Keine Wurst in Queensland

Dans ces moments de tristesse, il est plus facile d'emprunter les mots des autres pour exprimer ce que l'on ressent. Au revoir Grand-maman et bon vent tout là-haut...

Si Dieu nous prend un à un nos amis et nos proches, c'est pour faire d'eux les étoiles de notre espérance et de notre ciel.

Charles Journet

This weekend was very special to me for several reasons: firstly, I just have turned 26 today (now i'm closer to the thirties than the twenties...) and secondly because it was my last weeked in Oz. In order to beautifully end my trip and keep some unbelievable moments in my mind, I organised a trip to Moreton Island this Sunday and six of us (five friends and I) have been there today. We woke up quite early (5am) and reached the harbour by 4WD before catching the ferry that took us to the Island. We arrived on a beach next to Tangalooma Resort, which is a renowned sport to feed wild dolphins, where the rests of an old sunk wreck are grounded.

Since Moreton Island is totally covered with sand, the most popular attraction is to go sand tobogganing on its huge dunes. We were provided with basic wood boards that were heaps less efficient than the profiled boards seen in other groups. Anyway, we really enjoyed this time, lot of laughs and acrobatics trying to come down the dune!

Then we headed off to the Blue Lagoon, fresh water lake located northward toward the lighthouse. Despite the colour, which was actually rather yellow-brown than blue because of the severe dust stom from last week, I went for a swim and the water temperature was pretty enjoyable.

Next stop was the lighthouse from where we had a wonderful lookout on a piece of reef and the surrounding beaches as well.

Unmissable pictures of the day, the group ones! Firstly with Nataly and Lee and then the full group, even if I'd like to point out that only five of them are my mates!

Eventually, why this title for this post? Simply because our driver was sometimes a bit brusque (and almost crasy, speeding up to 70 km/h on the narrow sand tracks crossing the island!) with the gear box and eveytime he was putting the first one, all the passengers were flunk to the back of the 4WD. Thanks you Zsolt, Zoltan, Andras, Nataly and Lee for giving me an awersome time with you today!

By a unfortunately medium weather, without rain but a bit foggy, I went to Springbrook National Parc yesterday. Located about 30 kilometres away from the Gold Coast, the parc offers a large fauna diversity thank to its rich volcanic soil. We went from lookout to lookout, went for a bush walk in order to admire the waterfalls and finished by a splendid flooded cave with a fall flowing in the middle.

Since it was to early to get home, we decided to make a detour by Surfers Paradise to enjoy a yummy ice cream on the beach. What a coincidence, the only brand we found was Mövenpick and it wasn't disagreeable at all to me!

As one of the most beautiful spots in the world, especially for its atolls, coral islands and scuba-diving facilities, the Great Barrier Reef is a must for everyone visiting Australia. Of course, I couldn't miss such an opportunity and decided to buy myself an anticipated birthday present and took part in this three-day trip. We headed off on Friday towards Agnes Water (500 km northward Brisbane), which is located beside Town of 1770, where the Captain Cook arrived when discovering Australia. We spent the night in a brand-new backpackers with pool, tennis table, swimming pool and so on and slept in countries-called rooms, mine was Danmark.

On Saturday, we took a ship for a two-hour cruise to Lady Musgrave Island where we enjoyed a snorkling session and a hike on the island, which is completely made of coral. What a painful feeling for my feet, but splendid lookout anyway! During the journey, we were lucky to see many dolphin banks, giant turtles and even three whales, great time!

Before going on, I just want to open a small bracket: in Australia, it's only possible to buy alcoholic drinks in dedicated shops, or bottle shops. On our way back to the backpackers, I saw a specially interesting one, which actually was a drive-in! Crazy Aussies! But very good idea, I must think about it, can be a good business in Switzerland, maybe I can set up something in the same style...

The second day, I took advantage of the free morning to book a flight trip, in order to have a view from above of all the marvels seen the day before. It was a very small airplane for two people, mainly used for training sessions. After the take off, I was given the pad by the pilot and could drive the plane by myself, amazing feeling! We experienced several "zero gravity" points during which I saw many times my camera, placed on the dashboard, fly through the cockpit!

Eventually, after a rough landing, I was ejected out of the plane and I finally landed up lying on the ground, before the airplane stopped on my stomach, painful time... ;-)

Hey everybody!

Just a little post to let you know that the winter here is very pleasant, it was definitely a great choice to pick Brisbane as destination city! Yesterday made history as the warmest day ever in August, with 35.4°C recorded. Temperatures around the state have been about 10 degrees higher than forecasted. As a funny paradox, I had to create a leaflet at school about a leisure activity or touristic place nearby my hometown in Switzerland and I decided to pick La Brévine, which is famous for its -41.8°C swiss lowest temperature record in history!

For the last night in Brisbane of my german friend Henning, we wanted to celebrate by going out at Fortitude Valley, the trend place where everyone in Brisbane must go. After a short stay at the "Bank", we joined our Korean friend Lee at a special Asian party at a place called "The Church". It wasn't less than a former church turned into a attractive disco. What a special feeling to have a look all around the dancefloor and to realize we were the only two Europeans in the field! I guess it was however a pleasant goodbye party for Henning, it's now time for me to reach the beach to enjoy the 31° expected for today. Such a amazing winter, isn't it?! ;-)

For the last weekend of Henning, my german friend, we decided to reach the Gold Coast on Friday and especially Surfers Paradise, in order to take advantage of the renowned beaches and nightlife. The less I can say is that we weren't disappointed! We caught the Gold Coast Express train in Brisbane just after lunch with my friends Henning and Lee and arrived on the spot in the early afternoon, the perfect timing to have a first contact with the cold water of the Pacific Ocean, much more different than in Summer!

We stayed in the "Beach Side Backpackers" for the night, which proved to be one of the best ones in the town, with swimming pool, free bodyboards lending, pick up at the bus station and organised night tour to the best local discos with free entry and any drinks, too. Soon before going out on Friday night, we realised that Lee hadn't taken a passport or id card, as well as closed shoes: it would likely be complicated to enter the discos! Nevertheless, we decided to take our chance and try. Our hopes were broken at our first attempt, when Lee was refused to enter because of the absence of valid card. As everyone knows, it's difficult to differenciate an Asian from another one, so Henning and I went into the disco and looked for an Asian guy, in order to ask him to lend us his papers for a couple of minutes. I wasn't too difficult to convince him and we finally managed to make Lee enter the club by using this "fake" passport!

The day after, we enjoyed a yummy breakfast on the Backpackers' terrace next to the pool. It was for Lee the first time he had bread and butter and jam as breakfast, so he didn't know how to eat that and added a slice of cheese on his jam, funny boy! Then we borrowed any bodyboards so that we could go and face the strength of the ocean. In my entire life I had never seen so impressive waves in real, sometimes the highest going over 3-4 meters! Once I was a bit too confident and a huge wave rolled me totally over, I was shocked and knocked afterwards, even a little bit dizzy. We finished the stay by a short shopping session unfortunately without finding interesting stuffs and then it was time for me to travel back to Brisbane in order to attend an AFL game planned for the same night. On their side, Henning and Lee went on to Byron Bay for one more day.

For the end a beautiful lookout of the town from a skyscraper, in order to have an idea of what it looks like (Internet source).

I just wanted to take the time to share a few pictures before spending a very likely amazing weekend on Fraser Island with four mates. As you can read, I'm quite excited and because of the early departure time, I'm not gonna be late tonight.

First picture, the Aussie flag that you can see in many detached-house gardens or in the public areas of the city.

The second one is dedicated to all the "Cenovis" lovers: here is Vegemite a local custom, ranked as traditional australian good and adulated by a large range of the population, especially from the middle-aged people. Its taste is (unfortunately) very close to the Cenovis. As they also say, you like or you don't, there is no balance between, black or white... and personaly I hate that!

The last pict for today is a brain teaser. I took this picture a few hundreds meters away of my homestay and I wondered about the following question: did the tree grew up inside the tire by chance or was the tire purposely placed around the young tree a couple of years ago? I still don't have an answer but anyway, I like this spot and I'm gonna find out the true explanation...

After a stressful beginning of the week with the level test, I have to confess that the rest of the week was much easier with plenty of exciting activities on Thursday and Friday. It began with a tradition in the school: every month each class has to elect a student of the month, which will take part to a public drawing at the reception in order to elect the school's student of the month. I was awarded as student of the month in my class, which made me pretty happy, but then I wasn't lucky and didn't win the drawing, where it was possible to get attractive prizes. It doesn't matter, I still have two more remaining months! ;-)

On Thursday, for our last lesson with our current teacher, she organized any "English Olympic Games" consisting in fencing, volleyball and tennis, all of it in our classroom! Fortunately, without true balls and rackets but only with balloons and foam bats. Friday was celebration day with a big barbecue in the Roma Parc, beautiful grass and garden expanse in the heart of the city. We enjoyed different kinds of food under a warmy and sunny winter day (23° ;-), quite OK for me).

Tomorrow departure to the Australian Zoo with my new german friend before attending a school party with my homestay family, where a public quizz about the australian customs and culture will be held, we will see in what it consists... Not quite sure yet but maybe another trip to Gold Coast is planned for Sunday to enjoy for the first time since my arrival the australian beaches.

When I woke up today, the sky was cloudy for the first time since my arrival at the beginning of the month. Fortunately, it was only a bit of fog and it didn't take a long time before having a wonderful sunny day, as usual. I really expected a mild weather because it was the first time I went on excursion outside Brisbane. Goal of the trip: the Mount Tambourine, something like sixty kilometers in the south-east, relatively close to the Gold Coast, whose beaches we could see from the coach. Our driver, an easy-going sixty-year old australian, was quite kind and funny, he began the journey by an improvisated song, because the CD-player wasn't working correctly!

The first place we went in was a glow-worm cave, which was actually an artificial cave built in order to offer a new home to a special kind of worms, which shine in the dark, using this way to attract insects they can then eat. It was very impressive to stand in this cave, surrounded by thousands of worms on the walls, I really had the feeling it was the night and we were close to the stars of a new galaxy. This visit was followed by a wine tasting, where we tasted seven different wines, among them a few were delicious, very enjoyable!

After this first stop, we travelled to a national park to go for a walk through the rainforest. We saw a beautiful waterfall, a creek and also a strange species of trees, which grow on existing trees, surrounding them in order to find water in the ground and then strangling the tree until it completely dies, sad isn't it?

After lunch we went on travelling to a ranch, where we attended a live concert (unfortunately country music, not really my cup of tea) and an exciting reptile show, with dragons, snakes and crocodiles. At the end of the show, a traditional game took place at the same site, which was actually a toad race. Its principle is simple: height toads are going to race on a tarpaulin on the floor, the first one going (or jumping) over the surrounding red circle win the race, and the jackpot! To play, you have to gamble on one toad, the most expensive one we saw today was worth 70 dollars! Too much for my pocket, so I decided not to take part but only to watch it as spectator.

Now it's time to revise a little bit for the level test we have at school tomorrow, I really want to masterize it! Enjoy the pictures!