It was great fun. An easy country, oops CONTINENT, to do on my own. They speak English, sort of, and signs are in English, food is recognizable, currency $, and much is familiar.
Emmet and Mary picked me up at the Gold Coast airport. After an 8 hour flight to Sydney and a 1 1/2 hour flight to Gold Coast. It seems close, because it is on the same page of the atlas, but it was a long travel day.
We had a great time.
They are in a condo, right on the ocean. There is a path along the seaside, and the beach, fine white powder sand, is not 100 meters from their building. On the beach are the iconic life guard towers, with a wonderful looking team of volunteer life guards. Yes, in their yellow and red beanies.
One morning we went down to swim, actually just be bumped around in the glorious waves, and a team of about 20 boarders came running full tilt on to the beach, carrying their boards under their arm. They dashed in to the ocean, paddled out at full tilt, came surfing in, and repeated that about 4 times, fast. Then they did a workout together on the beach. These wonderful Aussie bodies, in bathing suits, in ripping good shape, and giving it all they could. It was very impressive.
We went on a day drive, out in the country, rolling hills that reminded me of England, to this wonderful Art Gallery, sort of in the middle of nowhere. They had a wonderful exhibit of Ken Done. I knew that name because in the seventies, when you bought "wearable art" there were t-shirts of his. Very colourful, happy colours. They also had a showing of a very popular Aussie artist, Olley, who was homebound in her last decade, and she painted still lives, and the interior of her home. They were lovely, and it gave me an idea of her life.
We went in to Brisbane for a day, and visited a friend of Emmet and Mary's. We had lunch at a "balls club", that would be lawn bowling, and did a river tour. Brisbane is a charming city.
On to Sydney. A big, old city. I felt I was in Manhattan. Old brick cobblestones, street people, buskers, beggars, and a wonderful energy. It was an easy city to get around.
I did a tour of the Opera House. I was not disappointed. It is really beautiful. The architect, Utson, a Dane, thought it could be built in 3 years for $16 million. It took 16 years and took $50 million. But, you know, Sydney has this amazing iconic draw to the city. There are 5 theatres that seat 5,000 people, and they had 100,000 visitors last month! Utson designed stairs up to the theatre, you are rising in to cultural heaven. But it makes for challenges for audience, loading and unloading, and would not be done today (wheelchair accessibility a major design issue).
Sydney has some old buildings. Workmen's cottages that date to 1700's. With beautiful ornate filigree iron work railings. But the Opera House trumps anything.
On to Perth. I decided to go to where my good friend Val lived. She talked it up as so beautiful. But it was bloody expensive, Myte. Had I known. But I am glad I went. It is a fresh new city. Booming, much construction, and crisp blue sky, and sparkling waterfront.
I went to Fremantle, a small town out on the coast, Perth being up the river a bit. Went to a Marine Museum, and a researcher invited me in to his lab, to show me what he did. He was an anthropologist as well as an archeologist, so he was looking at these specimens from the perspective of life style back then. It really was fascinating. Showed me two cannonballs. One had been protected from the ocean elements and weighed a bloody ton. Another which had had the effects of the salt water for 300 years, was as light as a feather. Only carbon left.
The museum had an old shipwreck put together in the museum. The size of the lumber used for the ship. HUGE. They fixed leaks with animal hair and wax. They used English bricks as ballast, and then sold them when they got to Australia.
I went on a bus trip that took me to see kangaroos, wombats, and koala bears. Of course.
To a lobster factory, to see how they grade and pack and ship those "live" lobsters far afield. (They stun them in cold water and then they are good for 36 hours to get to destination) Japanese love 1 lb lobsters, Middle East they love 5 lb lobsters.
We went to the pinnacles, an amazing formation of limestone pillars in the sand dunes.
THEN we went sand boarding. The bus we had was like a tractor trailer. The driver was in a cab, and we were seated in the "trailer". I wondered why, but the bus went in the sand dunes. Up and down these quite steep dunes, doing wheelies where the trailer skidded around on the turn. It was really fun. Some people went sand boarding. Like a toboggan ride in the sand. I couldn't do it, because my stupid knees don't bend the way they should. But it sure looked like fun.
Kids wear school uniforms, and the girls wear a midi dress, and a straw bonnet. Very nautical.
Construction workers take the brim from a sun hat and put it on their hard hat.
Small airplane , and float planes. Not seen in Asia.
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