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.
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