Don't Worry Be Happy

Melbourne is apparently number one (then Vienna and Vancouver) and it's no surprise. Not only has it got a lot of interesting architecture, green areas, free trams, great weather, a giant Christmas theremin AND the largest LEGO Christmas Tree in the southern hemisphere. This is our final stop in Australia and we're enjoying every last minute of it. The day after we arrived we had an all day tour of the Yarra Valley which produces a lot of Chardonnay, pinot noir and sparkling wines. The first winery we visited was Chandon, known for their French champagnes. The day included a few more wineries (lost count), a cheese tasting and a beer/cider and tasting. Nadine organized the tour and she and her mom helped give a toast to the morning: On Wednesday we ventured over the Yarra river (which divides Melbourne) to the main shopping area - first stop Hopetoun Tea Room - very famous for their cakes (one slice of chocolate/fig tart)!  Then a Circle Tour on the free tr...

As I started researching our trip it became apparent that a visit to Cairns was not only on the 'approved' list (people who had been here nodded approvingly when I mentioned it) but that the trip must include some version of a reef adventure. The Great Barrier Reef is 2300 km long and is the "world's biggest single structure made by living organisms" (Wikipedia). Our trip took us about 40 km offshore to Michaelmas Cay and Hastings Reef which is on the outer reef. The pictures below speak for themselves - there was also an immense variety of corals of different shapes, sizes, colours and textures which are difficult to photograph. This one was almost transparent: I was often surrounded by schools of large fish. A bit unnerving at first. They didn't seem bothered by me.   A random brilliant blue fish:  Rather ordinary Green Sea turtle  HUGE (1 m across) giant clam hiding among the coral:  No idea who this guy is but he's kind of funny...

As well as being the 'gateway to the Great Barrier Reef', Cairns, in northern Australia, is a beautiful tropical paradise. There are some beautiful beaches in the area but there's only one small problem - deadly stinging irukandji   jellyfish which means that NO ONE goes anywhere near the water at this time of year! This particular type of jellyfish is very small (1 cubic cm) but very venomous and Cairns reported its first victim of the season a few days ago. Luckily she survived and was released from the hospital. So, beautiful but abandoned beaches. It's quite hot here (30+) but not as humid as Bali.  Fortunately we have a pool at our apartment and downtown Cairns has a beautiful large lagoon (pool). One other nice feature of Cairns is the Esplanade, a 2 km strip park all the way down the water's edge. It's a very clean, well maintained park, with a large children's play area, various exercising areas and many, many beautiful trees (lots of banyans...

I shouldn't have given it away in the title but yes, our wine tour today ended with kangaroos. We booked a 1/2 day tour (twofatblokes.com.au) that started at 10 am - a bit early for wine tasting unless you're us! We were picked up about 9:30 from our little house in the Hunter Valley and headed off to the first of three wineries. It was all a lot greener than I would have anticipated around here. The Hunter Valley produces 4% of the wine in Australia so it's relatively small. Although there are plenty of vineyards, there are also a lot of open grazing spaces. The main wines are Shiraz, Chardonnay and Semillon. I very quickly lost count of the number of wines we tested although I know at our 2nd stop we had a pairing of 9 different wines and mostly local cheeses. The wines were great but the cheeses were to die for. Can we get cheeses like this in Canada? While conversing with the driver, I mentioned that we STILL hadn't seen kangaroos so he promised he...

We had such a fabulous apartment in Sydney we were all a bit disappointed when we had to pack up and leave for Palm Beach. I did manage to gather the group for a photo on the deck before we left. While in Sydney, Ross and I did the requisite hop-on hop-off bus, then Mike and Liana joined us a few days later for the hop-on hop-off ferry around the harbour. This gave us an excellent overview of the entire area, from Bondi Beach to Manley. Also did a tour of the opera house which took 14 years to build and went massively over budget ($7 million to $102 million). The tour focussed a lot on the architecture of the building which, as you know, is unique. Construction started in 1959 before they had any idea of how they would put it all together. Obligatory tourist photo: Palm Beach is kind of the holiday or weekend get-away area for Sydney-ites (is there another word for them?). It is situated on a narrow peninsula just an hour or so from the city and dotted with beautiful beaches ...

Sunday was a fabulously brilliant day in Sydney and Sam's friend Nadine had organized a group of friends to meet for a game of Lawn Bowls at Clovelly Bowling Club. First we had lunch at Coogee Beach although we didn't actually get in the water. It looked pretty nice though. The beach itself is a few miles south of the City on the Tasman Sea. One of the things to do if you're part of the 'in' crowd is to have a game of bowls. It's sort of like getting all your friends together and going to the bowling alley for an evening. The bowls club is fairly official, we had to sign in as guests and there are regular members; there were other groups like ours that seemed to be having a bit of a lark throwing the balls (or bowls) back and forth. Of course, as you might expect, there are many similarities to bocce and curling except for the fact that the balls (or bowls) are weighted on one side so they roll way to the right or left (so a lot like curling!). The cl...

Our last few days in Bali were pretty exciting.  First we went to a temple (yes another one!) which was perched high on a hill over the ocean. The monkeys at this temple were a bit aggressive and we were again warned not to wear anything sparkly - earrings, watches, glasses, etc. We were fine, but the tourist in front of us had his glasses stolen by a very tricky monkey - as we looked to the left at the monkeys climbing the cliff, a monkey hidden in the tree above just reached down and grabbed them. He chewed on them for a few minutes, broke off both the arms, then tossed the lot onto the ground. Ross grabbed onto his hat and glasses a bit tighter after that. The temple also had a dance/music presentation called Kecak Ramaynana and Fire Dance - 55 bare-breasted men chanting and creating vocal percussive rhythms with movement. It really reminded me of Polynesian dancing. There was a bit of a story with a golden deer, a white monkey, a giant, burning grass fire and some mythical ch...

Our first task of the day was to go to the market at 6:00 am and select food for our cooking class. If you know me, you know that there is not much that can get me up at that hour of the day, including going to the market at 6:00 am! So, after sleeping in until 7:30, and having a leisurely breakfast, Ross and I met the rest of the group at 9:00 for our cooking class. (We weren't the only ones, there were a few others in the group who value sleep more than shopping.) I would likely classify today's lesson as a cooking demonstration; we did get to mix and stir a few things but most of the prep had been done ahead of time.  Our teacher, Heinz, a Swiss who has studied Balinese food extensively, taught us that most of what we know was wrong. You don't just boil the chicken bones for stock, you must boil it first, throw away the result, then boil it again. MSG occurs naturally in many foods and is not necessarily bad for you. The food we have come to know as Balinese is in fact...

Not only did we visit a school today but we ourselves were schooled in a few different aspects of Balinese life. Students in the public schools go Mon-Sat, in the private schools Mon-Fri.  They start early, perhaps 7:30 and are done around 1:00. The students were happy to see us and practice their English (they learn 4 languages in school - Balinese, Indonesian, English and Japanese) and I'm sure we caused a bit of havoc for the teachers. They gathered at the front to sing for us - we were surprised when they started with Old MacDonald and You are My Sunshine - then their national anthem. Four of the older girls performed a wonderful traditional Balinese dance for us. We were escorted around the village by a local tour guide; they have made a business out of displaying their community to visitors. We were served "breakfast" at a compound (where they live) which consisted of sticky rice balls with banana, banana fritters, and some other delicious foods which are...

Elephants are the most amazing creatures and it's certainly not the first time that I've blogged about them (or last?). Today we visited the Elephant Park which was more than an hour's drive from our hotel. Driving here, as you may know, is a combination of luck, skill and an acute awareness of the unwritten rules of the road.  With endless scooters and motorbikes, very narrow roads, and people pulling out or turning directly in your path it's a continuous game of chicken. But somehow, to my total amazement, it all works smoothly and everyone gets where they're going! First thing at the park, we were treated to a fabulous buffet lunch, then a long bumpety ride through the jungle on the elephant. Rollie described it as rock'n'roll, our guide suggested it was a good massage. These are Asian elephants from Sumatra as they are not native to Bali, but the park has about 31 altogether. Not as big as the African elephants we've seen previously. Of co...