Crimson Kathryn and her crew

It’s hard to believe that 5 weeks have gone by but here we are, the day before we fly back to Kingston!! It’s been an amazing trip and we’ve explored many news areas this time around. Matthew and Margie are the best hosts – we always feel at home here!!

This past week has been filled with very low key activities. We’ve spent a fair bit of time relaxing with Matthew and Margie (and the boys) and we had 2 good visits with Margie’s sister and her husband (Kerry and Porky). We took a drive out to Talbot and through the countryside around Ballarat. We also had a great tour of Bacchus Marsh from Porky.

The weather has been rainy and cool this week so we’ve not ventured too far from our home away from home. However, today (Sept. 28 – our last full day here) we spent a few hours wondering through the Art Gallery of Ballarat – it’s an excellent gallery full of Australian artists! After our art gallery visit we sat down for a nice flat white (coffee with milk) in one of the little cafes in downtown Ballarat.

Tomorrow we’ll head to the Melbourne airport around 4pm for our 9pm flight. We’ll land in Los Angeles at 6:30pm and spend the night there. Our last flight LAX to Toronto leaves around 11am (Sept. 30) and lands at 7:20pm and Evelyn will be there to pick us up!!! Now to start planning the Aussies’ visit to Canada!!

We took advantage of the warmer weather on Wednesday (Sept. 21) and paid a visit to Melbourne (pronounced Melbin by Australians). Matthew, Mark and I (Margie is in Perth for work) took the train into the city. Trains here are much cheaper then our trains – the return trip was $28.50 for a 1.5 hour ride. It’s a nice way to travel into the city for a visit.

We arrived mid morning and walked from the train station through the centre of the downtown. Lots of people haven’t returned to the office (they’re still working from home) so it seemed somewhat empty in places. I love the shopping arcades so we walked through Melbourne’s Royal Arcade! We made our way to Spring Street which is where the Parliament House is located as well as 2 lovely parks – Treasury Gardens and Fitzroy Gardens. Both these gardens are well maintained and have wonderful walking paths.

After exploring both gardens, we decided to catch a ride on the free City Circle tram. This tram (as the name indicates) travels around the downtown area mostly for tourists to see the highlights. It was lots of fun riding around town, seeing all the sites!! We got off near the end and walked back through another connected shopping area. We caught the 4pm train back to Ballarat and were home by 6pm!! It was a great day.

After our 10 day visit to sunny, warm Brisbane, we’re back in the less warm and sunny Ballarat. All the rain has made the area very green which is really nice to see. The next week’s weather is looking better with a little more sunny and less rain!! We’re down to our last 10 days of our 5 week stay – hard to believe!! The time has just flown by.

On Sunday (Sept. 18) we drove about 1 hour from Ballarat to visit with friends of Matthew and Margie – Jade and Shane. Jade and Shane have a large plot of land with a little house and some sheds that they go to on the weekends. The property has some amazing views and is located in an isolated area. The drive into their property was super interesting. We travelled on some rough dirt roads and bumped along through some heavily wooded areas. You can certainly see why some areas of Victoria have bad forest fires – old fallen trees don’t rot like our trees do and even with all the rain, it still looked dry and dangerous (one spark is all you’d need). We spent a few hours chatting with Jade and Shane inside their renovated house. It was a great visit and we really enjoyed the area.

Our big accomplishment on the weekend was to buy the flights home for Matthew, Margie and the family!! The gang will be coming home for Christmas- arriving in Toronto on Dec. 19. We’ve already made some Christmas plans and will continue to get things organized while we’re here and once we get home. It’s very exciting!!

Now we need to start planning our last days here in Australia. We’ll do a day trip into Melbourne and maybe another wine tasting in the local area. We’ll also be getting together with Kerry and Porky (Margie’s sister and her husband) before we leave. Still things to do!!

Our last night was so wonderful and beautiful, I just had to share!! The Brisbane Festival is still going on – lots of people out and lots of lights.

It’s been an amazing 9 days in Brisbane and I feel that we have seen a lot of the city and the surrounding areas. After returning from our weekend away, we’ve explored more of the city centre and travelled north along the Sunshine Coast.

We started our last week visiting the 2 arts galleries – Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) and Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), plus the museum. All 3 are in the same block which makes it super easy to visit. We saw some very interesting artwork at the Queensland Art Gallery. The GOMA only had 1 floor of artwork so it was a very quick visit. They had a special exhibit on the main floor and we chose not to go to it.

I think I’ve already mentioned how pedestrian friendly Brisbane is and we have taken full advantage of all the walking trails and pedestrian malls. I’m sure we’ve walked many km during our time in the city and we’ve also enjoyed riding the ferry up and down the river. It’s another really nice feature and the ferries have allowed us to see most of Brisbane without worrying about driving and parking!

On Wednesday, Sept. 14, we drove north up to Eumundi to go to their outdoor market. It was a wonderful 1.5 hour drive that went through some hilly parts of the state. When we arrived at Eumundi, we found the Wednesday market quite busy. There were many stalls of local crafts, soaps and jewelry as well as lots of clothing stalls. There were also lots of food stalls!! We had fun shopping at the market and found some nice souvenirs!!

Today has been a low key day. Matthew, Mark and I went for a walk around the neighbourhood and spent most of the day just relaxing at the apartment. Tonight we’re heading into the city centre to meet Margie for dinner. It’s our last night here so we’re going to enjoy the night lights one last time. We fly out tomorrow (Friday, Sept. 16) around 6pm and should be back in Ballarat by 10pm or so.

Well we sure had a great weekend touring around the Stanthorpe area and then exploring the carnival of flowers in Toowoomba. We really spent our time well and had some great adventures.

On Saturday, we started our day with a drive to the Storm King Dam (it was a large pond area just outside of town). The dam had a small boat launch and a little concrete dock. From the dam we drove to Girraween National Park which is notable for all the large boulders that seem to defy gravity in places, stacked up and leaning on trees! We drove into the park and went for a 2.5km walk to the underground river. This area was amazing – the colour of the rock and the sound of river was mesmerizing!! It was a great morning.

After our walk we drove out of the park and stopped at a little shop called Heavenly Chocolate!! You can guess what we bought there!! Yummy! After that stop, we were on the hunt for some lunch. That proved to be a bit of a challenge but we ended up in a little town called Ballandean where we had a nice lunch.

Our next stop was at the only winery of the day – Ballandean Estates Wines. We did a nice wine tasting at this winery – sampling 6 wines each. These wines were very nice and a few bottles came home with us!! We made one more stop that day at a soap shop and then headed home for a relaxed even with a campfire, wine, cheese, bread and of course, chocolate!!!

We were up early on Sunday and checked out of our lovely holiday house at 9am. We drove north east to Toowoomba – about a 1.45 hour drive – to see the carnival of flowers. This festival runs for the month of September and we saw lots of beautiful flowers.

After lunch in Toowoomba, we headed back to Brisbane which was about a 1.5 hour drive. Traffic was good and we got back to the apartment around 3pm. The weather was beautiful today and we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the apartment. It was a great weekend and now we’ll make some plans for our upcoming week in Brisbane.

We’ve spent the past few days exploring various areas in Brisbane as well as travelling west a few hours into the interior of Queensland. The weather has been perfect for walking around – not too hot and the rain has held off until the late afternoon!

Brisbane has a very lovely botanical garden and we spent a morning looking at the different plants, trees and flowers. Some of the fern-like trees have been transplanted from a gorge in Western Australia and they are millions of years old!! It was very peaceful walking around – hard to believe the city was right there!! That night (Thursday) we took the ferry back into the downtown area for dinner. Brisbane is beautiful at night!

On Friday we left Brisbane and drove southwest about 3 hours to the granite belt region which is a wine producing area. Margie booked a really nice house for us to stay in so we can visit the area for the weekend. We stopped at 2 wineries on our way to Stanthorpe (that’s the town we’re staying in for the weekend). The first one called Castle Glenn was a bit weird – they had lots of liqueurs but very few wines! We decided not to do a wine tasting here. Our second stop was at Heritage Wines – a very nice stop!! We did a wine tasting here and bought a fair bit of wine to enjoy later!! Our last stop was for dinner at Balancing Heart Vineyard. We enjoyed some amazing pizza while sitting on their patio as the sun went down – an excellent end to a great day!!

On Tuesday, Sept. 6, we boarded an evening flight up to Brisbane to stay at Margie and Matthew’s apartment. Margie works for a company that has its head office in Brisbane so she travels up here at least once a month. Brisbane is located in the south of Queensland, right on the ocean. The name “Brisvegas” came about because it was the first city in Queensland to open a casino.

Our flight north was aboard Virgin airlines and because of all the flying Margie does, we were able to relax in the Virgin lounge before our flight!! It was very nice! Tough to go back to the poor man’s airport now 😁. Our flight left the Melbourne airport slightly early and landed in Brisbane just after 8pm. We had a short drive to the apartment and were all settled in by 9:30pm.

Brisbane is divided by the Brisbane River – it meanders its way through the whole city. One of the really neat transportation features is the city ferries. There is a ferry stop about 2 minutes from the apartment and it will take you all the way to the city centre (for less then $3). It’s about a 20 minutes ride with great views of the city.

Mark, Matthew and I spent our first day walking around the downtown area. The city is very pedestrian friendly with dedicated pedestrian bridges and many excellent walking paths. The area we walked in is called South Bank and it’s full of amazing old and new architecture. It has lots of shops and restaurants plus lots of park areas. It’s also home to the cultural side of Brisbane – the museum, art gallery and performing arts venue are all located close together. September is Brisbane Festival time – an international arts festival held each year in September, so South Bank was all decked out for the festival.

We had a nice sunny morning and were able to walk around in our shorts!!! By early afternoon, the rain had started so we made our way back to the apartment (with a few stops for food and drinks). Tomorrow (Thursday, Sept. 8) we’ll explore more of the city and on the weekend, we’re heading west towards a town called Toowoomba.