Robb and Sue's Excellent Adventure: Australia Entry 24

As we stepped out of the terminal at Brisbane Airport, we were greeted by a waft of warm humid air and bright sunshine which felt wonderful after the cool winds and dull skies we'd had in Tasmania the last few days. After a quick check-in at Eurocar, we were on our way north towards the Sunshine Coast.
We had arranged a return visit to our friends Cheryl and Mike who live on the Gold Coast near Surfer's Paradise south of Brisbane, and with whom we had stayed for a few days in May on our way north. Cheryl had found a “bargain” long weekend at a resort in Nooseville and we'd agree to meet them there about midday Thursday. Although Mike is a teacher and really shouldn't have the time off, he had phoned in for a “sicko” this morning and would do so again Friday, giving him a chance to get a way for a few days. As we were leaving the airport our mobile phone chirp alerted us to a text message. It was Cheryl asking where we were. It turns out they were also on the road and had in fact just passed the Brisbane airport, so were about 5 minutes ahead of us. We kept in touch by text messages as we drove along the 6 lane motorway, eventually turning off onto a series of roads which required us to have our wits about us as there were a number of roundabouts with roads going to all sorts of Sunshine Coast towns.
The Sunshine Coast, about 100 kms or so north of Brisbane, is one of Queensland's premier residential and vacation spots with wonderful weather, great beaches and huge array of accommodation. We again drove through beautiful sub-tropical countryside which was green and verdant with colorful flowering trees, despite the continuing drought in southern Queensland. Apparently this area has had more rainfall than other regions to the south where strict water rationing is still in effect. (Our rental car had not been washed for example...”Sorry for any Inconvenience!”). Through the magic of mobile phone messaging, we were able to find Mike and Cheryl parked in the town of Noosaville and we figured out the location of our resort, which turned out to be great....a two bedroom townhouse in a complex with 4 pools, bar-b-ques and all the mod cons. But before we checked in, we joined Mike and Cheryl in their spacious Jaguar and headed to a restaurant pub with a great view over the bay, where we had a lovely lunch sitting on the deck in the warm air.
We had a wonderful weekend here in Noosa which, like most seaside towns we visited in Queensland, had changed dramatically since we stopped here for a few days as campers in 1978. The beach is much the same but of course there has been tremendous development of resorts, homes, shops restaurants, etc. over the past thirty years. We spent time relaxing by the pool, driving to nearby beaches, doing a little shopping, having several games of viciously competitive Scrabble, and of course sampling our fare share of Aussie wines. Mike and Cheryl are such sociable and easy-going people and it was delightful to be spending a few days with them. But despite the laid back and relaxing atmosphere, our weekend was not without a little drama.
Saturday November 24th was election day in Australia. For weeks we had been inundated with the usual flood of campaign ads, TV debates and political commentary on every morning show and news cast. The incumbent Prime Minister, John Howard, was seeking a 5th straight term, though the writing seemed to be on the wall for the 70+ Liberal leader as the polls were giving the opposition Labour Party under their young new leader, Kevin Rudd, a substantial lead. Cheryl and Mike had voted in an advance poll as they would be away on election day and there was no doubt where Cheryl had put her vote. She was quite animated as she listed a string of complaints about Howard et al and said she was absolutely praying for Labour victory which would toss out the “ineffectual and lying” Liberals who made a life of kowtowing up to George Bush. For the last few days the political commentators and pollsters had been saying that the Liberals were closing the gap and the election could actually come down to the wire. So Cheryl was in a bit of a state as she sat down in front of the tele to watch the returns. As it turned out, she had nothing to worry about as Labour won a comfortable majority, Kevin Rudd became Australia's new PM and John Howard was defeated in his own seat after 33 continuous years in Parliament. Cheryl was completely chuffed and celebrated till after the rest of us had headed to bed!
We weren't flying back to Sydney till Wednesday so Mike and Cheryl had graciously invited us back to their home in Ashmore for a few nights. We left Noosa and headed south towards Brisbane having arranged to see Mike and Cheryl at their place. On the way we left the main motorway and took a country road westward for a few kilometres to see a region called the Glass Mountains. As we came to a break in the dense forest cover, we could suddenly see a series of large rocky hills rising up from the otherwise gently rolling landscape. These “mountains” were the remnants of volcanoes which had eroded to leave just the a “plug” rising several hundred feet in sharp conical formations. Quite the sight! We sort of got lost leaving this area and instead of joining the motorway again well to the south, we ended up at the place we had originally left the main road, but in any case, we arrived at Mike and Cheryl's in the late afternoon.
Monday Sue and I spent most of the day trying to make hotel bookings for Sydney. We wanted to get something close to the theatre where we were going to see the musical Billy Elliot, but after 2 or 3 hours unsuccessfully trying to find something, we gave up and drove to a nearby travel agent who was able to book us into somewhere nearby. We also found the airport hotels are very expensive (just like Sydney city hotels come to think of it) so we are now hoping to stay with our Sydney friends Rob and Lyn on Saturday night in steady of just Friday night, and head off to the airport very early Sunday morning. This coming Sunday is going to be one long day!!
Tuesday the weather had improved from the unseasonably wet days we had over the weekend and on Monday, so we headed down to Main Beach at Surfer's Paradise just a few kilometres to the east of Mike and Cheryl's place. Surfers is famous as the fun and sun capital of Queensland and perhaps all Australia and a playground for the rich and famous (or those with large mortgages!). I guess at one time back in the 1950's or 60's it was pretty much a surfing destination as the surf is often ideal for riding a board. But over the years Surfers and the surrounding Gold Coast have become one of Australia's premier residential areas with incredible residential developments along the coast. A series of inland waterways and lakes has provided home-front access to the water for thousands of residents who can afford the sky high property prices. Just park your cabin cruiser at your private dock and life is good. Stretching along the coast are hundreds of high rise apartment buildings, the tallest and most expensive of these being here at Surfers. The Q1 Tower, the world's tallest residential building which we had toured when we were here in May, dominates the skyline. And a series of almost-as-tall apartments and hotels stretch along the golden white sand beach in both directions as far as the eye can see.
The beach was deserted by Surfer's standards with only a few sunbathers on the sand and a handful of riders out in the relative placid sea. Sue went off to do a little shopping in the nearby tourist area while I settled down for what turned out to be out last hours of sunbathing here in Australia.
That evening, Cheryl's ex husband Russ, whom we had known in the UK when they were still married, and their son Dean who had been at school with Rob and Ryan in Tadworth, dropped over for dinner. We had a good visit while we chowed down on 'Stampede Burgers” which I had put together and grilled up on Mike's bar-b-que (a big hit). It was a nice way to spend our last night with friends, though it was sad to say good-bye to everyone at the end of the evening.
We were up early Wednesday morning and bid farewell to Cheryl as she headed off to work. We didn't have much time to spare as we had to get our rental car back to the airport which was about 100 kms to the north. Traffic along the motorways was light and we made good time which was lucky as we spent about half an hour driving around a town near the airport looking for a place to fill up our rental car. By the way, it's worth mentioning that the price of fuel had jumped dramatically since we'd been on the east coast in the spring, and unleaded was now around $1.42 per litre compared to the $1.16 we'd been paying then. Fuel was certainly one of our biggest expenses on this trip. Sue kept track of all our fill ups along the way, so we'll have to add it up.
We had another uneventful trip on Virgin Blue ($89 each total cost). One thing that is cheaper in Oz are the domestic air fares. As mentioned previously, Richard Branson has introduced some stiff competition for Qantas in the domestic market and a new airline called Tiger, which just began operations this week, threatened to lower the price point event further. It was interesting to see Virgin Blue advertising flights within Australia (one day only I think) for five cents!! Now that's undercutting the competition!
We had decided not to rent a car for our one night in Sydney so we hopped a cab down to the hotel that our travel agent had booked, just to find that they were overbooked and were moving us to the Travelodge next door. It was a decent standard and they reduced our tariff from $195 to $120 for the “inconvenience”, so not a bad deal. We had a short walk around the area, did some email at an Internet place before returning to the hotel to get cleaned up for our big night at the theatre.
Billy Elliot had opened recently in Sydney to rave reviews. We had been lucky enough to find (on-line) two seats for this Wednesday evening performance though most other dates were sold out. The musical was being held in the Capital Theatre which was a grand venue originally opened in the 1860's and completely refurbished to its original period splendour in the 1997. The interior h.d ornate decorations, sparkling stars on the dark blue ceiling, Greco-Roman statues, and spectacular gilded columns and balustrade bordering the stage at the top and sides. It was almost worth the price of admission itself. The musical on the other hand, in our opinion, was something of a disappointment after all the hype we'd heard and the $125/ticket price tag! It is based on the film by the same name and although there were 2 or 3 spectacular numbers, the cast was competent, and the young lad who played Billy Elliot (one of five or six who share the role) was very good, the production seemed to lack spark and emotion. It certainly didn't make our top 5 musicals list.
Well, after a pause of a few days in the writing of this entry, I'm back, though you probably didn't even know I was away! We are currently on AC Flight 34 heading east from Sydney and I'll finish off this entry here on the flight.
The next morning we picked up a rental car at a downtown office and after a brief stop in the harbour area to take an obligatory picture or two of the Opera House and Sydney Bridge, we worked out way out of the core westward towards the Blue Mountains. Sue and I had driven through this area on our way to Sydney from Broken Hill in 1978, but we had not spent much time in this spectacular region with its deep valleys, orange cliffs and gumtree-covered hills. The motorway westward rose steadily and we were soon driving through rolling highlands thick with tall gums and gorgeous Jacaranda trees with their profusion of purple blossoms. We eventually left the main highway to follow a narrow, winding country road which took us through thickly forested terrain, eventually coming out at one of the most famous spots in Australia. Echo Lookout provides a panoramic view over a valley and surrounding cliffs and is a prime destination for tourists visiting Australia because of the famous Three Sisters formation, a large cliff face topped by three columns of rock. The formation was just the same as it had been nearly 30 years ago when we had stopped here, but I had forgotten that the Three Sisters, which is pictured in almost every tourist brochure on Australia, was just a small part of the majestic view that spread before us from the lookout.
Views of the Blue Mountains are spectacular but are always somewhat hazy. Sue had read that this was due to the “blue mist”, (whence the mountains get their name), that is created by the sun reflecting off tiny drops of oil released by the millions of gumtrees in the region, to float through the air like a thin blue fog. Unfortunately, our photos of the region are are somewhat misty and dull, but I guess that's a true reflection of how they appear.
I have to relate a little incident that unfortunately seems to be typical of prime tourist territory these days. When we arrived at the lookout, all parking in the area was metred. We weren't staying here long as we couldn't take any of the wonderful walks in the region and really only needed a few minutes to gawk at the view and take a few pictures. The metres were exorbitantly priced at 50 cents for 8 minutes, so we figured a 15 minutes would be lots. When we put our money into the electronic metre, it displayed a message saying “Insufficient Funds”. It seems even parking metres these days have their “minimums”. There happened to be two wardens ticketing cars nearby so Sue asked them and they confirmed we had to pay for an hour ($3.50) even if we were just staying five minutes. Sue bemoaned this to the young traffic wardens and they graciously said to go ahead for a few minutes and they wouldn't ticket us. But, it just seems that everywhere you go these days the price of looking at Mother Nature's wonders keeps escalating!
After our quick look at the Three Sisters, we continued on to another promontory where more “spectacular-views-for-a-price” attractions have been created. A Skyride, Gondola and mini train, each give you a different perspective of the mountains, cliffs, forests and waterfalls packed into this small region of the Blue Mountains. We opted to take the Skyride which travels slowly along a cable suspended between two cliff faces. It actually was well worth it as we had spectacular views of a high waterfall, cliff faces and the forest far below from the clear Plexiglas floor of the large gondola-like car.
The day's light overcast was turning to dark storm clouds as we made our way to the small town of Blackheath where we found a nice motel for the evening. We decided to try out some pub food for dinner, but as we were about to head off for the local tavern, the skies opened and the rain pelted down. We waited till there was a lull in the downpour to get in the car, but by the time we got to the pub, it was pounding down again. Sue ran from the car park, but as I had to hobble my way, my hair and jacket were drenched by the time I reached the door. The warm interior of the pub was very inviting and the pint of ale and hearty pub grub hit the spot.
The next morning was again overcast and foggy and it seemed that we might not be seeing much more than the road ahead of us! And indeed when we drove into a lookout we'd read about (Evan Lookout), all we could see was a few trees and thick fog. We hung around for a few minutes and were just about to leave when almost miraculously, there was a break in the clouds and the mist parted like the biblical Red Sea, revealing a deep green valley flanked by vertical orange cliffs and two or three waterfalls falling hundreds of feet to the valley floor. (At least the recent rains had resulted in these awesome displays!) Once again we had a stunning panoramic view of the mountains in all their splendour. We watched as mist formed just above the tree tops hundreds of feet below us, rising up the cliff face towards us like a white colored hot air balloon...quite the show!
The clouds continued to lift so we drove to two more lookouts in the region where we were presented with equally captivating views. Then later in the afternoon we started our homeward trek to Sydney to visit our friends Rob and Lyn whom we had originally shared a table with on our Caribbean cruise with the boys in 1992. Their sons, Iain and James are the same age as our Rob and are now grown up. Iain, who works in the banking industry, had just returned from London with his fiancée when we we were here in May and he popped into Rob and Lyn's just after we arrived. James, their other son, was back for a few days visit from Hong Kong where he is a pilot for Cathay Pacific. James arrived later in the evening and we had some interesting chats about his life as an international pilot.
Rob and Lyn as always, made us feel right at home and we had a pleasant evening with them talking over bar-b-que'd steaks and a glass of red or two (or maybe more...not sure!!). Saturday, Rob and Lyn took us to the Olympic stadium area to see the massive development that had hosted the Games in 2000 and then to a mall for some final souvenir shopping. And then it was a fond farewell Sunday morning as we set off at 6:45 for the airport and our Air Canada flight.
So, here I am, seated in my Executive Class “pod” typing up the last of this entry. We've been in the air for about 3 hours now and I can see several beautiful azur and green atols near Fiji directly below us. (Unfortunately we are not stopping in Fiji for a few days as we did on our last trip to Oz in 1994!) They say it's snowing in Vancouver and there's a cold snap in Calgary, so I guess I'll have to change out of my shorts before arrival!
I'm going to end this entry now, though I will write another one sometime soon kind of summing up our “Great Adventure”. So until then...over and out.

A pub near Noosa where we stopped for lunch. The flame trees in the region were in full bloom and presented a magnificent sight.