Life . . . Reframed: 2015

Driving into town from the suburbs

We're back in Surfers Paradise - it's been nearly three weeks. Our AirBnB is in the same suburb of Robina - but at a different residence from when we first arrived in Australia. We didn't want to be sharing someone's kitchen for that length of time, therefore the other place was out! Our space here is lovely, although I missed the part in the ad about it being a 'studio' cottage. I guess I was so busy looking for pools, that I overlooked that minor detail! However, the home we're in is beautiful - it's on about a half acre of land beside a golf course. The landscaping is fantastic, and the pool is spectacular on a hot day! We waken to the sound of birds every morning - lovely. Our kitchen is separate, which is very nice, and there is a large living/bed area that opens on to a huge deck we share with the Moorhead family. They are a delightful bunch - 3 children aged 8, 10 and 12, a sweet old black lab called Mayday and our hosts John and Emma.

Home for 3 weeks in Surfers Paradise

Beautiful flowering hedge beside the driveway - view from
our kitchen window

Mayday the black lab - when he closes his mouth, he likes to
leave a bit of his tongue hanging out.

Macadamia nuts growing in the yard. First the outer shell, which
looks like a dried-out lime, then a VERY HARD inner shell. Never
did crack it!

Yup, we did some shrimps on the barbie!

Lily - the household athlete. She loves to do running cartwheels
off the deck onto the grass.

Her friend is doing iPad videos of her. They critique each leap, and then
she works on correcting any mistakes. It's a good 10" drop from the
deck to the grass. This is the view from outside our door.

Inside our apartment

Outside our doors - there's a screen we can pull down for privacy
at night. They really thought of everything for us.

Beautiful pool area.

John managed to scare up a set of left-handed golf clubs for Glen and they went off one day with a couple of John's friends for a round of golf, making Glen very happy. The first golf date was rained out, but the second attempt was successful. I spent the morning at the beach with Emma, the kids and the dog. One of her daughters, Lily, and I had a great time playing beach soccer together, while Emma and the other two played in the waves with the dog. We were also invited to share Easter lunch out on the deck with the family and John's parents. Emma and I made a few salads, John did the bbqing (no turkey here!), we all went for a swim in the pool and it was a great day. Nice to be part of a family gathering - definitely something we've missed while on the road.

John and Emma hosted an Easter egg hunt for their kids and friends.

On the hunt - a nice view of the property - golf course is way in the back.

Pretty table decoration

The Easter feast is ready!

John at the bbq - no turkey here!

Happy Easter!

Kids art always makes a special occasion more fun!

A couple of days into our visit here, the 'check engine light' showed up on the rental car dash, so we took it in to exchange for a car that was in better working order. Later that evening, Glen realized his phone was missing. After turning our apartment upside down, we figured the only place it could be was in the car. So we called the lost and found, but they said no, it hadn't been turned in. We did a little experiment in the car with my phone in his pocket, and realized that when he lifted his leg to get out of the car, the phone fell out of his pocket, and down beside the seat. The next morning, Glen called and insisted on speaking to the manager. A couple of hours later, the phone had made an appearance in 'another' lost and found. Crisis averted.

Nice pub / restaurant that is walking distance from the house. There's
a huge outdoor deck with this lovely view.

The pub has a Drive-Thru liquor take-out!

Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo that comes to the bird feeder at
the house daily.

This guy is showing off a bit I think!

Hard to see, but there are very large bats hanging in this tree - there are
hundreds of them and they make quite the racket early in the morning
and at dusk. All the dark blobs are bats.

Bats flying around their nesting tree. They are massive - I felt like
I was in Gotham City.

Surfers Paradise is pretty much a long string of big beautiful beaches - some 50+ km! They have lovely names like Kirra, Coolangatta, Currumbin and Nobby . . . and then some rather unimaginative ones like Miami and Palm and Main. Our favourite spot has been Burleigh Heads where we can walk the beach, or hike through the forest up onto the headland. There are different trails, so we can do a 20 minute walk or a 90 minute walk. I took this video of a little songbird one day - it was quite content to sit and warble away while I filmed it. Such a unique sound - and there were so many different ones when we were out in the forest - beautiful to listen to. There's a large park along the back of the beach, and it's always full of picnicking families. It's also a major lorikeet gathering place in the early evening, and the park grounds are littered with little bits of orange, red and green feathers. We went to the Surf Club for dinner there one night and the noise of the birds was so loud that it was difficult to hear someone talking unless they were right beside us.

The beach at Surfers Paradise. This beach continues all the way
to the end of the buildings.

Shells are fairly scarce here, but Glen keeps trying!

Beach art

Miami Beach. You can see the city way at the back.

The view from the Burleigh Heads trail

Burleigh Heads in the background. Sitting at one of the many
Surf Clubs along the beach.

Mermaid Beach - just a continuation of all the others! Looking back
on some of the homes along the beach.

I love how the wet sand is like a mirror

One of the Surf Clubs - always good for an inexpensive meal
and a great view.

This is what you walk onto from one of the main streets in the city.
It goes for miles and miles and miles. Beautiful.

Love the surfboard-themed picnic tables.

These are such pretty trees. The roots look like little skirts

Some lorikeet feathers collected from the park for Glen's hat.
We may have too many!

Walking trails along the beachfront. Yes, I'd like
to live here please.

Several people recommended that we check out Tamborine Mountain, about an hour inland from here, so we took a drive up there one day. I was expecting another national park, but it turns out that there is a large community built up there, and of course, a national park!. Not sure what people do there, but there were some beautiful homes with stunning views of the coast and valleys, and a good CBD with shops and restaurants. Seems to be a thriving place. We found a beautiful hike in to a waterfall, and then decided to visit the local treetop walk. It was fun to walk above the jungle and look at the trees way up high. The overhead walks joined a ground trail through the forest, and we spent a couple of hours in this beautiful place. It's privately owned, and very well maintained. The friendly owners run a little cafe and gift shop, and were generous in making recommendations for where to go next and the most scenic way to get home.

Not a Canadian roadside sign!

Freshwater swimming hole in the Currumbin Valley. The water
was quite cold!

Most bizarre flowering tree - these looked like giant Christmas
decorations.

Termite work - hollowed out log.

At the canopy walk - butterflies of Australia.

Bug display - wouldn't want to run into one of these out in the woods.
It looks like it could eat me.

Treetop canopy walk

It's a long way down - eeek!

This is a very common tree base - not sure
of the name, but quite unique.

Our last day here, we decided to take a lunchtime cruise along some of the canals in town. It was interesting to see some of the multi-million dollar homes along the canals. They all have to have pools, as bull sharks inhabit the canals. They get lost in the maze of man-made canals all through town, and wind up breeding and living there. So people pay a lot of money to live on the waterfront, and can't use it except to dock their yachts.

Cruising the canals - very large homes in the background!

Hey - they have 'sails' here too - a bit smaller than the ones in
Vancouver. I think these belong to a marina.

Surfers Paradise skyline. There are some really distinctive
buildings here.

Home along the canal waterfront

Interesting architecture on this home.

I really liked this building - reminds me of the
colours of the ocean.

Not a great photo, but a really unique building

This wavy building was my favourite!

Tomorrow, we start our drive to Sydney - we're expecting to take two days to get there, as it's about 950 km from here. We'll be there for two nights, and then boarding a cruise ship that will take us home to Vancouver. It's a 20-day voyage that makes stops at Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji and Hawaii. We leave April 19 and arrive in Vancouver May 10, so we'll be celebrating our 35th anniversary on board on May 3. Should be a fun way to travel home, and it is a great way to avoid jet lag! I'm not really ready to leave Australia - would love to spend more time here. But the cruise is a repositioning cruise, and that's the only date we could get. Hope it's not too cold when we get home. I've grown very accustomed to hot sunny days!

Here are some shots of (mostly) flowers that are nothing I ever see back home. And a couple of other things: