Blogs from Queensland, Australia, Oceania

" Once you have travelled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey." Pat Conroy Travel involves time. In Australia allow for LOTS of time. It’s a very BIG country and to prove the point, here are some boring statistics. It is a country of 7.69 million square kms. That’s just a number but herein lies the relevance. SA boasts an area of 1.22 million square kms which means that Oz is 6 times bigger than our little piece of turf. So, what’s the point you may ask? Our flight from Perth at midnight took just over five hours to get us to Brisbane. A distance of 4315 kms. The upshot of this was that we were stuffed by ... read more

This will be our last Blog before returning home on April 1st (no fooling). Our niece Victoria and her daughter Olivia have been with us for the past 3 weeks returning home on March 21st. They took a side trip to Sydney for a few days which they really enjoyed. While they were in Noosa Heads there was a surfing competition with competitors from around the world. One unusual event was dog surfing which was quite entertaining and included numerous breeds such as an English Bull Dog. At least in this area, there appears to be a greater level of home services available. Our car, which is included in the house rental. is serviced and maintained by a mechanic who makes house calls. The same is true of the golf cart. There is even a “doggie ... read more

Outside our house in Noosa Springs there is an abundance of birds, some of which provide a melodic symphony of songs in the morning (around 5:30 am) and in the evening at sunset. One species in particular has a very unique sound. The Kookaburra sounds like a tree full of laughing monkies! If you go to Wikipedia ( website attached) you can hear the sound. Australia has such a broad array of birds that are unique, colourful and interesting so it’s understandable the attraction by amateur birders and professional ornithologists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kookaburra Also in the ponds around the golf course there is a family of Black Swans. These are a rare species (i.e therefore the meaning of a Black Swan event). At the Dragon Fire Golf Course in Carlisle (just north of Burlington, Ontario), they imported a ... read more

9 December to 18 December 2018. In the last few weeks I have been zooming along the East Coast of Australia starting in Queensland , the Sunshine Coast , Gold Coast , then NSW and Port Macquarie and Forster and finally Sydney to finish. When flying in to Brisbane and needing to get to Sunshine Coast there is a great bus company ConneXion which will pick you up at the airport in a big bus , takes all the punters to Aussie World on the highway and then decants you into a mini bus which then drops you at the door of your destination ....all for a reasonable amount ! Perfect. So here I was with Vikki,who I met with her friend Bobbie ( visiting her later on the Gold Coast ), when we were in ... read more

A seagull elegantly and proudly flying over our boat in Gold coast represents the passion and dignity of this extensive land, and I got the coldest beer in Queensland or even in the entire world!... read more