Mountain Villages

Montville is a small village, that sits up high in the hinterland, approx 30 minute drive from Caloundra, we went there over the long weekend, far too many touristas, so after sharing an antipasta platter at the Penefathings Inn, we left, vowing to return during the week. This we did on Thursday. Lovely day again, bit nippy, but it was well worth the return. Such a pretty place, beautiful gardens, and super views back to the coast. There are other lovely villages in the same area such as Maleny and Mapleton. This area is a favourite for Weddings.

Many Galleries and shops in Montville

Husbands are catered for at the Montville Inn!! The bees were very busy in the flowering gums that line the streets

Lots of restaurants and cafes

And incredible views back to the Coast

Winter's Sunset and Moonrise

I didn't take these 2 photos, they were taken on Wednesday for the local newspaper by the Sunshine Coast Daily's photographer, Warren Lynam - think they are outstanding, so have borrowed them.

Colours at Sunset at Maroochydore Beach

The photo above was taken at 5.30 p.m. also at Maroochydore Beach when the full moon was emerged over the shipping lane. - just amazing!!

***********

Maroochydore is a few kilometres north of Dicky Beach, we went for a drive up there on Wednesday to check it out, lovely long beach, still suffering some scarp damage from the recent cyclone, but the councils here seem to be moving quickly to redistribute the sand.

Queensland turns 150!

We did a 30 kilometre run to the coast on Monday, a public holiday here in OZ, parked and walked around Caloundra, and wandered along the boardwalk of Shelley Beach. It's Park was full of happy groups of people picnicking/barbequeing and celebrating Queensland's 150th birthday - gorgeous sunny temps again.

There is a pretty busy shipping lane up this part of the coast!

The Glass House Mountains can be seen in the background from the coast. It must be near here where they caught Capt. Cook's eye in 1770!

We wanted to spend more time in the area so packed up this morning and drove to Dicky Beach - where we will stay for a week or so, our park backs onto the beach. We will catch up with our friends, Lois and Colin, who we first met in 2004 when we were touring around Australia. They have since immigrated from Auckland to Caloundra - for the wintersun!. Above - Dicky Beach - looking south towards Caloundra, named after the steamship (S.S. Dicky) which was shipwrecked here in 1893 during a gale, when the Captain made a decision to head towards land, thus saving all lives on board, but the build up of sand around the beached ship prevented it from being refloated - not much of it left now (below). Note the number of ships out in the shipping lane. Took a walk along Dicky Beach around 5.15 pm, gorgeous sky colours, and apparently it gets better than this.-

Roamin' around the Glass Houses

As Queenslanders celebrate the 150th anniversary of their separation from the colony of NSW (in 1859) we toured the remnant cores of volcanoes (active about 25 million years ago), these mountains/hills were formed as molten rock was forced out of vents from within the earth. In May 1770, Capt. James Cook, while sailing up the coast of Terra Australis, named "these hills" as the Glass Houses, (the reflections and shape of these hills reminded him of the glass manufacturing houses back in England).

Capt. Cook, his botanist Joseph Banks and others on board are recorded as the first British people to come ashore in Queensland - on May 18th 1770!

There is a total of 15 mountains, covering an area of over 600,000 hectares They range in height from 100 to 556 metres.

Surrounded by fertile plains

We stopped for coffee at the Glass House Cafe, and relaxed for some time enjoying the view (below). There were a few kangaroos putting on a show for us as well.

Many different crops are grown around the Glass Houses

Including fields of pineapples (below) - (One third of Queensland's pineapples are grown in the Glass House region)

A visit to Steve's Zoo

We left the Gold Coast on Friday morning and headed to the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast. It is a long weekend (celebrating the Queen's birthday) and is also Queensland's 150th birthday. Every ounce of accommodation is fully booked, but we managed to get a spot right in the Glass House Mountains, on the Steve Irwin Way. As his Zoo is only 4 klms north of us, we decided to go and see what all the hype was about. After spending two "half" days there we now know what it is all about, and this facility deserves every accolade it receives. There are 200 staff and 500 volunteers of all ages, all very enthusiastic and passionate about their animals and work. The place is spotless, ALL the creatures and animals are in incredible condition, and their facilities are 5 star - with conservation always at the forefront of every presentation.

Loved these giant Aldabran Land Tortoise (only found on an atoll near Madagascar)

They really stepped on it when they woke up and found their handlers had an array of fresh vegies for them.

We spent quite a bit of time at the Tiger Temple - there are 9 tigers (Bengals and Sumatran) at the zoo at present, all have been hand reared, which means they can all interact and play together, which in the wild would not be possible, they would have to be siblings and of the same type, then of course the males are territorial.

What magnificent beasts

We really enjoyed watching them as they played with the large toys made by their carers - diving into their big pool, and swimming to the toy, and literally annihilating it, then out would come another totally different thing to play with.

Conservation of these magnificent creatures was the major thrust - it is unbelievable to hear that without major intervention these cats could be extinct in the wild in the next decade. This zoo plays a big part in raising awareness and sending funds to assist with their conservation.

Time to rest now

The Red Panda has been on the Endangered Species list for a long time, but because of successful breeding in Zoos all over the world, including Mogo Zoo at Batemans Bay, it is about to be moved to "Vulnerable" status.

The Elephant Goddess watches over the 3 asian elephants In their fabulous facility

Then of course there are these creatures. This young man took this snake for a swim. And this enthusiastic carer brought this one far too close to moi! Crocs Rule! So many crocs at this zoo, each with its own personal facility (they are territorial), large pool to swim in, grass to laze on and trees for shade. ******

Another highlight for us was the "flyby" in the Crocoseum of so many different breeds of birds, cockatoos of all sizes, colours and types, water birds (heron and cormorants), macaws, and of course a variety of Birds of Prey.

Important finds

Yesterday morning (early) we woke to another interesting dawn sky - well two actually. The first photo is looking straight out across the Broadwater in front of our van; AND within seconds from the same spot I swung around, and took the photo below looking north up to the Seaway on the Broadwater - totally different, but worth rising early for. We are starting to become familiar with parts of the Gold Coast now, and have made some important finds, our first was after I obviously did something really dumb when installing new software on my little old laptop, which caused everything I was familiar with to disappear - well that is all fixed now, everything is back to normal - thanks to Malcolm my new computer techo mate. Another is a fabulous hairdresser - Karam, ex Nottingham, he and his family immigrated to the Gold Coast a couple of years ago, and he has opened up a salon right round the corner from Auntie Beryl's apartment in Robina - so she joined me in the Salon's coffee shop, and waited while Karam did his magic (magic was what was needed that's for sure) - he also concentrates more than chit chats - so that was a big plus in my books, muffins and coffee were good too. We then met up with Frank back at Auntie's, where she whipped up a great lunch (84 years young) just amazing, feels good to be close to my Mum's sisters. Have found some great fish markets, inexpensive cafes and eateries, and oh yes, probably our new abode. The real estate market is so much more active in our price range than down at the Bay, anything decent goes pretty quickly. Have a good lawyer and pedantic building and pest inspector, so hopefully we will come out of this decision unscathed - quite a different process from NSW. Small house on a tiny block, (the land size is a third of the size of our last place),and no gum trees, in the old established part of Robina, close to public transport, buses, train to Brisbane and the airport, shops etc. Security system, easy to lock up and go away.

We leave the coast for the Hinterland tomorrow for a few days - will stay at Glass House Mountains - plan to take some time off to tour around there and the Sunshine Coast, before returning to the Gold Coast next week.

The first day of winter!

We woke this morning to the news that the young whale calf - named Dhadhum (young one) by the Kombumerri aboriginal elders - had been buried in the presence of tribe members on South Stradbroke Island. The elders had requested that Queensland Parks and Wildlife take the whale to the island for a traditional ceremony - as the Kombumerri people are the traditional hunters and gatherers in this area, they said they have cultural obligations to treat the whale with respect as their name meant "salt water people". In my books, a fitting and special farewell to this gentle youngster. June 1, also marks the official start of winter in Oz, and on the Gold Coast the commencement of the whale watching season as they migrate north. We are thinking we may just go across to Sea World tomorrow if time allows and the weather is good. It will make a great change from this househunting caper. We leave the Gold Coast this Friday morning and go up to the Glass House Mountains for a few days - everything is booked out here as it is a long weekend - Queen's Birthday. Will leave my car at Auntie Beryl's for a few days, she has 2 car spaces at her Apartment. Today after meeting with our lawyer and real estate agent, we celebrated the start of winter with a delightful pasta lunch at a sidewalk cafe in Broadbeach - excellent food and service on a glorious Queensland winter's day. Followed up by some supermarket shopping at the Oasis mall - Frank was enthralled with this life size bronze statue of the Man from Snowy River (one of our favourite OZ movies) in the mall.