Treve & Katrina Travel The World

G'day all from the sugar-growing and fruit-picking capital of Bundaberg, 8 hours north of Brisbane!

It seems as if we have been in Australia for ages, but have literally seen only a small but diverse section of this enormous country. The coach distances are vast and each town we have visited is a little oasis in amongst vast open spaces of rolling green hills and lush countryside, interspersed with wide seemingly bankless rivers. As the countryside takes us from place to place, we seem to have little control over our journey north.

From the hippy paradise of Byron Bay, we wormed our way past the concrete jungle of the famous Surfers Paradise. This americanised tower block of a city seemed to rear it's bold design above the sea-line, resembling Las Vegas-on-Sea and certainly not paradise. As tacky in name as in appearance, this party capital becomes home to 50,000 school-leavers who descend in mid-November from all over Oz for a hedonistic "schoolies week" - a definite place to avoid around this time of the year.

A couple of hours north, past the famous yet almost anonymous looking surf spots of Kirra and Burleigh Heads, we arrived in the big city of Brisbane.

Brisbane skyline

We were dumped near the bohemian district of Fortitude Valley. Once the red-light district of town, it now attracts the arty student set.

Pas & Katrina at The Valley markets

We met up with Pascalle, Katrina's Australian teaching friend from London and our hostess-with-the-mostest during our stay in Brisbane. It was great to see her and, as usual, there was never a dull moment. As soon as we arrived, we were taken to a recording studio where we watched Pascalle, her sister and her uncle recording harmonies for a new record.

Our home from home in Brisbane

For the few days that we stayed in Brisbane, we had the opportunity to sample real Aussie life and finally get off the tourist trail for a few days amongst friends. As well as staying in a typical Queenslander house (built on stilts for ventilation), we went to Pas's friend's 80's birthday party, attended a speed poetry session (xtreme!) held back down at The Valley, made embarassing renditions at a karaoke party and sampled Yum Cha food in Chinatown.

Brisbane itself is a large bustling modern city with a river cutting straight through it, dividing the commercial central business district in the north from the galleries and theatres in the south. The South Bank is almost an exact copy of it's London namesake, apart from the man-made beach on the banks of the river - London should get one too, if only it had the weather!

Brisbane's South Bank

Brisbane beach

The towering modern blocks of the CBD are interspersed with beautiful colonial-era buildings, now commandeered by the backpackers and casinos. Brisbane feels a lot more relaxed than big cities like Sydney or London and definitely had a friendly, creative feel.

It was great also to meet up with Paul, Treve's ex-workmate from his days at IMS in London. We spent the afternoon whizzing around on the banks of Brisbane's river on bikes - very wobbly at first after almost a year out of the saddle.

Paul & Treve

In the evening, we were entertained by the antics of James, Paul's son, who seemed to take a shine to Katrina. Paul, his wife Sue and, of course, James took us to the top of Mt Coot-tha where we munched a well-earned ice cream as we looked over the twinkly lights of the big city below.

The nearby Glasshouse Mountains, sacred to local aboriginal tribes, gave us the chance to breath fresh air again after our few days in the big smoke.

Glasshouse mountains

We stayed in an eco lodge, complete with a converted chapel and railway carriage, set in beautiful exotic surroundings of fruit trees, coffee plantations and macademia nut orchards.

Glasshouse Mountains Eco lodge

Katrina in converted railway carriage

Glasshouse mountains and farmland

The mountains themselves are the stubborn remains of eroded volcanic cores and gave us the chance to test our fitness by climbing their peaks.

Treve shattered on top of Mt Ngungun

Encounters with snakes and 4 foot long lizards all added to the primeval jungle experience.

This season, I'll be mostly wearing...

A place not to be missed was the nearby Australia Zoo owned by Steve 'Crikey' Irwin - TV's Crocodile Hunter. He often makes an appearance but, alas, we were not in luck. The real Stevo apparently was off tagging crocs somewhere in northern Queensland and we had to make do with an 8 foot foam version instead - crikey!!

The real Steve Irwin?

It was a chance to see the indigenous wildlife all in one place and, of course, for Katrina to pat a kangaroo.

Katrina & kangaroo

Our favourites from the day were the wombats which, surprisingly, look like small bears.

Wombat

A very touristy experience, but sometimes these things just have to be done!

6 hours up the coast, crossing into Queensland from New South Wales, we reached the flash holiday resort of Noosa - reputedly the playground of stars like Russell Crowe.

Noosa Surf Club

Huge holiday mansions lined the rivers and creeks while their occupants lorded it up in the town's expensive restaurants and boutiques.

Noosa riverfront

Arriving on a Saturday with no booking, we just had to make do with a big apartment complete with swimming pool and balcony. After a couple of days of luxury, it was back downhill (in more ways than one) to the YHA, which was housed in a lovely timber Queenslander house - the only remaining example in Noosa to have escaped the developer's bulldozer.

Halse Lodge YHA

The house was full of charm, packed with original features and catered for all ages - a refreshing change from the kids club in Byron Bay. We met some nice people (Hi Isabelle!) and had a great time there.

Original stained glass windows

The coastline was very similar to that of both Port Macquarie and Byron Bay, with squeeky sand beaches leading to rainforest-clad points, hiding nudest beaches beyond (why do we always come across them?!)

Treve goes walkabout

We came across all sorts of interesting wildlife in the forest, including the wobbly-jowled brush turkeys. The story goes that you should place a rock and the turkey in a pan of boiling water - when the rock becomes soft, the turkey is ready to eat! That's our Christmas roast sorted then!!

Brush turkey

Another creature of the forest

Sunshine Beach on the Sunshine Coast certainly lived up to it's name! We finally spotted a koala in the wild, doing very little as usual.

Hanging five in Noosa

We'd heard about the famous nearby Eumundi markets so, along with Isabelle, we perused the stalls.

Katrina in market heaven

Eumundi itself is a typical country town, with life centred on one wide main street complete with the usual colonial hotel (pub!) We couldn't imagine what the town is like when the market isn't open - apparently everything simply closes down.

Imperial Hotel, Eumundi

Well, that's all for now folks! We'll write again next week, just before we fly out to NZ!

Hope you're all well and not getting too stressed with your Christmas shopping (we most certainly are not!!)

Lots of love,
Treve & Katrina x

As always, we'd love to hear from you, so please (please!) e-mail us at:
trevekneebone@gmail.com
or
katrinalomax@gmail.com

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HOT OFF THE PRESS!

We've brought forward our flights on to New Zealand to the end of November and we've hired a camper van for 3 weeks, so watch out sheep!

Christmas festivities are coming along a treat, with koalas on sleighs and kangaroos bedecked in Santa outfits being sold everywhere - it'll be a wierd one this year!