More from the Tweed

After a few wet days - good for catching up on movies - we're back to summer, just in time for autumn to start tomorrow.  Clear skies and 30C temperatures.  Although the weather was overcast and a bit wet it was still warm and we managed to make use of the pool and spa at our resort most days.
Saturday was Market Day at nearby Kingscliff so we drove the 10km north to check out the local produce.  We bought some fresh locally grown lychees and some delicious olives hand-stuffed with chilli.

A short distance along the foreshore was a hot-rod car show.  All of the cars were in immaculate condition and their owners were rightly proud of them.  We found a 1938 Ford similar to one Robert owned in the 1960s.  This one was in much better condition than the blue one with an Australian flag painted on the boot that Robert had owned.  He swapped it to a mate for a slab of beer (ah - those were the days!!!)  The last time we saw it, some time in the 1970s, it was in his mate's backyard with grass growing through the floor.

Sunday 26th February we headed off to the Gold Coast.  We hadn't been there since the early 1970s.  We had lunch at Surfers Paradise with nephew Andrew who lives in Brisbane.  There was a beach volleyball competition and kite-surfing on the beach.  Surfers Paradise is one of our best known beaches (probably second to Sydney's Bondi) and it is very commercialised and touristy, which probably explains why we haven't been there for about 40 years.

Monday we drove the 45km to Byron Bay, another very popular tourist spot in the area, with wall-to-wall backpackers. Cape Byron is the most easterly point on the Australian mainland.  There are many well maintained walks around the beaches and we walked through the rainforest and around the headland towards the lighthouse.  We had a picnic lunch at Watego's Beach which is overlooked by some very exclusive real estate and large houses

After lunch we drove back into the Tweed Valley to the Crystal Castle near Mullumbimby.  

These gardens began about 25 years ago as a wholesale crystal selling business which became popular with tourists who wanted to see the crystals.  The gardens have evolved with many sub-tropical plants.  There are Buddhist and Hindu statues and rocks of crystal and rose quartz nestled amongst the plants.  The garden are quite formal with nooks and crannies and well formed paths.  There are many amethyst geodes up to 2metres high.  We spent about an hour wandering around the tranquil gardens and rainforest paths.

Yesterday, Tuesday 28th February we visited the Madura Tea Estate.  This is one of only a couple of Australian owned tea estates.  We have visited a tea estate in Sri Lanka and this one was very similar, if on a smaller scale.  There are about 45 acres of tea camellias under cultivation and all picking is mechanical.  Tea is picked all year and the bushes are harvested every nine days.  Yesterday they were making green tea in the factory.  The process uses both locally grown tea and Sri Lankan and Indonesian tea to give a consistent blend.  We were given "goody bags" which more than compensated for the $6 each we paid for the tour.  Green tea and black tea come from the same plant.  The processing is different to give the two types of tea and we were assured that they are both as good as each other for us.  Both teas have antioxidants, although they are slightly different.  Green tea should be drunk without milk as milk will destroy the antioxidants.  Black tea can be drunk either with or without milk.  At the end of last week the factory was shut down for a couple of days because there was localised flooding of nearby creeks and the workers couldn't get to the estate.  Lucky for us there were no more floods and the weather was fine.

After our visit to the tea estate we drove to the Springbrook National Park, back into Queensland, to see the Natural Bridge.  Our cameras worked overtime as we walked through the rainforest.  The "bridge" has been eroded from basalt by a creek and waterfall.  We walked into the overhang of the "bridge" where we could see the "fishing lines" of the resident glow-worms dangling.  The 45 minute leisurely loop walk was well worth the effort.  The sub-tropical rainforest was spectacular.  It was like walking through prehistory. This was the same sort of forest that would have been around in dinosaur times.

 

The Tweed Valley

Cabarita Beach is a little piece of paradise.  It's only a 20 minute drive from Tweed Heads and has a good supply of facilities within a kilometre of our resort.  We are having a relaxing time - I was going to say soaking up the sunshine, but it has been pouring with rain this morning.  It's still very overcast although the rain has stopped.  We have storms and sunshine forecast for the next few days.  We had a barbecue dinner on Tuesday and watched a thunderstorm pass around us.  It must have been the umbrella we got out of the car "just in case" that acted as our insurance against rain.

On Monday we drove 3 hours to Bushtracker on the Sunshine Coast to finalise the layout and fittings for our caravan which we will take delivery of in August.  We have found some beautiful fabrics which we will be getting from Aboriginal Fabrics in Alice Springs and sister-in-law Margaret has agreed to make us another beautiful quilt.  We also visited Sunshine Toyota in Caloundra to introduce ourselves and get some information on our new Landcruiser which is now expected in April.  Toyota have been able to pick up their production in Japan following the devastating tsunami in 2011 so we will get the car a few weeks earlier than we expected.  It was a long day and we appreciated the car's air-con in the 30+C heat.  It's exciting getting our new "home" organised.

Wednesday 22nd February we drove into the nearby Tweed Valley.  The undulating valley is punctuated by steep mountains and volcanic plugs which are the remnants of the Mount Warning Shield Volcano.  The volcano's caldera stretches from southern Queensland into northern NSW.  Mount Warning is about 20km from Murwillumbah and at 1,157m high it's visible from the ocean.  It was named by Captain Cook in 1770 as he sailed up the east coast of Australia.  It is called Wollumbin by the aboriginal people.  In the aboriginal dreamtime story of Wollumbin, Wollumbin is the Chief of the Mountain.  The spirits of the mountains were warriors and their battle wounds can be seen as scars on the sides of the mountain (landslips).  Thunder and lightning occur during the battles.  The face of the Warrior Chief can be seen in the mountain's outline when viewed from the north. As we crossed the rivers we could see evidence of the recent floods.  The rivers were brown and "silty" and there was plenty of flood debris on the riverbanks.  It was still beautiful to look at.

We stopped for a picnic lunch at Chillingham, next to the Old Butcher Shop Gallery.  We resisted the temptation to buy some pottery at the Gallery.  The Red Rattler Gallery near Dangay has many local craft items and a cafe all housed in two of Sydney's red rattler train carriages.  The carriages brought back memories of another life and time as they were decommissioned in the 1990s.

There's plenty to see and do in this area.  There are many activities and walks as well as lovely countryside to drive through.  Our unit has views over the pool and gardens.  We've decided to extend our stay and will be here until the 9th of March.

On the road again.....

We're back on the road again, sort of living out of our car while we wait to take delivery of our new Toyota Landcruiser and Bushtracker caravan in a few months.

After a relaxing couple of months in our old stomping ground of Canberra, we loaded up the Tardis with our "mobile" possessions and hit the road for travels northwards.  It was great to spend some time in Canberra catching up with old friends and family.

A stopover in Sydney for a couple of days saw us visiting our Sydney based families and "doing stuff". 

We visited the Harry Potter Exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum.  It was a great display of memorabilia from the Harry Potter movies together with some audience participation.  The delight on young children's faces as they were "sorted" into their houses by the Sorting Hat, which of course took their preferences into account so no-one was disappointed.  It was interesting to see the costumes - the stars began as children and finished 7 years later as young adults - and other props - squealing mandrakes, a quidditch set and various wands and flying brooms.  Of course no visit to the shop was complete without some purchases of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, including dirt, earthworm, soap and earwax flavours!  All in all an entertaining couple of hours.

We left Sydney on Wednesday 15th February 2012.  It was overcast, hot and humid. Pretty much a normal Sydney summer day.

On our many trips north from Newcastle on the Pacific Highway we had driven past the Hunter Region Botanical Gardens. This time we stopped for a look.  The gardens have many sculptures and focal points.  There are gardens of rainforests, palms, rare plants, succulents, orchids and bromeliads as well as native bushland.  With well maintained paths.  It's all run and maintained by volunteers.

They also have mosquitoes as big as aeroplanes!

After a night at Forster in the Myall Lakes region of NSW, we proceeded north to Bellingen.  The rain cleared and we've got perfect weather - about 28C and bright sunshine.

Imagine Robert's surprise to be greeted by a large green tree frog which was sharing our bathroom!

Friday 17th and we're heading for Cabarita Beach near the New South Wales/Queensland border.  We stopped near Casino for a picnic lunch in a rest area inhabited by several goannas.  These lace monitors were about 1 metre long and lumbered around the campsite.  They obviously know that it's a good place for dinner and several overnight campers arrived while we were there.  The photo doesn't really do them justice.  The markings were black and bright orange.  Magnificent animals.

Cabarita Beach is south of Tweed Heads and is about 30km south of the NSW/Queensland border.  We'll be here for at least 2 weeks.