Surfers Paradise

The last stop on my Wicked Road Trip through Queensland was Surfers Paradise. I hadn’t planned on doing much there but lounge and had no interest in surfing. But, since I was in Surfers Paradise I did feel obligated to try it. I had an extra day to kill anyways, so I booked a two-hour lesson. It was awesome!

Go Ride a Wave wasn’t answering their phone that morning, so I booked the lesson with Cheyne Horan School of Surf. They went through everything step-by-step but the style of teaching was primarily watch-and-copy.

What We Learned

1. Walk into the water until it’s up to your knees before setting the board down.
2. The “control position” is where you stand on the left side of the board and have your right hand on top of the dots at the back of the board and your left hand flat on the middle of the board as you enter the water.
3. Once you’re waist high in water, you get into the “wave catching position”, which is when you hold the edge of the right side of the board with your right hand and the left side of the board with your left hand getting ready to get on the board once a wave comes.
4. When a wave is right behind you, push the board towards the shore and get on it (tummy against board). Then, slide up the board so that your feet are at the end of the board.
5. Count three seconds after getting on the board before jumping into a standing position so that you have speed.
6. The “standing position” is your typical surfer pose with your front foot at a 45 degree angle and your back foot at 90 degrees.
7. Bend your knees while surfing and keep your eyes focused on your destination. Don’t look down at your feet otherwise you’ll lose your balance.

Trying very clumsily to stand up on the board

I hadn’t expected to have so much fun trying to surf even when it took me the entire lesson to get in the standing position (I got up on my own for the first time on the very last wave). It was worth the $45.

I talked to some girls who had taken the same beginner’s lesson at Go Ride a Wave and they described the same lesson we got at Cheyne Horan School of Surf, except they didn’t go over the basics of getting into the water. Instead, they were told to carry their board into the water and set it down when they were ready to catch a wave. You already get really sore arms from trying to catch a wave so this is just more effort and strain on your muscles. By going in using a “control position” you let the water do the lifting and can better avoid getting washed back by waves by tilting the board back and forth over each oncoming wave.

Tips for Travellers to Surfers Paradise

1. The prices for surf lessons are generally the same ($45 for 2 hours), but the prices for photos differ. If you purchase photos, check the CD before leaving! Cheyne Horan School of Surf has an independent photographer who comes in whenever he feels like it to take pictures and sells them on a CD for $20 each. Go Ride a Wave has a photographer who charges $15. Several people at Cheyne Horan (myself included) bought CDs that were faulty and wouldn’t work on PCs, and the girls I talked to who took lessons at Go Ride a Wave also had problems with their CDs. Not only did I pay $5 more for my photos, but I had to drive down to the beach and meet the photographer there to get a working copy of the pictures whereas the girls with Go Ride a Wave had their new CDs delivered free of charge to their hostel. This wasn’t the way I had wanted to spend my last day of my road trip.
2. If you’re travelling in a caravan and want to stay somewhere on the cheap, drive down to the Marina at The Spit and park in the parking lot overnight. They don’t ticket you and it’s right by the YHA which charges $5 per day for use of their facilities (toilets, showers, kitchen). I normally avoid YHAs because the one at Cairns was unfriendly, but the people at Surfers Paradise YHA were really nice. This YHA also has a free shuttle bus to and from the city centre.
3. If you really want to be cheap, you can park at the Marina at The Spit and use the washrooms in the mall rather than paying the $5 at YHA. They don’t have showers in the washrooms, but they’re super clean and are open 24 hours a day. Just be aware that the customers who visit this mall are rich and dress up to the 9’s so you will feel like a bogan visiting the mall just to brush your teeth at night.

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I couldn’t help myself. It’s a big sea of sand! You’ve gotta write on a big sea of sand.

After Bundaberg, I didn’t really have a set plan or list of places I had to visit before getting back to Brisbane. As I was driving back down South, I saw a sign for Rainbow Beach and remembered that my friend Richard had it on his list of places I ought to visit so I took the exit and made my way there. Ah, you’ve gotta love the freedom of roadtrips!

I drove up to the Great Sandy National Park Lookout point first because I thought it might be a good place to camp for the night. When I got there I found that it didn’t have any facilities, but since I was already there I decided to take the trail out to the Rainbow Coloured Sand Cliffs.

The trail starts out like any other with squiggly gum trees, basket spiders and the usual Australian shrubbery. A couple meters away from the end, you start to see some sand along the trail and then BAM. You’re faced with the biggest sea of sand you’ll probably ever see outside of an actual desert: Carlo Sand Blow Lookout. It was a bit of a ‘whoa’ moment.

Carlo Sand Blow Lookout at Rainbow Beach

When you walk towards the Rainbow Coloured Sand Cliffs and face the ocean, it too stretches out for what seems like forever. It reminded me of the first time I saw the ocean from the beaches of Vladivostok, Russia. You feel like you’ve reached the end of the earth and your mind just draws a blank. It’s fresh and you’ve come back to point O.

I walked around the sand for a while and couldn’t figure out why the place was called Rainbow Beach. I was expecting multicoloured sand on the beach and all I saw was a big sea of tan and a section of white. I saw some footsteps in the tan sand with some white sand mixed in there, but I thought it was from people walking across both beaches and dragging the colours across. When I looked closer though, I realized that the white sand hadn’t been dragged across, it was underneath the tan sand! I looked around some more and found that there was dark orange sand underneath some parts too. There are actually several different colours including grey, blue, green, red, orange, white, yellow and tan. It really is a rainbow coloured beach!

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Jumping into the World Record Books!

That’s right folks! Today I put myself down in the books as an event participant for the largest number of people jumping on a trampoline at the same time for over five minutes. *big smile*

The event was put on by Pure Health Clubs and was held at the end of Queen Street Mall (across from the Treasury Casino) to benefit the Asthma Foundation of Queensland.

It was loads of fun to jump around, but it was a lot harder than I had expected! I thought we were just going to be silly and jump around for a while, but it was a full on workout and by the end I was sweating like a pig on fire. Sam and Cassie loved it so much that they’re going to start going to the Pure Health Club near the Wicked Campers headquarters after work. Ehon took some time off work to join in as well, and Simon took the whole day off (it’s also his birthday — HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIMON!!) to spend time jumping with his Dad. Good fun and a great way to end my stay in Brisbane. I’ll be leaving for Vancouver tomorrow morning.

PS If you’re in Brisbane, watch the news tonight (any channel — they were all there). We were jumping right in front of the cameras so you should be able to catch us in action.

UPDATE (written October 7): My sister found a video online of the trampolining! I’m in the front row to the left of Sam who’s wearing her Wicked shirt.

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Bus Stop Hostel

When I first arrived in Brisbane and was looking for farm work, the guy at the Job Desk at Bunk said that I’d only be able to find work in Bundaberg. I phoned the National Harvest Line and they said the same thing. They gave me one number, which was that of Bundaberg Backpackers & Travelers Lodge / Bus Stop Hostel (the two are owned by the same couple). When I talked the guy on the phone, he seemed friendly and said that all I had to do was go to Bundaberg and stay at their hostel and they’d find me work, no problem. He said because I was a girl, they would be able to find work for me more easily because the farmers liked to employ girls for the packing sheds. I asked why, and he said that was just the way it was done — guys did the picking and girls did the packing, and they were short on girls. I hung up the phone feeling quite pleased with myself and looking forward to farm work in Bundaberg. Then, I googled the place and read the reviews…

To give you an idea of what I read, here are a few snippets from hostelz.com from back then, and a few newer ones from the past couple of months (looks like nothing has changed):

“…even if you have to sleep outside with no blankets, no work in the pouring rain with only tomato sauce packets and dry instant noodle to sustain you, it would be far superior to this f-ing hellhole! The owner, Eugene, is by far the worst, most arrogant, disgusting, pathetic excuse for a man I have ever met in my life. He is also extremely perverted…” –June 2008

“Yes it is riddled with bedbugs, the roof does leak, and the owner is rorting every possible dollar out of each backpacker by taking every opportunity to kick them out before the end of their stay so that they do not have to refund their accommodation fees and then they can re-let the room to some new unaware backpacker.” –September 2008

“the worst place i have ever been. Eugene the owner is a rude bastard. you get eaten by bedbugs. the rooms are smelly… they charge 170 AUD for this sh*thole! I was kicked out because I asked Eugene whether I will finally get a job, after two weeks being at a standby list! Do not come here! just wasted time, money, and energy!” — September 2009

“This is not a Hostel! Its a new way to make money from Backpackers. If you call them they say, come around we have work. You arrive and find yourself on a standby list on place fifteen. Then go to your room and find a cube without windows, one shower, and toilet for over ninety people and a dirty kitchen. And its cost $170 to 180 a week, and if you get kicked (what is very easy) you dont get anything back. You don’t get work here. So if you dont like someone send him to this hostel!” –August 2009

These weren’t the ones that scared me shitless though. It was actually one I read from a girl who was sexually harassed by the owner that really freaked me out of even going to Bundaberg. I can’t find it now, but I asked about it when I went to Bundaberg to scope out the work scene for future backpackers. The backpacker I spoke with at the hostel said “I haven’t heard of anything like that… But come to think of it, there was a girl and her friend who left last week for the other hostel…”

The Real Bundaberg

Bundaberg and its hostels aren’t as bad as I had imagined, but they wouldn’t get anything higher than a one and half star accommodation rating.

I had stopped at the Bundaberg information desk to ask for directions to Cellblock Backpackers — the most popular backpacker work hostel in Bundaberg. I also asked the woman at the desk to mark a couple of other backpacker hostels I should check out on the map if I was looking for work. She marked where Bus Stop Hostel and Dingo Blue Backpackers were. I had never heard of Dingo Blue Backpackers before now.

Bundaberg Backpackers & Travelers Lodge

$170 / week (4 bed dorm); estimated 2+ weeks wait time for work; $17.50 / hour wages

Bundaberg Backpackers & Travelers Lodge

Bundaberg Backpackers & Travelers Lodge is owned by the same couple that owns Bus Stop Hostel across the street. I spoke with one person from each location, who were both males. I asked the first one if there were any girls living in the hostel and he said there were, but that they were all at the local Anzac pool. I saw about 20 or 30 guys around the two hostels and only 3 girls (two of which were with guys who were obviously their boyfriends). In the other hostels I visited, the vast majority of backpackers there were female.

Bundaberg Backpackers & Travelers Lodge looks pretty decent from the outside and the work boots outside are all very neatly displayed on shoe racks in the front entrance area. I couldn’t take a look inside though because the place has very strict rules and one of them is that there are absolutely no outside visitors allowed.

The guy I talked to had been there for a few weeks now and has found it easier to find work in Bundaberg than any of the other places he tried along the East coast. He agrees with most of the hostel reviews that the place has extremely strict rules, but he’s been content with the way things are run. His room is only half full (two people staying in a four bed dorm), as are all the other rooms in the hostel, and he said the place was really clean. He waited about two weeks before he got work on a farm but he’s happy with his hours. He said that you typically get a half day of work each day that you get work (but you don’t know what your hours are until you’re there) and it comes to about $100 a day. The $170 / week rent includes transportation to the farms in the hostel vans.

Bus Stop Hostel

$170 / week (4 bed dorm); estimated 2+ weeks wait time for work; $17.50 / hour wages

Kitchen at Bus Stop Hostel

The guy I spoke with at Bus Stop Hostel had been working for the past four weeks doing various farm maintenance work, and waited two weeks before it came up. He said he was happy with the way things were at the hostel, but I think you’d be hard pressed to find someone more gloomy about a work situation.

To sum up our conversation: Bus Stop Hostel was the first place he found in Bundaberg, and he found it through the National Harvest Line (they advertise through them — Sidenote: I find it very shameful that the Australian Government allows the National Harvest Line to not only recommend only certain hostels that have arranged to advertise through them [I’m assuming the Harvest Line gets revenues from this], but to also tell backpackers they’re the only ones in that area that provide work. They’re lying to backpackers and it’s disgusting). He signed in at Bundaberg Backpackers & Travelers Lodge (there’s only one reception desk for the two hostels), and he was told to stay at Bus Stop Hostel. He doesn’t know why or what system they use. Everyone else he knows at Bus Stop Hostel is staying there either because it was the first one they heard of through the National Harvest Line, or because the other hostels were booked full.

Cellblock Backpackers

$185 / week (4 bed dorm); estimated 1+ week wait time for work; $6 charge for work transportation

Cellblock Backpackers

Cellblock has room for about 120 people, and it was completely booked out (it normally is). The place is packed to the brim and has a very lively hostel atmosphere. The rent it more expensive at $185 / week, but the reason why so many backpackers go here is because you’re guaranteed work. The average wait time to get work at Cellblock is only over one week, compared with over two weeks at other places. The reason this is so, is because they have connections with more farms in the area (about 15), and many farms exclusively use one hostel or another to hire workers.

Dingo Blue Backpackers

$175 / week (4 bed dorm) if you’re working or $100 / week if you’re not working; estimated 2 weeks wait time for work

Dingo Blue Backpackers

Dingo Blue does not look like a place I would want to stay in. It looks run down, and honestly… just plain dirty. But, in the same breath I have to say that I haven’t found happier workers. I met a few people here and they were all really friendly. This was the hostel that the girl who left Bundaberg Backpackers & Travelers Lodge ended up going to. I also spoke with a girl here that used to stay at Cellblock and asked her why she left since it’s so hard to get into Cellblock in the first place. She was really lucky that the day she and her friend arrived in Bundaberg, Cellblock happened to have two free beds. She left Cellblock because they charged too much ($185 + $6 for each day’s ride into work); Dingo Blue doesn’t charge for work transporation.

This hostel is owned by a hardworking couple that owns the farms that they send the backpackers to. I met a few people who had been working and living there for months now, and they stay because the owners “are really fair.” For example, when there was no work between seasons, the rent was only $100 / week. And when the fruit was small, they would pay them by the hour rather than by the bucket (which is how a lot of other farmers will pay backpackers because it’s cheaper).

The backpackers here agree that the place is really dirty, but they call it home with a smile on their faces.

Tips for Backpackers Looking for Farm Work in Bundaberg

1. Expect to wait at least a week between when you get put on the waitlist, and when you actually get to start working (and make sure you budget for it).
2. Don’t just stay at the first hostel you find. Check out rooms at different hostels to see which one best fits your personality. If the hostel owner won’t let you see a room beforehand, look elsewhere before handing over a week’s rent.
3. There are several hostels for backpackers looking for work in Bundaberg. If you visit the Bundaberg Information Centre, they can give you a list of hostels that say which ones organize work. Note: the prices on this list are outdated. Alternatively, you can just go into town, pick a street and walk down it. You’ll find about half a dozen hostels within four blocks of each other and most of them offer work arrangements.
4. Arrive in Bundaberg on a weekday. All of the hostels have weird reception hours on weekends.

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Journey Jottings

With today’s technology, we’re fortunate enough to be able to call each other from half way around the world on mobile phones, tweet and surf the net just about anywhere on the globe, and send and receive messages and e-mails with a simple click of a button. Though it’s always nice to receive an e-mail of message from a friend, nothing beats getting something tangible via snail mail!

I LOVE getting snail mail and enjoy taking the trip down to the mailbox to check if anything has arrived. My sister will ask “are you waiting for something?” Most of the time, I’m not waiting for anything. But, I still like the idea that maybe, just maybe, something cool will arrive for me in the mail. Normally I only get bills.

Today I got to go down to the Post Office to pick up a package and I already knew what it would be, but I was still super excited about it. Linda from Journey Jottings sent me an envelope with Journey Jottings maps of Australia so I could take them home for my niece. Thank you Linda!!

I think Journey Jottings is a great idea. I wish I had thought of getting one and sending it to my niece when I first arrived because I’m always writing things like “I’m in ____ now. Ask Da Goo Goo to show you where that is on a map.” (side note: Da Goo Goo means big auntie and refers to my older sister). Ah well, better late than never right?

A view from the mountains at Eungella

I was very apprehensive during the days leading up to my birthday on September 24th.  A lot of it had to do with superstitious reasons (I could write a novel just about the superstitious stuff surrounding my 24th), but it also had to do with being alone on my birthday for the very first time. I’ve always had family and friends to celebrate with, and now that the most important birthday of my life was coming up, I was and would be alone.

I decided that if I wasn’t going to have my family and close friends around, I wanted to be alone and take a little retreat into the wilderness for the day. I left Airlie Beach on the 23rd for Eungella National Park (pronounced “young gella”).

Driving up the mountains of Eungella reminded me of driving up to Kuranda. The roads wind this way and that and there are a few really tight corners to go around. The forests become fuller the farther you go up, and when you get to the little town of Eungella and look down, it feels… eery. It was as if I was stuck in time for a moment in a place you couldn’t get a hold of me (and you couldn’t really — I was out of cell phone coverage ). Eungella is above the clouds so when you look down, all you see is fog and mist.

I didn’t just pick Eungella to get away from everything though, I had a mission: to see a platypus in the wild. A lot of people go to Broken River (just past the small town of Eungella) to spot a platypus, but when I went I didn’t get the right feeling from it. My original plan was to go there and treat myself to a nice stay at a hotel on my birthday, but because it just didn’t feel right, I left to find a platypus at Finch Hatton Gorge instead. I ended up staying at the roughest (and cheapest) caravan park on my birthday: Platypus Bush Camp.

Platypus Bush Camp

Yummy birthday breakfast

I started my birthday off with a nice big breakfast at the only restaurant in Finch Hatton (which also serves as a convenience store). Then I checked-in at Platypus Bush Camp ($10 for a night) and went for a short hike up to Araluen Falls and Wheel of Fire Falls. They’re very small waterfalls and I don’t understand how Wheel of Fire got it’s name — there’s nothing wheel-y or fire-y about the place. Heck, the fall isn’t even a proper waterfall — it’s just a trickle down some rocks. It was a nice hike just the same though. I had worn my swimmers because there are swimming holes at each fall, but it was too cold to take a full dip.

After my hike where I saw the biggest goanas I’ve ever come across, several different butterflies (including a small Blue Ulysses), and a snake, I went for a dip at the swimming hole at camp and was about to have a rest in my Wicked Campervan.

Dee at Platypus Bush Camp

As I was getting ready for a nap though, the owner of Platypus Bush Camp (a hippy named Wazza) came up to the van and literally stuck his head inside and started touching the curtains and talking about random stuff. Not cool. He seemed harmless enough, but damn! Haven’t you ever heard of personal space? People need 3 feet of space to feel comfortable around a stranger and sticking your head into someone’s campervan while they’re inside and can’t get out because you’re blocking the entrance is VERY uncomfortable. Especially when they’re in pjs! This happened twice that day. The second time, I was writing postcards inside the van and he stuck his head in and picked up the postcards to look at them. So much for being alone.

After that, I decided to get an early start on my platypus stalking and sat quietly out at the platypus lookout area for over two hours. Just when it started to get dark, one came out from under the tree roots across the water and started dipping in and out. It was really hard to spot him because he’s dark and so is the water after sunset, but you could tell where he was from the ripples he’d make swimming across the water. “Hooray!” I thought, “I can finally cross this off my to-do list!”

My birthday cake

I walked back to the campervan and started putting the candles on my birthday cake. There were so many candles on this tiny cake that the icing melted and dripped into the table. It made quite the mess. But I had to have all twenty-four candles — it’s tradition. I made my wish, blew them out, talked with Auchey (a really nice French girl WWOOFing at the camp) over cake, and went to get ready for bed.

The place was pitch dark by then and I could barely see anything without my little hand-crank torch. There are no lights in the bathroom or even leading up to it, which made peeing a little awkward. On my way back to the campervan, Wazza almost gave me a heart attack because he appeared out of nowhere and said something like “I was wondering where you were. I didn’t see you around for a while.” I don’t know why, but I really don’t like it when people feel the need or expect to know where I am all the time. I feel like a claustrophobic person in a tiny closet, and I just want to run. I don’t remember what I said (something about looking for a platypus I think), but I hurried back to the campervan and shut the door so he wouldn’t be able to stick his head in. And that closed the chapter on 23.

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Thank you to everyone who left me voicemail messages, texts, tweets, Facebook messages etc for my birthday! I listened and read them all when I got to a place with phone and internet reception the next day. <3

Saying goodbye to Dee

During the first week of my Wicked Road Trip, I named my Wicked Campervan Dee. There’s a back story that goes with that name but it doesn’t make any sense unless you’ve been driving for five hours across nothingness on your own and can’t figure out how to tune the radio to a working station because somewhere along the line you pushed a random series of buttons and now it’s all static.

I had to return Dee a couple of days ago and it was a little sad to let her go. We’d spent the last month travelling Queensland together and had a good thing going. I checked her oil and water tank every time we stopped for fuel (which was pretty much every day), and she only had one minor hiccup during the entire trip.

Hiccup

Jammed lock

When I got back to Airlie Beach after leaving Paronella Park, I stayed with Tony from The Whitsundays Central Reservations Centre for a couple of days. It’s a good thing too, because the lock on Dee’s hatchback door jammed on the second night. We couldn’t get the door to close so I phoned the Wicked distress line. A woman picked up and said that I should tie down the door with some rope and drive the car to the Wicked mechanic at Airlie Beach the next morning. She gave me an address for the mechanic.

I knew that Tony would have rope, but I asked the woman what I could do if I didn’t have rope just to see what she’d say. Her answer was pretty much ‘tough luck.’ “Hrm, well that wouldn’t be much help if I were in the middle of nowhere” I thought.

Magic mechanic jiggling with a screwdriver

The next morning I was also glad I was at Tony’s because he was smart enough to think of checking the address for the mechanic before leaving. The address listed in the phone book was different from the one the Wicked distress lady gave me. I phoned her again to double check. She checked her address listings again and apologized — Tony and the phone book were right.

Off we went. We had thought that the problem was somewhere inside the door and that something between the key lock and the lock device itself had disconnected. We were wrong. It took the mechanic less than 10 seconds (no exaggeration) to fix the lock with a screwdriver. I was really surprised. I thought it would take at least a half hour to fix and had my camera ready to capture the process. I only had enough time to take two pictures!

Apparently a jammed lock is a very common problem in campervans. It just requires some magic mechanic jiggling and force to get it working again.

Random Tips for Road Tripping Travellers

1. 

   In contrast with most rental companies, Wicked Campers encourages travellers to write on the inside of their vans.

   Check your oil and water tank every time you stop for fuel or at least once every two days. There’s often a long distance between you and your next stop in Australia so it’s better safe than sorry.

2. To avoid hitting a kangaroo if you see one up ahead on the road, slow down, turn off your light (the light makes them stupid) and honk to scare them away from the road.
3. Rope is always handy. If you’re renting a campervan with Wicked Campers, check their “free stuff” table (where other travellers leave their unused stuff) for rope you can take on your trip.
4. Little things you’ll need: matches for the gas stove, dishwashing liquid, dishwashing sponge, bottles of drinking water, maps, handy wipes, and toilet paper / tissue. You can pick these up on your way, or you can save yourself a few dollars and find them on the “free stuff” table at the Wicked Campers depot. Also, when you pick up your linen, take an extra set of sheets and pillow cases so you can take a nap when the dirty sheets are in the wash. It doesn’t cost you anything to borrow extra sheets from Wicked Campers.

Have an awesome time!

Thank you to Wicked Campers for sponsoring my month-long Wicked Road Trip of Queensland, Australia!

Rosella crusted scallop with strawberry and grapefruit dressing at Tukka

I wrote a list of all the blog posts I wanted to write from my Wicked Road Trip and it was a really long list (in blog post time I’m only on September 21st). So, I’m jumping forward a bit to the present to tell you about my dining experience with Sarah last night before I forget what everything tasted like.

I was telling Sarah about how I wanted to try kangaroo again because I suspected that the chef was the reason it wasn’t good last time. She did her usual “Oh!” thing when she gets a bright idea and said we should go to Tukka for dinner. Tukka is one of those trendy restaurants in the West End. Yes, that’s right Vancouverites, not only does Brisbane have the same “Translink” system, skytrains that they call either “citytrains” or the “airtrain”, but they also have a trendy bohemian West End very similar to our own West End. It’s no wonder Brisbane feels like a second home to me.

The Native Platter for Two (minimum order is for 2)

You know you’re at a fancy restaurant when the portions are literally bite size. LOL Tukka takes bush tucker (traditional Australian bush food) and makes it gourmet by serving it in slivers with unusual bush-inspired sauces.

Sarah and I both ordered the native platter entree (note: in Australia, an “entree” is an appetizer and a “main” is an entree) because it comes with an assortment of native berries, home-made damper (a heavy herb bread — I think it was thyme), native dips, kangaroo, emu and crocodile. We also asked to have a bit of Tasmanian possum thrown in as well.

Before our entrees came out, everyone received complimentary appetizers: rosella crusted scallops served on top of strawberry and with a grapefruit dressing. Each plate was really well presented and the scallop was yummy but I wasn’t a big fan of the grapefruit dressing. I know this is a terrible thing to say about food at a fancy restaurant, but you know that sort of sour gaggy taste you get when you’re just about to throw up from too much tequila? That’s what the grapefruit dressing reminded me of. Terrible eh? I’m obviously not cut out to review fancy restaurants…

Sarah hesitant to try the roo

Our entrees came out on one big wooden platter — sushi boat style. Again, the food was very well presented. We started off by trying each of the berries. A couple were on the blander side, one was sour and had the worst bitter aftertaste, the big purple one started off ok like a bland grape and then quickly turned to tasting like a bad grape, and by the end we decided we didn’t like any of them.

Time for kangaroo. Sarah was hesitant about trying this because she’s not a fan of rare meats and the roo was still pink in the middle. Because the meat was so rare, its texture reminded me of sashimi but it tasted like beef jerky and was tender, flavourful and mild. This was much better than the roo I tried at Undara.

Next up: emu. I definitely preferred the roo to the emu. The emu was tougher and I think there was a little bit of tendon to it because it was difficult to cut and chew. The meat had a smokey flavour to it but neither of us could quite put our finger on how to describe the taste of the actual meat. Nothing special, but just slightly different than your usual meats.

The roo and emu also came with little roo and emu sausages. The roo sausage was so good! It was full of spices and had just the right consistency. I was a big fan. The emu sausage was good (you can’t really go wrong with sausages), but it felt more packed than the roo sausage and I didn’t like it as much.

Trying to cut the emu sliver

Crocodile time! *sigh* No croc will ever beat the croc burger I had at Daintree Village! The croc here was a little fishy again and also a little bit on the drier side. It certainly wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t nearly as good. I wish Sarah could’ve tried the burger at Daintree too.

Finally it was time for Tasmanian possum. I haven’t seen possum on any other menu in Australia, and I think I know why: it’s not good. Possum tastes like day old chicken McNuggets. It’s a bit chewy, reminds you of whatever is the opposite of fresh, and you actually feel like you’re eating road kill. Sarah said it reminded her of that scene in Shrek where he’s roasting rats. I guess neither of us are cut out to be food critics. LOL

We finished off with some lemon myrtle tea which was a lot calmer and soothing than I expected. When I think ‘lemon’ tea, I think of a tea with a little kick. This was more like a tea you’d have in front of a fireplace with some heavy cookies just before heading off to bed. A nice ending to an unusual dinner.

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Paronella Park Castle

On my last night at Undara, I got to talking around the campfire with a woman named Vineeta. We ended up talking for a while, and her kids showed me their scrapbooks of all the places they had travelled so far on their year long journey around Australia. Of the places they’d been to so far, Paronella Park was Vineeta’s favourite. I remembered hearing about it before on Queensland’s 150 Must-Do list, but I also remembered thinking “well that doesn’t look that interesting. I don’t get why it’s rated #1.”

But, I figured since it was rated the #1 tourist attraction in all of Queensland and Vineeta liked it so much, I really ought to visit it. Going there would mean driving up North again (counter-productive since I was already on my way down South), and also missing Charters Towers. “Yeah, alright. Let’s go to Paronella Park and see what all the hype is about” I thought. Man alive, I CANNOT believe I almost missed Paronella Park!! Seriously, I just kept repeating in my head as I left the place “I cannot believe I almost missed this!”

Now, I’m hesitant to continue raving about Paronella Park because I don’t want you to go expecting this grand spectacular castle and being disappointed. The castle is very small and so is the park itself. There’s not much going on around the area either. It’s the story behind it and the feeling that you get from being there that makes it special.

Paronella Park

Paronella Park Swimming Pool

As you drive towards Paronella Park from the interior (West to East), you get a whiff of something that reminds you of sweet corn (it’s a sugar cane processing factory), a couple of tiny little streets with a cafe or grocery store here and there, and some dirt roads. I wondered if I was going the right way since it didn’t seem like I was going anywhere that would accommodate large numbers of tourists, and I’m notorious for getting lost. The signs led me in the right direction though and soon enough I was in a little parking lot outside the entrance.

As soon as I walked in the door at the admissions office / gift shop I felt this happy vibe. Everyone was friendly and it just felt like the place to be. I paid the woman at the reception desk the $32 admission fee and she gave me a handful of stuff: directions to the caravan lot for the night (the admission fee includes a powered caravan site for the night), a pamphlet with a map of the park and history of the place, a booklet about the different trees in the area, and a little packet of food to feed the fish. She then put a sticker on my jacket, told me when the next day tours were and signed me up for the night tour as well (all included in the admission fee). I already felt like I was getting my money’s worth.

I drove to my caravan site and had a cup of instant noodles because I was absolutely starving. I joined the 3:30pm tour (it’s about an hour long), and my love affair with the place began.

Day Tour: Jose’s Story

The Entrance to The Tunnel from Lovers Lane

The day tours (length: 45 minutes to an hour) take you around the park and the guide goes through the history of the place. He’ll tell you about how Jose Paronella was a baker from Spain who dreamed of having his own castle one day and how he came to Australia and made a fortune buying and renovating land for resale. Once he made his fortune (a millionaire by today’s standards), he began building his castle. He built 70–80% of the main castle himself and you can actually see his hand and fingerprints in the walls! He also employed the help of men during the great depression in exchange for food and lodging.

Not only did Jose build his castle, but he also built a cottage for his family to live in, installed North Queensland’s first hydro electric plant to power the park, built a second castle that served as a refreshment house, and made all the surrounding walkways, tennis courts, and even a tunnel which was originally intended to be Queensland’s first underwater aquarium featuring exotic fish. He may have skimped a bit by using the steel beams from railway lines as support for his buildings (aka being resourceful), but he spared no expense when it came to getting a disco ball! LOL Yup, in the 1930’s Jose Paronella was 40 years ahead of his time and spent nearly a third of the cost of building his castles on a disco ball for the main hall. He was definitely a forward thinker and a little off the rocker.

Sadly, due to a series of floods and a fire, the disco ball is no longer around for viewing. Instead, the buildings are now decorated with soft green moss that gives a dreamy look to what remains.

In addition to an incredibly inspiring story, the tour included some wildlife viewing that I didn’t expect. The guide took us through a section of The Tunnel (the part that was originally built to be an aquarium) where we got to see dozens of little microbats who had made the tunnel their home and were huddled in tight groups trying to keep warm during the day. Remember when I told you I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get to see much of the microbats at Undara? Well, this totally made up for it! They’re so tiny and cute!! We couldn’t take pictures because the flash disturbs them, but our guide shone a light on a group of bats so we could get a close look. By close look, I mean less than half a meter away from our noses! Seriously cool.

All the dark spots in front are turtles and all the dark patches behind are fish

After the tour, our guide told us where we could go to feed some turtles and off I went with my little bag of fish / turtle / eel food. Again, I was surprised at how much wildlife there is at this place! I counted over 20 turtles just in my immediate line of vision all swimming around trying to get some of the food. There were also dozens of fish fighting for the same food.

After that, I wandered back to the camp site and barely had time to stuff my face with a paddle pop and granola bar before it was time for the night tour (also about an hour long). There was only about a dozen people on the day tour, but this tour had about 40 people. I was worried we wouldn’t be able to hear the guide or have a decent tour with this many people but everyone heard just fine (the guide was very loud) and had a great time.

Night Tour: Laputa

Before leaving on the tour, our guide gave everyone a flashlight and took attendance. It gets dark quickly and the flashlights were very handy. Though we visited the same places as the day tour and I happened to get the same tour guide for both tours, they were very different and the information never overlapped. While the day tour focuses on the story and history of Paronella Park, the night tour is about enjoying it’s beauty. And it is beautiful.

Look at how many there are!

And once again, I was surprised by the wildlife! During the day you can see the odd eel here or there in the water. At night though, it looks like the water is completely made out of eels! We stopped at the steps to the swimming area where our guide gave us bags of food to throw in to the eels. They just went nuts! Several eels looked like they were ready to squirm right up the steps for food! And to think, people went (and still go) swimming in there! :O

We also stopped at an area where there were little fireflies blinking above us. Our guide caught one to show us what they look like and let it fly off into the night when it decided it had enough of sitting on his hand.

The best part of the night tour though was when the smaller castle was lit up. There was a private tour going on at the same time with tourists from Japan, and when the lights went on they all “OoOOoohh“ed in unison. They played a lovely tune as we stared at the castle that made me feel as if we were in a giant open music box far far away. I wondered what the song was.

The picture looks spooky but it’s really pretty in real life

Our guide then told us that about 30,000 Japanese tourists visit Paronella Park each year and the reason why they play that particular song is because it’s the theme song to Hayao Miyazaki’s film ‘Castle in the Sky’ (in case you don’t know, Miyazaki is a very well known creator of many famous Japanese animated films). My jaw just about dropped to the floor. THIS castle was the inspiration for Laputa!!! Oh. My. God. I CANNOT believe I almost missed this!!! I’m a big fan of Miyazaki’s work so this just gave me a whole other bunch of reasons to love this place!

I just stared in amazement and a feeling welled up inside. It was neither happy nor sad, but longing. Thinking about how much conviction and motivation Jose Paronella had to realize his dream, and being reminded of what Miyazaki has been able to accomplish in his life made me wish I could do something great too (very Shizuku of me from ‘Whisper of the Heart’ ). It was an extraordinary feeling that I never want to forget.

The next morning before leaving, I took another stroll around the park to try to keep it all in my memory and I made a wish at the wishing well.

If you’re ever around North Queensland, I hope you’ll take a detour and visit Paronella Park. It may just be a small castle in the middle of nowhere, but I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

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Thank you so much to Vineeta and her family for convincing me to go! <3

Left to Right: Eastern Grey Kangaroo, Crocodile, Emu

I fed them, I played with them, I lay on the grass with them, I took pictures of them, I took pictures with them, I saw them as roadkill, I saw many of them as roadkill, I learned how to tell them apart, I learned how to avoid hitting them on the road, I learned how to shoot them, I learned about their habits, I took a tour about them, and now… it was time to eat one!

That’s right folks, nearly three months after my first encounter with a kangaroo I was finally ready to try eating one. The verdict: tender, juicy, but bland. I’ve heard that kangaroo is supposed to be gamey, but it didn’t taste that way to me. In fact, it didn’t taste like much at all. I also had emu and crocodile on the same plate and they were equally bland which makes me think it was the chef rather than the meat because the last time I tried crocodile it was delicious and full of flavour. Boo-urns.

Tips for Travellers Eating at Undara

1. Get to the buffet when it first starts around 6pm. You have to order your main dishes at the counter and the chef makes them one at a time. If you get to the dinner at 7pm or after, you’ll likely end up waiting a half hour before your meal is ready because that’s when everyone starts to arrive. There were a lot of hungry loud kids impatiently waiting for their food when I was there.
2. The buffet style dining will soon be scrapped for a la carte dining. This isn’t a bad thing. I’d recommend the Undara Volcanic Prime Rib Fillet (steak). It comes from the Collins family Spring Creek Station nearby. If they still have the same chef, order it one step rarer than you normally would.

Dinner at Undara

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You might think after looking at the pictures that I would’ve been full. At least, that’s what the chef thought. I didn’t really mind his jibes about my appetite but I certainly didn’t appreciate them either. I think people often underestimate how much I can eat because they think “oh, little Asian girl. She couldn’t eat much.” If I’m with company I normally don’t eat that much because it takes me a really long time to finish my plate and I don’t like to make people wait for me. But, if I’m on my own I take my time and I can end up eating quite a bit. After all the food you see in the pictures (which I finished by the way — I don’t like to waste food), I didn’t feel like I had eaten anything but the kitchen had already closed.