Riverfire!

This weekend marked the beginning of Brisbane's Riverfestival, a week-long celebration of the Brisbane River and the lifestyle of the people here. The festival is kicked off by Riverfire, which is the biggest fireworks display held here each year. I'd been hearing about Riverfire since I arrived in Brisbane, and was SO excited to see it from my absolutely perfect vantage point!!

This fireworks show is a big event in Brisbane, so people wake up early on the day of to secure a spot at the best vantage points. It's like the 4th of July! All the roads surrounding my apartment complex are closed and people start arriving at 10 in the morning.

By the afternoon there are lots of people playing football in the streets and BBQing all along the cliffs. To keep people entertained there is an airshow that I also got to watch from my porch!

The majority of the fireworks (3000 tons in all) are set off from barges positioned along the river from Southbank all the way to the tip of Kangaroo Point. They are set at intervals so that people who own boats can battle for space to watch from the river. In addition, fireworks are also set off from the Goodwill Bridge, Story Bridge, and the tops of several of the skyscrapers in the city!

By dark, there were thousands of people along the cliffs! The news reported that approximately 600,000 people gather here and in Southbank to watch the show.

John and I had decided to have a little party, so we each invited some of our friends, got a ton of food, a new grill (so excited!), and got down to business yesterday! It was wonderful - we ended up with an apartment full of great people and lots of yummy food.

The show is opened by what everyone knows as the "dump and burn." I've been hearing about this for WEEKS now and was really excited to see it happen! I got to see them practice on Friday, so that only added to the anticipation. Basically, an F-111 jet does a low fly-over with its burners on full tilt - I guess dumping fuel and burning it off? It looks like a rocket shooting past, and from my porch you can even feel the heat as it flies by! So cool!

The rest are videos and pictures from the fireworks show, which went on for about 30 minutes. It was spectacular - my mouth was hanging open by the end! I'm so glad I got to see this.

Me, Leah, Ina, our new friend Sophie (just started the MPH program), and Jody!

I love this picture because it shows how many buildings in the city also had fireworks shooting from their rooftops. All the ones going up in a straight line are coming from buildings - wacky! There were also a few of the sky scrapers in the city and a few buildings on Kangaroo Point that were shooting fireworks as well. I can't imagine how complicated the planning is for this!

Long Time No Blog!

Two weeks ago my very most highly extremely anticipated visitor (boyfriend Jeremy) finally arrived in Brissie!!! He made me wait forever in the arrivals area but when he finally came out of customs he was definitely a sight for sore eyes. It had been way too long since I'd had a visitor from home, so I was beyond excited and ready to get his trip started. I had planned a few mini trips, so I'm splitting the blog postings up by destination to make it a little easier! They should all flow in the correct order - enjoy!

(if anything appears weird or videos have no sound try reloading the page)

Brisbane and Lone Pine

Jeremy arrived on the 4th in the early morning so I hadn't really planned anything for the first two days of his visit. Luckily his jet lag was minimal so we got to explore Brisbane a little bit. We spent the day walking around the city on Monday, and that evening met up with Jody at Southbank for Jeremy's first kebab! I'm pretty sure he was an instant fan.

After kebabs we decided to head over to Batavia for some chai lattes. When Jeremy showed up he had an envelope from his dad Leif that had a few gift certificates to local cafes and restaurants (including Batavia) that he's read about on my blog. It was so thoughtful, I couldn't believe it! Thank you Leif!! We stayed at Batavia until Jeremy was practically comatose, which actually didn't happen till close to 10PM.

The next morning we got up and caught a bus over to my favorite little zoo, Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary! I'm pretty sure Jeremy was excited. We got in just before a bunch of big tour groups, so we made our way out to the kangaroo field first and found this fuzzy little guy. I think this picture really shows you how fuzzy they are. I love the younger kangaroos because they really feel like a stuffed animal when you pet them!

Shortly after we arrived the lorikeet feeding started, so I dragged Jer down towards the madness. He snapped this shot of a little bird that didn't want to get off my head!! I had to shake it all around before he finally flew away.

I love this picture (even though his eyes are closed!) because it really gives you an idea of how crazy it is at the feeding. There are birds flying everywhere and the noise is almost deafening!

This was also the first time I had seen the lorikeets bathing in the little fountain near their feeding area. They were loving it! They roll around in the water and then flap off so quickly that they give everyone standing around a little shower too.

The wombats were out of their logs again, so we got to see them pretty close up! They are so weird looking and so much bigger than I had pictured before coming here. This one is about 3 feet in length!

I took Jeremy up to my other favorite part of Lone Pine (ok, ok...they're all my favorite!) which is a row of bird cages containing different parrorts, doves, etc. This black cockatoo is another bird that I love to see. He's so regal looking and is SO loud when he squawks!

He was also ready for his close-up.

On the way down to the koala cuddling area, we got to see this tiny little baby in his mum's pouch. So cute! This was the first baby koala I've seen so I was pretty excited by it.

Now for the fun pictures! Jeremy got to hold Yabbi, who is one of the younger koalas at Lone Pine. It was so funny, because his keeper would place him in Jeremy's arms and he'd immediately try to climb up towards his face!

It took a few tries before he settled down and we got the perfect shot! How cute!

After koalas we collected our free kangaroo food (can I say, my year-long pass to LP is really coming in handy!) and headed over to the roo field once again.

There are a few emus roaming amongst the kangaroos and wallabies, and this one was reeeeeally interested in having some pellets. He actually wouldn't leave Jeremy alone, which made for some funny pictures...

Once the emu finally decided to leave, Jer made this new friend. I was so impressed, because the wallabies in the enclosure are usually pretty skittish and prefer small children to the big adults. I've only come across a few who will let you feed them, but this one actually hopped up to Jeremy! He must be a wallaby whisperer or something.

Keep this little guy in mind as you read on to some of the later posts!!

After we got home I had planned a little BBQ lunch with most of my friends from school so they could meet the guy they've been hearing about for so long. We met at the new grill that was just installed directly across the street from my apartment. It was so fun! We had an excess of food and ate till we couldn't move. Yum.

Gold Coast Whale Watching and The Mouses House

I had planned a little mini trip for Wednesday and Thursday, so on Wednesday morning we headed down to the Gold Coast for a whale watching cruise. Jeremy and I had picked up a rental car on Tuesday afternoon to drive down. This was BY FAR a highlight for me....driving after 6 months without a car! So fun!

We left just before 8AM to get down to Surfer's Paradise by about 9AM and meet our boat, Spirit of Gold Coast, before it departed. The crew were all really friendly and I think the person who really made the trip was the lady who served coffee and tea and then later screamed and clapped for the whales. She was so excited by them! It took a little while to spot anything, and we actually ended up motoring over to two whales that were already being watched by two other boats. These guys (or girls) were so happy! We watched them splash around for close to an hour, and were lucky enough to see all sorts of behaviors:

A spy hop, when the whale pokes its head out of the water to take a look around.

Pectoral fin slapping, where the whale floats on his back and slaps his pectoral fins on the water.

The tail as the whale dives down in order to...

breach! They did this a lot and actually did one in unison which was reeeeeally cool.

After the tour ended we drove into Surfer's Paradise and took a walk on the beach. We did a little grocery shopping and grabbed lunch before heading into the Gold Coast Hinterland to find our accommodation for the night. I found this place online, and was really excited to go!! It is called The Mouses House, and is a group of little chalets located in the rainforest on top of a small mountain range located in Springbrook National Park. After getting quite turned around (thanks to google maps!) we finally got heading in the right direction and rode up high into the mountains. It was so beautiful! We spotted a few pademelons on the way up, which are the smallest macropods found in Australia. They look like a tiny wallaby, and unfortunately I didn't get any shots of them.

We arrived at Mouses House just before the sun went down and were introduced to our chalet by the owner, Wayne Randall. It is the coolest little place!! There are several tiny chalets placed in the middle of the rainforest and linked by an above-ground boardwalk. Each chalet is named after Disney characters - Snow White, Prince Charming, etc. Our chalet was Happy, and it was adorable! There were lots of wonderful little touches provided by the owners, but I think the best parts were the log fireplace (already set up with paper and kindling when we arrived), and the electric blankets in the bed!! The difference in altitude made the temperature in Springbrook significantly colder, and when we weren't wearing 5 layers we were freezing. Or maybe that was just me!

As we were unpacking our things this brush turkey appeared out of nowhere and stood by our door watching us for what turned into 20 minutes or so! He was so funny - tapping lightly on the glass with his beak like he wanted to come in.

That night I had booked a tour for 7PM. My flat mate John had mentioned to me that there were glow worms somewhere in Springbrook, so I immediately made it a mission to find out about them! Jeremy and I both watched the caves episode of the Discovery Channel series Planet Earth and saw the New Zealand glow worms featured at the beginning. I thought they were so neat back then, so I was really excited to have the chance to see them in person.

It turns out the Springbrook Glow Worm Research Center is actually the hobby (or really - obsession) of Garry Maguire. Garry told us all about how he's a born-again scientist, and started this whole project after purchasing his plot of land in Springbrook and realizing it contained lots of things that glow. Apparently, if I remember correctly, Springbrook National Park is home to more species of luminous 'stuff' than anywhere else in the world. In addition to the glow worms, Garry also propagates and is responsible for discovering several different species of luminous mushrooms and fungi in the rainforest surrounding his house. Neat, right? He also told us that Springbrook is historically a hotspot for UFO sightings...which makes sense too!

Garry has a little mini laboratory set up in his garage where he displays a few species of luminous mushrooms along with jars and jars filled with other animals he has captured during his rainforest explorations. Apparently he loves to go out late at night and root around on the forest floor looking for things that glow. Therefore, his collection includes 6 or 7 different funnel web spiders plus snakes, scorpions, and absolutely GIGANTIC ants. Before we struck out on the tour of the glow worm colony he gave a little talk in his lab area and showed us a few of his glowing mushrooms after turning out the lights.

I guess I should stick a little something in here about what exactly a glow worm is! Essentially they are the larvae of flies that glow through bioluminescence. Think firefly, but more wormy! The glow worms live in a tube that is built from mucus-like secretions, and spin sticky webs that hang down from the tube like tiny icicles. The webs are really quite beautiful and intricate in person. The purpose of the glow seems to be to attract insects that the larvae feed on. Garry's colony of glow worms live along an open rock wall, which feels kind of like a mini amphitheater. Once we reached the viewing area he cut the lights and after allowing our eyes to adjust we could see really clearly the blue-green light from the worms. Camera flashes can actually kill the worms, so I didn't get any pictures but will stick a few from Garry's website here so you can get an idea of what it looked like. They are really beautiful - like hundreds of tiny LED lights shimmering at you from all around!

This is the viewing area - the rock wall extends maybe 15-20 feet high.

A glow worm up close - we were able to see one that had made a home in the crevices between some landscaping stones. Garry shined his flashlight into the little hole to show us what the web looks like - the beads of sticky stuff you see in the picture are SO much smaller in person. They are really impressively intricate little webs.

After returning to Garry's garage we got to give his dog Gus a few cuddles before heading back to Mouses House. He was so adorable!! Corinne, I took this picture with you in mind - I know you would have loved him!!!

My plan to grill some vegetables for dinner on our BBQ was thwarted slightly when we arrived back at Happy and discovered...

That there was something...

Hiding in the grill.

After convincing this little marsupial mouse to get out, we made my famous veggie sandwiches and had a really yummy dinner in front of our little log fire. I had also made a fruit salad after reading that possums frequent the Mouses House chalets at night. The owners suggest coming with some fruit for them, and I sure showed up with a feast! Jeremy was convinced I was going to kill them, but I'm pretty sure they just had some sore tummies after gorging themselves on the huge bowl of pineapple and passionfruit I left out for them.

Springbrook National Park

On Thursday morning we (unfortunately) had to check out of Mouses House and struck out to explore the park a little bit. Our first stop was Best Of All Lookout, which definitely lives up to the name. After a short walk through the forest you come to this - panoramic views of the mountains and coast stretching down into New South Wales. The whole Springbrook Plateau is actually the ancient remains of a volcanic rim, which you can see pretty clearly from the lookout.

We headed north through the park to get a little hiking in, and stopped at a small cafe for a couple of flat whites (ask Jeremy) for the trail. These beautiful Crimson Rosella parrots were hanging out in the trees outside.

We decided to hike the Twin Falls circuit, which is a nice 4km hike through the rainforest and past three little waterfalls. The first is a set called Twin Falls (hence the name) and the second is a single waterfall called Blackfellow Falls. The first falls are neat because you can hike right behind the water - it was really beautiful!

This is just a quick video of the approach to Blackfellow Falls.

There are signs like this one posted all along the trail which are really interesting to read. I thought I'd include a picture of this one because Garry from the glow worms actually warned us about this tree the night before! He pointed one out that we passed on the way down to the viewing area. His description of absolutely excruciating pain was a bit more dramatic than the sign makes it, but I'll still make sure I keep away from these things!!

Parts of the walk were so tropical and lush, I've never been in forest like this before! I love being here and both seeing and hearing things that I've never experienced before. I know a handful of the birds here, but there are so many that I'm clueless about. One of them is the Eastern Whipbird, which is only found on the east coast of Australia. Just like the name implies, it makes a fantastic whip-like noise. We heard them over and over while hiking but I couldn't seem to get it on video for you guys! I kept trying and trying....and finally captured it in the video below!

After the hike Jeremy got a turn behind the wheel before we headed back to Brisbane!