Canberra, and Goulburn's solution to giant weeds

We visited the Capital, Canberra, for a couple of days to visit 'Floriade', the biggest flower festival in Australia . The first picture was taken in Goulburn, on our journey there. This gargantuan sheep, or more precisely ram, 'The Big Merino' stands 15.2 metres tall and weighs in at 97 tonnes......did I hear someone mention 'mint sauce'?? You can actually go inside the ram and once upon a time you were able to climb to the top and look out of the rams eyes. Unfortunately, due to health & safety regulations, the council have stopped this practice for reasons known only to themselves............... spoilsports!!!!!! I have to mention at this stage that Australia has made a name for itself by placing strange statues in towns to attract tourism. A few examples are; the 'Big Prawn', 'Big Orange', and 'Big Potato' (the less said about the latter the better). What does the UK have in comparison? Big Ben, Stonehenge, the Cerne Giant etc. Just what on earth were we thinking of????

We arrived in Canberra and did a bit of sight seeing. This picture is of Parliament House.

Our next visit was to 'Telstra Tower', standing 195 metres tall. We took a lift to the viewing platform (where I dropped the camera, but thankfully not over the edge!) The picture shows views of Canberra from the Black Mountains and the shadow of the tower can clearly be seen.














Floriade was fabulous, it was a spectacular show with thousands of brightly coloured flowers made up to form pictures (though this could only be seen from above, so unless visiting in a helicopter you couldn't get the full effect) nevertheless, the colours were breath-taking! This years theme was 'Films that shaped our nation'. The pictures represented such films as 'Muriel's Wedding', ' Happy feet' and 'Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert' to name but a few.

Road Trip

On Monday we travelled just under 400km to visit one of Taras' friends who lives in Merimbula. It took us just under 5 hours as some of the roads had slow speed restrictions. Some of the country side we drove through (when I wasn't sleeping) was pretty awesome. As we travelled further south it was evident they got more rain than up north as the lush greens of the fields and hills reminded me of England. As most of you know, geography is not my strong point (I couldn't find the kitchen without my satnav) so I presumed that travelling south meant warmer climate (as it does in the UK). Doh! Keep forgetting I'm in the southern hemisphere so everything is topsy-turvy! I was absolutely freezing and even with 2 fleece jackets on and a fire going at the house we were staying I was only just about warm enough. These pictures are places we travelled through.

Cockatoo Run

This picture was taken after we returned from a wonderful day out on a steam train to Robertson (of famous pie shop fame!!). This service hasn't run for the last 2 1/2 years due to the fire risk it poses. We were very fortunate to get tickets and even more so that we had a private compartment for the seven of us. The train arrived 35 minutes late (are Southwest trains running this service???) but it was well worth the wait. After swiping in with my Oyster card we were on our way! We travelled through some amazing scenery as we made our way up the mountain track to the Southern Highland town of Robertson. The views on the way back weren't so spectacular as a thick fog seemed to creep in from nowhere.
There was a small fayre once we reached Robertson with a few stalls and yet more yummy pies (I'll need two seats on the plane home!!!)
The picture below is me next to an old 1930's Packard motor car.

Swimming

This is my favourite pool in the whole of the Sydney area, Leichhardt. I came here at least three times a week during my many months here during the last two summers. We stopped here for a swim on our way into Sydney and it was so good to be back. To the left of the picture, in the distance, is the 'bay', actually a river inlet. I jogged (yes, I did say jogged) several times, all 7 kilometres of it!!!!

Nan Tien Temple

This is Taras and I outside the Nan Tien temple, the largest Buddhist temple in the southern hemisphere. The aroma of the lemon tea trees assaults your nostrils as soon as you get out of the car, it's such a pleasing aroma. Walking up the steps of the temple and the aroma changes to the smell of bacon butties..........what?.........bacon butties?................surely not? Buddhists are vegetarian, aren't they? Mystery solved when we reached the top of the steps to discover the "bacon" aroma was actually dozens of incense sticks being burnt in front of a pot-bellied little man with a silly smile (no offence to pot-bellied men with silly smiles intended).
The gardens of the temple are amazing and have certainly given me ideas for future projects.

Wollongong Botanical Gardens

A seemingly overcast morning led us to believe it would be an ideal day to go to the botannical gardens. Sure enough, once we arrived the sun came out and the temperature was in the mid 30's. That day was enjoyable but the heat was uncomfortable and this is still early Spring!!! The gardens are beautiful and I was surprised at the colourful flowers (something I hadn't experienced on any of my previous visits). The Kawasaki bridge (above) reminds me so much of my favourite painting by Monet.

Hello Darling!

Here's a picture of Sydney's skyline taken from Darling Harbour. It's such a great place and I've enjoyed many a happy hour (or ten) here. There is so much to do; The National Maritime Museum, Aquarium, Wildlife World, Chinese gardens, IMAX theatre, numerous restaurants and coffee shops (long live 'Gloria Jeans', boo-hiss to 'Starbucks').
A short walk into the centre of the City and the shopping is awesome. My favourite place to shop is the Queen Victoria Building (not shown). I find it an amazing place, it has four floors packed with individual, unusual shops and the architecture of the building is just fantastic. I bought an authentic 'barmah' leather hat (and no...........it doesn't have corks tied to it, in case you were wondering). I may or may not, depending on how I feel, show you in a later posting.
Here is the same skyline at night.

Illawarra Fly

Above is the Illawarra Fly, a walkway a hundred or so feet above a sub-tropical rain forest. I was beginning to think it was an actual 'fly' we were going to see when we started the car journey but relieved to find it wasn't!! Halfway through the walkway is a tower which is probably another hundred feet higher still. Thankfully the 'lemming syndrome' didn't kick in and I controlled the urge to take the quick route down. The views above the trees across to the coast were amazing. On the way back we stopped at the 'Famous Robertson Pie Shop', I'm sure you've all heard of it!?!? Had the yummiest pie of my life. They could teach us Brits a thing or ten about making pastry!!!

Hotel Pool

Here's the pool at the hotel. Because it's one of the smaller hotels in Cooly by 2pm it was completely in the shade thanks to the towering hotel next door. Needless to say, it was cold and we only did 3 laps of the polo shaped pool before we got so cold we had to get out.

"Cooly" aka Coolangatta

We hired a car in Brisbane and drove about 100km south to Coolangatta where we stayed for a couple of nights. This is the beach just behind the hotel. We didn't go for a swim as it's early Spring here and the water is freezing cold - I have blue toes to prove it! The hotel was great and we were spoilt for choice with places to eat. I did so much clothes shopping my case wouldn't close when it was time to fly back to Wollongong.

Brisbane by night

Here's a picture of Brisbane at night. We ate at a riverside restaurant overlooking this view and think it's just amazing. We actually walked around 10 miles during the day (figures courtesy of Taras' pedometer) and were so tired we couldn't manage the approx 2 miles back to the hotel so caught a ferry back. We stayed on the 24th floor of a hotel and I'm convinced it was swaying, either that or they put something in the water here?!?!

Brisbane Botanical Gardens

The day after arriving Taras and I caught a flight to Brisbane where we spent a couple of days. The flowers growing along the arch were part of the botanical gardens and stretched seemingly forever. It was so beautiful and the scent from the flowers was amazing. To my shame, as a garden designer-in-waiting, I haven't a clue what the flowers were? Answers on a postcard please!

Alan has arrived down under

Ok, well I've finally got round to uploading some pictures for my blog and hope I don't bore you all silly! This picture was taken on East Corrimal beach, near Wollongong, just a few minutes walk from the house. It was around 5pm and the sun was just starting to set, hence the beautiful pink sunset. Left to right are Guy, Bob, Taras, Me, Xenia and Rie. Rebel, the family dog, wanted in on the act too but needs to learn which way to face for a photo shoot.