More Birds

On our trip to the Gold Coast we saw tons of new birds.  Some of these I just saw locally, but most we saw on our trip.  I tried to put the most interesting ones at the top for all of you who don't care!  

Laughing Kookaburra

The Kookaburra is apparently pretty common in Australia, but we just hadn't seen one until our trip.  It had been eluding us for a few days, but we finally tracked down it's crazy bird call and with Ryan's telephoto camera lens we were able to see it.  It seemed after that we saw them everywhere!

Pale-headed Rosella

We stopped for lunch at a tiny place in Springbrook National Park and these guys were in the yard eating out of their bird feeders.  That's also where we saw the cockatoo.

Australian King-Parrot

Another one of Ryan's discoveries.  We saw these guys when we were trying to find the kookaburra.  They're about the size of a cockatoo.

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

Australian Brush-turkey

We saw a bunch of these just walking around everywhere. 

Cattle Egret

Straw-necked Ibis

Australian White Ibis

White Faced Heron

Eastern Yellow Robin

Dusky Moorhen

Purple Swamphen

Brown Cuckoo-Dove

Brush Bronzewing

Little Pied Cormorant

Willie Wagtail

Fork-tailed Swift

These guys fly really fast so I'm surprised anyone could get a good picture of them!

Australasian Grebe

Pacific Black Duck

Mallard

Australian Wood Duck

Domestic Duck

Gold Coast Day 3 and 4

Our third day on the Gold Coast was much like our first day, in that we checked out a few more nature parks and mountain views.  Although I didn't think it was possible, the drive was even more nail biting than the first day!  Our destination was Springbrook National Park, which was supposedly more rustic and less touristy than the neighbouring Lamington National Park.  There are so many little parks in the area that I would love to go back and explore even more.  Also on the map you can see where Tamborine National Park is, between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

We found 4 or 5 lookouts and short walks which provided all of these amazing views.

Once we got off the mountain we ended up driving through some really beautiful lowlands and fields, which was a completely different experience from everything else we had done that day.

On our last day, after we checked out of the hotel, we still had a few hours to explore before our flight that afternoon.  We decided to do another picnic lunch, but this time at Surfers Paradise.  The weather wasn't as good, which made for some massive waves and great pictures.

One of the hotels in Surfers Paradise (the Q1) is the second tallest building in the southern hemisphere (tallest is in Melbourne I believe) and they have an observation deck about 75 stories high.  Since we were kind of just wandering around we decided to check it out, but they wanted $21/person to go up!!!  We figured since our hotel room was already 25 stories high we had seen enough heights for one trip and opted out.  Oh well!

So as you can see, we had a great time.  We managed to do everything we wanted to do, but I'm sure there is still plenty more to see.  Stay tuned for a post about all of the cool birds we saw!

Gold Coast Day 1 and 2

This week Ryan and I took our first real trip in Australia, and boy am I excited for more!  We went to the Gold Coast which was absolutely beautiful and exactly the type of trip we were looking for.

We flew into Brisbane on Sunday morning and rented a car to drive to the Gold Coast.  On the way to our hotel we decided to stop at Tamborine National Park, where we were hoping to find some short walks and beautiful views from the mountain.  An added bonus that we weren't expecting was a very crazy, twisty drive up the mountain with many switchbacks and steep slopes.  The drive was a bit nerve-wracking, but completely worth it.  Unlike in Canada where you have to earn your beautiful views by doing long hikes, here it seems like they let you drive to them!  Luckily we had a tiny car or it would have been much harder. 

The main thing we did at Tamborine National Park was go on a short rainforest walk.  I was completely in awe because it was the first time I have ever really walked through a rainforest, and it was super cool!  The pictures do not do it justice, but it was very lush with all sorts of really neat trees.  The best part was the crazy bird sounds, which really set the mood.  It felt like I was in a Planet Earth video!  The best trees were these strangler figs, which climb up existing trees and completely suffocate them. 

On the way down the mountain we also passed this beautiful view.  Unfortunately by then it had started to rain so the pictures is a bit blah.

Instead of getting a typical hotel, we got a serviced apartment.  It was absolutely amazing with a huge balcony and beautiful ocean views.  It also had a fully equipped kitchen so we were able to cook a few meals ourselves which was a nice change.  For anyone coming to visit Australia, I would highly recommend going to the Gold Coast and staying where we stayed. 

The next day we  woke up (at 6:30am) to this spectacular sunrise.  Of course I got up to take the picture, but I could see this from my bed! 

Monday was dubbed "beach day".  We were staying on Broadbeach which was just south of Surfers Paradise, and consequently it was much less crowded (if you can even call it that).  We went and picked up stuff for a picnic lunch and spent the morning until 2pm just reading and lazing on the beach.  The water was still too cold to swim, but it was a beautiful day.  You can see Surfers Paradise where all of the high-rises are in the first picture.

Then, FINALLY, I got to try surfing!  Our instructor was a stereotypical Aussie surf bum who said things like "far out".  I'm going to admit, it was much harder than I had expected.  By the end of the lesson I was able to stand for a few seconds on a wave, but that was about it.  Lots of fun but I don't think I missed my calling!

And thus concludes this post.  Stay tuned for day 3 and 4 of our adventure!  

Port Adelaide

Recently I've been trying to explore a little bit more of the Adelaide area, so on Sunday I ventured to Port Adelaide.

As you can see, it's connected to the ocean by a river, and from what I understand it's where a bunch of fishing boats come in.  I was expecting a quaint little harbour town, but that really wasn't what it was at all.  I also found out that they have a market there every Sunday, so I thought that would give me a good backup plan in case the town was a let down.  When I arrived I went to the tourist information centre and they informed me that they have dolphin river cruises for only $6, so naturally that's exactly what I did! 

While waiting for the cruise to start I actually saw a few dolphins from shore  One came up to within 6 feet of me which was pretty cool.  Anyways, the cruise was kind of ridiculous and I couldn't stop giggling to myself at the funny situation.  Basically we just cruised up to where the river met the ocean and turned around, which took 2 hours.  The funny parts were that we only saw a few dolphins, it was pouring rain for parts of it, and the "scenery" was factories and power plants.  It was worth $6, but not much more! 

View of Port Adelaide from the boat (lighthouse and market building)

Not a great picture, but proof I saw dolphins

Overall, I pretty much have fun no matter what I'm doing so it was a good day.  I also met a German girl from a small town in Bavaria so we chatted for the 2 hours while trying to stay warm and dry. 

Over the past few days I've occupied most of my time with expanding my cooking repertoire.  I have made 2 batches of homemade pasta (pumpkin tortellini, spaghetti and linguini) and a batch of homemade gnocchi.  Gnocchi is seriously the easiest thing to make EVER so if you want a recipe, let me know!  Pasta isn't hard either, but requires a pasta machine and infinite amounts of patience (if you're hand folding dozens of tortellini that is…) 

Since yesterday was my birthday, I took the day off and didn't cook or clean at all (woo!) and went shopping downtown instead!  I also went to a sculpt workout class down the street for the first time and since I haven't exercised in 3 months I'm really feeling it today.  Kelsey and I went out for dinner and she made me delicious chocolate cake, so it was a pretty awesome day.  Today I'm sitting outside sweating in a tank top, in the middle of winter, on a "rainy" day with not a cloud in the sky.   Ryan comes home today, then we're off to the Gold Coast from Sunday to Wednesday, so all in all I'm pretty darn lucky to be me.

This one's for you Karen!

At the train station in Hallet Cove there was the coolest public bathroom I've ever seen!  I know what you're thinking…"that's disgusting" but seriously, hear me out.  Everything was automatic, it smelled amazing (like flowers!) and it played music!!!!  It was also more polite than most people I meet in a day.  For proof, I have taken a video (forgive the terrible cinematography).  Enjoy!

Hallett Cove

When I was working at the university last week, I sat through an architecture class.  While the class wasn't particularly interesting, I learned that their project for the year was to design a house for an ornithologist (bird watcher) and they were taking a trip to the design site the next week.  The prof showed a bunch of pictures and said they could get there by the city train, so I decided that one day I would go there because it looked really cool.  Thus begins my adventure on Wednesday to Hallett Cove Conservation Park.

First, it took me an hour and a half to get there by public transit (which in all fairness was pretty good considering how far it was).  The bus/train ride was fairly uneventful, except for a few times I said to myself "what the heck am I doing!?" or "this had better be worth it!"  Also remember, I really didn't know where I was going except that an entire class was getting there by train so I assumed it couldn't be that bad.  After wandering around for awhile, I finally found a sign for the conservation park.  At first I was thoroughly disappointed because it looked like this:

But then I remembered the cliffs from the lecture and decided to be optimistic.  It was actually way cooler than I had expected.  Unfortunately by the time I got there it was no longer sunny and even rained a bit, but it's not like I had anything better to do!  There were lots of well maintained trails and boardwalks and a bunch of interpretive signs (which I never have the patience to read) so it was worth the bus ride.  That said, I probably wouldn't take visitors there.

On one side there was this (which they called the amphitheatre and the sign had a bunch of geology stuff on it)...

on the other side was this...

then there was all of this in between.

I saw a few new birds, but I couldn't identify them fast enough before they flew away.  Also, I heard some awesome frogs croaking but I couldn't for the life of me see them.  I did record them for your listening pleasure though!

Overall it was a pretty fun adventure.  On the way home I stopped in Glenelg for a few hours and made it home exhausted.