so after arriving in brisbane on saturday we spent sunday getting to know our new home for the next few days. we visited the art galleries in brisbane - the gallery of modern art and queensland art gallery - where we caught an excellent exhibition by a chinese artist, cai quo-quang, at the goma, called "falling back to earth" which was just breathtaking. we also saw the "california design" exhibition - focusing on design in california in the 50's - at the qag, which was very interesting too. as we walked to the art galleries we stumbled across a market which was slightly unusual as the majority of stalls were on the floor.
after that we took a ferry trip down the river to brisbane powerhouse where we attended their moonlight cinema to see american hustle (which was great!). the outdoor cinema was lovely (apart from the mosquito bites!) but it was strange watching a film with bats flying low across the screen!
on monday we decided to take a trip north from brissy to visit noosa with a couple of stops. our first stop was bribie island - pelicans guiding us across the bridge to the island - where we stopped for refreshments in a bright cafe and had a stroll along the beautiful beach.
next up was an impromptu stop in the glass mountains to walk up the wild horse look out, it was only 700 meters but it was steep and oh boy was it hot. the views more than made up for the struggle though.
we got to noosa where we visited main beach and walked along hastings street. we discovered that they have wild bush turkeys there as we stumbled across them wandering around in the car park! the beach was packed but very pretty.
as we left noosa the sun was setting and i was really wowed by the little lakes we drove past on the way out.
while we were in brisbane we really got addicted to the local radio station ("triple m") which just seemed to play the best music during the day time and this kept us accompanied on our drives in the hire car. as it heated up on tuesday we were very excited as the djs promised to play their 'sweat song' if it reached 40 degrees, but only outside of the city boundary by 40km or more. we started to get very excited about this song and someone eventually called up to state that they had reached 40 degrees, and after much fact-checking and adjudication from the producers of the show, it was confirmed to be true, and we listened in anticipation for the sweat song. when it finally played we discovered that the song was 'gonna make you sweat (everybody dance now)'. it made us laugh anyway!
on tuesday (while listening to the sweat song) we made our way down to visit family friends, john and louise, further down the gold coast near to byron bay. we drove down via tamborine mountain which we thought might be cooler but it was just as baking hot. when we got back to the car the temperature gauge read at 41 degrees! we picked up some wine from the local tamborine mountain winery to take with us and had a look around some of the quaint shops, filled with handmade products.
we put our foot down and made it to john and louise's in reasonable time. we had a lovely dinner and the most delicious oysters i have ever tasted, they were beautiful and creamy.
we went to wategos beach where jam and i borrowed john and louise's body boards and went body boarding (with some instructions from louise!). i must say jamie was better at it than me as i really struggled to catch a wave! and i really didn't like it when i went underwater and got a mouthful of salty water. this happened quite a few times. still, it was good fun though and i think jam rather looks the part here.
we had a lovely lunch at byron bay and a stroll around shops, bars and beaches. it certainly does seem to be a hive of activity! we finished the day off with a lovely meal in alstonville with john & louise. we had a really great time with them and were really grateful for their hospitality.
now, we are grateful for someone else's hospitality as we have arrived back in melbourne at auntie jo & uncle jurgen's! we are off to big day out tomorrow, a one day music festival (with pearl jam & arcade fire playing), and to the beach this weekend so have plenty planned to fill our last week in australia.
No comments:
Post a Comment