Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi

Posted originally 5 May 2014

That Holiday Feeling

It is amazing how one adapts so easily to a change in lifestyle. In this case the holiday that does not end...or at least anytime soon. While before I would always be rushing off to work or some other errand or obligation now I notice. I notice every sunset. I am mindful enough to look up at the moon framed by clouds as we stroll through town at night or on an evening jog and I feel a range of emotions- calmness, happiness, freedom. Life is good.

Australia is good too. Wonderful actually. I can’t comment on all of Australia. I have spent most of my two weeks here in Brisbane. Soon we (Dan and I along with Jess- Dan’s sister and Uriel- Jess’s boyfriend) will be heading down the east coast in a camper-van fully equipped with 4 beds and a kitchen down to Sydney. From there, Dan and I will travel to Melbourne and Phillip Island. Dan and I will fly back to Brisbane for a weekend before we fly to Indonesia!

Brisbane has been more than just a holiday destination. Here is where Dan’s brother Ben and his family live- Yas and 2 kids Finn and Nick. So this has been a special time. Especially since Alan, or ‘granddad’, arrived from Cape Town as well as Jess and Uriel from Buenos Aries this week. It is an understatement to say family gatherings like this are treasured. 

Dan and Al enjoying lunch at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

Dan and I were the first to arrive and have been warmly welcomed into the bustling home. Bustling because any home with a 4 and a 6 year old is bustling. With Ben’s amazing coffee-making skills, sarcastic comments that keep us on our toes, Yas’ cooking and baking and warmth we are very lucky.  The adoration of 2 young kids goes along way too.

Finn is a cute beyond belief, gives the best cuddles and loves and also bosses everyone all the time. At least he tries to. Let’s just say he is in touch with his inner tyrant. When I asked him to clean up his kokis after we’d made birthday cards for mum he looked at me sweetly and said, ‘No thank you’. He also has an affinity for his ‘gurls’ and at unexpected moments Jess, Yas and I will find ourselves holding hands at his insistence. His favourite colour is pink or purple- because it is ‘bootiful’. I could not love him more.

Finn and Dan

Finn

On the first day I arrived, Nick showed me his lego and toys. Picking up a dinosaur I commented, ‘cool, T-Rex’. ‘That’s not a T-Rex,’ he corrected, ‘it’s a thingamabobasauras.’ And of course it was. Ever since, Nick has been my reference. A reptile in the park is an ‘Australian Waterlizard,’ I am told. ‘The most poisonous snake in the world is the yellow-bellied sea snake.’ ‘Is it not the Taipan?,’ I ponder aloud. ‘Oh that is the most poisonous LAND snake.’ A 6-year-old who reads like a 13-year old but is still very much a 6-year-old in every way, oh I love him to bits.

Uriel and Nick hanging out

Nick probably explaining something 

And besides the benefit of lots of family time, and learning first hand what parenting entails (phew- thanks mom and dad for getting me this far!), we have been fed (well) every day. This has saved us more dollars than I wish to calculate. For that we are tremendously grateful.

One of the reasons this trip means so much to me (and there are many-some of them I’m still trying to figure out) is that I am giving it to myself. Please excuse the psycho-jargon: I am self-actualizing. This trip is the prize after all the hard work I’ve put in to reaching my goals over the last 9 years. 9-years! And the income I gained from these years will go towards personal growth and development in other areas of my life. I am reinvesting in who I am and who I want to be. At the end of this trip I will be financially broke but I hope so much richer.   

That said as international travelers on the ZAR we have to budget. For Dan and I who have been at times quite frivolous with cash in CT (sure- let’s eat out again), this is a good challenge for us and we’re enjoying being smart with cash immensely. Finding the BEST price is a new challenge. We avoid eating out mostly (as at the moment we have food at home) and we often share when we do. Our favourite restaurant is Guzman 'y Gomez - delicious and simple Mexican food. The height of our bargain hunting was picking up a GoPro Hero 3+ black and Canon SLR DC1100 with 2 lenses for a total of R8000 (thanks to Ben’s help)! We know that the average bottle of beer or cider here costs 7.5 to 10 Ausi dollars or R100 at a restaurant. Saving money is not more important than a cold drink on a hot day overlooking the river. So we keep things in perspective.

Anyway, it’s not really the exchange rate that hurts. It’s just that in Oz everything that requires labour is expensive. That’s because everyone is paid well. Minimum wage is 22 dollars or R220 and hour. On public holidays restaurant prices go up 15% to accommodate for the increase in pay. One benefit of this is that no one tips. How grand is that? And quite freeing- everyone is paid well so no tipping is necessary. The downside is that often waiters feel no need to ingratiate themselves warmly for your tip and sometimes the opposite. We do have a name for these 15% increases or 2-dollars-for-tomato-sauce extras (say what??!): ‘Telepongo’. Jess and Uriel have introduced the Spanish word to us and while too crude to directly translate I’ll put it in context for you- let’s just say they telepongo you at every turn. :) No added extras are included. Ever. So to ease the pain we laugh and we say, ‘telepongo’!

When we first arrived in Brisbane, Ben told us on our way home from the airport, ‘There’s not that much to do here’. Ben and the family had been living in Melbourne for years but chose to move to Queensland to be closer to Yas’ family and so that the boys would have a lifestyle more conducive to the outdoors.  When Nick commented to Yas that he doesn’t like the feeling of grass on his feet, the decision became clearer. Ben and Yas LOVE Melbourne- cosmopolitan, great food, great coffee- a wonderful adult city- just not great for kids. The Coffee Club (a Mugg and Bean-type place) is not Ben’s idea of a good cup of coffee (as it turns out- mine neither). Trying to understand Brisbane and Australia better over dinner one night we peppered Yas and Ben with questions. ‘Put it this way,’ Yas quipped, ‘Melbourn is old money. Sydney is new money. And Brisbane is…no money’.

Brisbane has not been in anyway a disappointment. It is gorgeously green, warm year-round (unbearably so in summer I’ve heard), dotted with wooden houses or 'queenslanders' over its many hills. It is clean. The public transport is reliable, comfortable. Everything works. It’s full of funky street performers and bars. The joy of being in a first world city- specifically an Australian city-where everything is both familiar and not at all familiar, is hard to describe. No one has begged for money since I left Cape Town. The newspaper articles are boring (except for that one murder- ONE murder). No one speeds. Brisbane is entirely suburban and quite mundane. And after 9 years of hard work that is just the biggest relief and the greatest joy. 

This is not a commentary on CT or South Africa at all. This is entirely about Australia and how wonderfully easy life feels here. They play cricket and rugby (3 different versions actually- Rugby Union, Rugby League and Australian rules football). The weather is comparable to South Africa. There is a wide range of wild animals everywhere (and I do mean everywhere).  Australia is part of the Commonwealth. There is so much familiar here and it is a reassuring, relaxing way to start a holiday.

Brisbane and Surrounds

Brisbane is on the east coast of Australia. Up north you will find Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef. Down south leads you to Sydney and Melbourne. There are many amazing places in between.

Dan and I have spent our time exploring Brisbane. We have walked around the city centre and examined its modern architecture. We have learnt the bus routes and travelled on the City Cat a ferry for commuters and tourists alike who use it to travel along the large Brisbane River that divides the city. It will take you under the many pedestrian and traffic bridges and the well-known (but not as famous as Sydney’s Harbour Bridge) Story Bridge and past the Kangaroo Point Cliffs where people climb overlooking the river or gather to do water sports of numerous kinds. Ben paddles on the river every weekend. And while he hasn’t seen any, like any river, you may even spot a Zambezi shark.

View from bridge on cloudy day

We have walked along South Bank- a beautiful area of the city and its cultural and art hub, visiting its trendy market and window-shopping both its stores and restaurants. There is a man-made beach where children play and where free yoga classes are held over the holiday period on various days. From here we have walked to the Botanical gardens, which is right in the centre of the bustling city and almost part of the grounds of the University of Queensland.

Uriel at Southbank's man-made beach

Southbank Beach

Rental Bikes found in all over Birsbane

View of city from Botanical Gardens

One day we planned to go to free comedy at the Powerhouse- a Baxter Theatre-like place. The show started at 6 and we left the house at 5 15 pm. We arrived just in time to order drinks and sit down to hear, ‘thanks for coming see you next week!’ So we’re getting used to public transport and the time it may take to get somewhere. We enjoyed our drinks, travelled along the City Cat, a beautiful experience at night, and then had a lovely date on Eagle Street Pier at our favourite Mexican restaurant- frozen margaritas included.

One of our very Australian experiences so far has been a visit to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Being in Aus I was quite keen to see some Ausi wildlife- the famed koalas and kangaroos especially. It was quite the experience. We saw lizards of every kind. We saw Koalas in every sleeping pose imaginable. At a certain point in the day, as if by alarm clock, all the koalas seemed to wake at once and start climbing trees and eating leaves (making us tourists very happy as we clicked away at our cameras).

This surprised us as Koalas spend most of their time asleep- up to 18 hours a day- as there is very little energy provided in the Eucalyptus leaves they eat (it is not sedating as is often said). Their gestation periods are short- approximately 35 days after which the tiny baby marsupial will climb into its mom’s pouch and spend months growing and breastfeeding. When it is old enough- about 6 months- it will come out of the pouch and eat its mothers egested material (her poop!) until it is old enough to feed on Eucalyptus on its own.   

We petted Emus, wallabies and kangaroos. I petted a python and examined all the reptiles on display with the enraptured boys including a Taipan that looked more like a giant earth worm than the most poisonous snake on land. Looks can be deceiving then. I was happy to have laid eyes on it. I’ve ben reading Bill Brysons’ Down Under and he hasn’t failed to impress upon me the dangers of Australia- if not its weather (even Brisbane suffered a flood 3 years ago that knocked out a major pedestrian walkway), or its ocean rips, its wildlife are sure to take top spot. The 10 most poisonous snakes in the world all reside in Australia. The box jellyfish precludes swimming in many areas as it sting might instantly kill you (the reason its so poisonous is beyond logic as it certainly doesn’t need that much poison to kill a shellfish). Mostly though I am now irrationally and deathly frightened of crocodiles- seawater and fresh water equally (I forget which is more vicious).  If you’re unluckily enough, or stupid enough to walk along or swim in a body of water containing them, as uninformed tourists have been wont to do, you may be in for a brutal death. Unlike sharks, they seem to have a taste for human flesh. Thanks Bill! Luckily, these creatures are found up North in Port Douglas and I won’t be going there this time round.

Crocodiles safely enclosed. Look at those evil eyes. *shiver*

A big fat lizard

Kangaroos scratching is one of my favourite things to watch. They scratch themselves lazily with their little arms   reminding me of a shirtless fat guy who has an itch while watching television. 

Big-ass bird of prey- amazing show. They often swooped above the spectators

Maybe it is because I am a hardy South African who has been exposed to the elements and I have retreated from impressive-looking creatures myself, but I think Bill Bryson is on the whole a big wussy.  

See these everywhere in Brisbane

Kookooburra

Australian wildlife is quite something and I feel lucky every day to be able to listen to the noisy laughing kookaburras, watch the pesky possums in the trees at night, and see the large variety of lizards and geckos everyday. One of my favourite Ausi animals is the wombat.

Way back when Ben first arrived in Aus he called out,  ‘Yas, there’s a wombat on the balcony.’ Yas, perplexed, asked, ‘really? Are you sure’ Turns out it was a possum. A wombat is not a bat- more like a pig. Here’s a pretty pics for you:

The sanctuary was a great day trip. Besides all the animals mentioned above, we watched a phenomenal birds of prey spectacle, saw Tasmanian Devil (incongruously it did not spin and splutter as expected), platypuses and dingoes. This gave us great joy and we practised our Ausi accents repeatedly. ‘Did the dingo eat your bayby?’ ‘Hugh Jeckmen’, ‘throw another shrimp on the baaarbie’ ‘bleck bloody murder’, ‘park your caaa in the caaa paaak’. We’re getting good.

Me and some Ausi Animals:  Steve Irwin eat your heart out

Emu

Kangaroo

Australian Water lizard botanical garden

The dangerous Canis lupis familairis Eagle Street Piere

A week or so into our trip, Dan and I were keen to see the beach. Brisbane is not exactly on the coast and one needs to drive to see the sea. We decided on Noosa, a popular but quiet beach town with its own national park. Al has a few friends on the east coast of Australia so we were warmly welcomed into Pete and Jeans’ home for a few nights. It was the best decision we could have made.

Surrounded by the sea and a national park accessible from suburban streets, this is a must-see destination. The sleepy little town has some hip restaurants and everything you could need but the tourist value of the place doesn’t overwhelm one (and we visited during the holiday period). The heart of this place lies in a little bay cornered conveniently by a reef break- Tea Tree Bay. Exceptionally beautiful with the added benefit of apparent isolation- apparent because it is very easily accessible via a pretty walkway- I would say that it is my favourite beach EVER. And I’ve been to many, especially recently.

Tea Tree Bay tucked away

On our first evening, we paddled out on borrowed long boards with Pete in the warm tropical waters to surf the small waves breaking at the time. The clouds came over and it started to rain just as the sun was setting. The memory of paddling around (and that is the entirety of what I did) in just a bikini and rash vest in warm waters with the rain splattering on my face and the setting sunlight shining through the clouds is one I will treasure. I won’t forget the calmness of the scene and the calmness that fell over me like a warm cuddly blanket.

We went out for a delicious Indian dinner that night, spent the next day at Tea Tree bay after enquiring about the local kite surfing scene (conditions weren’t right), visited the local chocolatier for Yas’s birthday present, had coffee, went shopping for groceries at Coles and headed home inspired to make our own veggie curry (Dan made it actually and it was phenomenal) which we enjoyed with Pete (Jean being away).  

Our last day in Noosa was memorable- we walked through the National Park and arrived in Alexandria Bay- a lovely quiet beach. The surf wasn’t working so Dan retired his board to shade and we spread our towels and took out our books and Kindles (Dan has recently acquired a backlit touch screen Kindle for an excellent price from Ben and Yas and I am irrationally and desperately jealous- it is a beaut). Before long, a naked man with a long beard walked past us. ‘I think this might be a nudist beach,’ I said to Dan not particularly alarmed. ‘Nah he said. Maybe Ausis just get naked a lot.’ Approximately 20 minutes later, Dan nudged me for my attention- he pointed to the same man. We both burst into giggles partly in shock. The man, after disappearing for a certain amount of time to god knows where, had lain himself down not 8 meters away spread eagled, crotch towards us. Nice!

We loved Noosa so much that a week later after a morning on the beach with Ben and the boys at a lovely place called Mofats Beach Dan, Jess, Alan, Uriel and I returned to Noosa where we discreetly enjoyed sun downers on Tea Tree Bay. It was well worth the extra drive. 

Jess and Uriel taking a dip

Aah Sunset

Happiness

Evening dip

A very odd stretch of Beach a place just an hour South of Brisbane is known as the Gold Coast. I find it odd because it is extremely developed. So developed in fact that at 3 pm Jess, Uriel, Dan and I commented on how shady and cold the beach had become and a moment later realised that the large buildings cast box-like shadows over the beach! When I first drove into the Gold Coast I felt as if I was driving back into the 70’s, which is appropriate because that’s about the time development started in the area and it hasn’t stopped since. While the expansive stretch of beach is impressive and the water warm, the CBD-like feel of the place detracts from its natural beauty. Though this place may appeal to some- it has all the shopping you could want, restaurants along the beach front, and warm-water beaches- it’s not my cup of tea.

GoPro Gold Coast view from then ocean

Gangstas

Jess and Dan

Australia is a beautiful place and I can’t wait for our camping trip adventure. Until next time remember, as the signs say in Australia, ‘penalties apply’.