I made several excursions into the city where I walked about town, the shopping areas, the Valley where Chinatown is, the cultural centre…the library is very comfortable. Other than that we did a few excursions with the kids. One Sunday afternoon we went to Shorncliffe along the coast, the kids played at the fancy playground and I walked along the shore for a bit. We had ice cream too.
The Roma Street Parklands are very beautiful. It’s a great place for families and friends to spend a day, have a picnic, play Frisbee or other park games. There’s a little train that goes through and talks about the different areas of the subtropical rainforest park. We walked through garden areas with beautiful flowers and waterfalls. Brides and grooms come to have their wedding photos taken here.
One day during the school holidays Steph and I took the kids to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. I wanted to be sure I got to see some koalas while I’m in Australia and the chances of me seeing them in the wild I imagine are very slim. They have 130 at the sanctuary as well as other Australian animals; wombats, kangaroos, dingos, snakes, birds, rainbow lorikeets… We watched a sheep dog show herding sheep. That was very interesting to see how the sheep dog works. What was nice about this place, although the animals are not free and are being cared for by humans, it wasn’t an overly commercialized place. And the koalas are sooo cute. We all enjoyed the day and were very tired by the end of it.
Last Saturday afternoon I suggested we go check out the Boondall wetlands. It’s an area not far from the Morleys with hiking/biking trails, visitor centre, canoeing opportunities. Charles and Steph hadn’t realized that there was something in particular there. So checking it out was just the thing. Charles, the kids and I all went. We did the 2 km hike and it was perfect, a little haven of nature in the middle of the city. The kids enjoyed it too. They never whined or exclaimed that it was boring. Sophie was particularly interested in the aborigine totems that were scattered along the path. A brochure told what each was about so she would read it aloud to us. Emily would find or see little things that she would inquisitively wonder about. Charles was impressed that I’d found such a gem in their town.
Kangaroo Point is an area of the city by the river. You have a beautiful view of downtown from there. A rock cliff face allows people to go rock climbing and abseiling there. We walked along the top and the bottom for awhile. It made for a nice Sunday afternoon walk.
Charles took the day off work yesterday and the kids had a pupil-free day (PA Day) at school before Term 2 starts tomorrow. We drove out to the Gold Coast and spent the day at the beach. We played in the surf. The waves were beautiful and the sand was soft and white and very lovely, perfect for building sandcastles. It was fun playing in the surf with Emily and Sophie. We stayed close to each other. They were having a ball being pummeled about in the waves. Though it was manageable the in and out pull of the water was clearly felt. I thought of the tsunami and how the power of that would have been so many times stronger. We took a little walk at Surfer’s Paradise also. The whole area is very shee shee frou frou. The coast has been developed in the last 30isch I think it was years. The beach is lined with high residential buildings, theme parks, millionaire communities, fancy resorts. There’s a large retirement community there also. I can see how in the summer it would be cram-packed with people and it was fun to go and see but I sure wouldn’t want to live there. (PS. Some men still wear speedos here!! They call them 'budgie-smugglers')
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