! It didn't win him any sympathy points - we kept our rice cakes to ourselves.

Clockwise stalking.

On Sunday, we struck out again for more of the Gold Coast hinterland. This time we went to Springbrook National Park. It's about 3500 hectares of subtropical warm and cool rainforest and eucalypt forest. Our first stop the Natural Bridge section of the park. We had a lovely picnic and hiked to a cave full of glow-worms. Too bad for us - the glow worms are best seen at night and we were there around noon. The waterfall and cave was very cool, even without the glow worms.

This used to be a swimming hole and is now fenced off. It would have been an awesome swimming hole!

"See...here's where the glow-worms are supposed to be..."

Family portrait. We reverted to the front carrier for the day to appease the bubba. She seems much happier.

Lovely Springbrook Plateau. The scenery as we drove around the park.

Before heading home, we drove up to the Best of All Lookout. The trail to the lookout goes past a stand of Nothofagus trees, so, of course, Nate stopped to have a look for some scale insects. He found some at the lookout and spent most of his time there looking closely at the leaves instead of admiring the view.

New South Wales just over that ridge.

Nate's insects in the galls on the leaves!

After an exciting weekend, Becky had just one more day in Australia. I had a mummy group meeting that morning, so I dropped Becky off at a nearby park to do some bushwalking while Roxy played with her friends. The park surrounds Mt. Gravatt, a hill that the aboriginal people called kaggur-mabul, or 'place of the echidna,' or 'the echidna rests here.' The echidnas must not have gotten the message, because she didn't see any.

It was the first day of a mini heatwave in Southeast Queensland, so we decided to beat the heat by taking a ferry ride up and down the river. We got back to our stop just as the sun was setting. It was a lovely end to the day and her visit.

Now, it's time that I address a picture of Becky making its rounds on the Internet. Lindsay snapped it when we were on the boat on the Reef:

Yes, Becky is changing Roxy's diaper. Everybody knows that Becky Does Not Change Diapers. Everybody also knows that Roxy Fills Her Diaper When Becky is Nearby. I started to change the stinky nappy, but had to abandon the task to throw up overboard. Becky stepped in like a champion and finished up the job. I know that this will never, ever happen again, so it's going on the front page of the baby book.