Paronella park

Yes I know I'm behind on blog posts! We are fine and well in Malaysia at the moment, having stayed in Cairns, Sydney and Singapore. I will try to get up to date in the next few days...

But first - Paronella Park!

We pulled in to this car park, as I had seen the place on some brochure and wanted to see what it was about. From the carpark we could see the tip of castle ruins. The price was too expensive though, AU$28 each. We were trying to operate on a budget of about $30 per day, so this was well off.

Just as we were pulling out, a guy who we now know is the proprietor (Mark, I think) wandered up eating an icecream, tapped on the window and started chatting to us. We explained that it seemed interesting but was too expensive, moved on to the fact we were Kiwis etc. and this guy just kept rambling on. Finally he offers us a 'special deal' if we want to stay in a camper site as well as seeing the park.

We wanted hot showers (which it had) and so we were planning on spending $20 on a camper park anyway, and the deal was pretty good, though I can't remember exactly how much. This guy can just keep talking - Norty if you're reading, he'd keep you honest :P

So we park up and prepare ourselves for a night walk through the park. We know nothing other then the fact that it is Spanish style castles/buildings. Mark was the man taking us on our spotlight tour.

Now this is a really interesting place, but Mark talks it up so much that I could hardly stop from laughing out loud. This guy is SO passionate about this place. The executive summary (See full blurb here) is that a guy named Jose Paronella came over from Spain in 1913 and started out cutting sugarcane, then moved into developing sugarcane fields and selling them, making himself quite a handsome profit.

He then purchased a lovely section of land next to a beautiful waterfall and started building all the structures that are there today - A ballroom, fountains, staircases etc. The amount of effort is quite impressive no doubt. A series of misfortunate events meant that the park was closed and not repaired, and eventually abandoned. It fell out of memory until the early 90s when Mark and his partner bought the land, and started stripping back the rainforest that had grown around only to find all these interesting features!

Mark speaks with such devotion about every little feature, his passion and enthusiasm is what entertained me! His excitement about cutting thru the jungle that had enveloped the park, the heartbreak of the cyclones and floods that have damaged it. He kept reminding us all to tell our friends and families about this exciting place. Tell everyone!!



I laughed so hard when I saw this sign - The message is consistent - let everyone know about us! Films have been made here, did you know - Sniper Starring: Tom Berenger and Billy Zane! There were a few others that I hadn't heard of, and actually I only know the actors, not Sniper itself. This guy is practically foaming at the mouth with excitement for the park!

I hope this doesn't sound derogatory - Mark is a genuine honest good bloke, and is obviously full of heart. I just felt like I was watching a late night infomercial for Paronella parks while he talked - his is excitement is only matched by his ability to talk. Lots. Consistently. He is overflowing with genuine passion (Which, to be fair, sets him apart from the infomercials). But still, a really interesting place, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in novel architecture. Or crazy Aussies...

Mark if you read this, feel free to chip in in the comments section :)



The park is has all been planned around the waterfall, it was obviously an important part of the planning. The water fountain shown above is actually gravity powered from the waterfall itself! Most of the park lies below the waterfall, so Jose simply took a feed off the top of the waterfall, and piped it into this feature, next to the tennis court and refreshment building...



I haven't quite got my finger on what the parks purpose was, but I think it was not a commercial venture, I think Jose wanted a leisure park where he could host events and socialise - very noble! It has swimming areas, fishing holes, lovers caves and walks, a ballroom and movie rooms, as well as the tennis court and lots of open spaces for picnics or other outdoor entertaining.



And in addition to the fountain, Jose actually set up one of the first running hydro-electric stations in Australia. This powered all the lighting etc around the park. It is not going, but plans are underway to restore it, one of the few bits of the park to get fixed. Mark is trying to preserve the park, not restore it, as he pointed out plenty.

"Its definitely going to be finished by October. Well ... we might be a little late but definitely by the end of the year... and if not we'll get it going next year some time..."

We went down into the hydro room...



..And boy the stairs are steep to get there! We were both clutching the handrails like crazy. The structure has handled 60 odd years of mother nature and is still standing, so we figured that although it looked a bit hokey, and was probably built before stafety standards applied, we'd be OK.




Jose planted heaps of plants, including what is known as Kauri Avenue. These trees line the walkway, and the avenue actually looks down to the waterfall - very pretty.



The grand staircase goes up from the waterside to the ballroom..



and looking down from the grand staircase. the whole park is made of cast concrete (I assume with reinforcements) with lots of small rocks and shells in the mix. Add to that the weathering over the years and moss, and the place has an odd beauty. The lush rainforest helps too.



This is part of the ballroom, which has also suffered damage thru the years, but still looks magnificent. All of this park has been built primarily by Jose himself, though he must have got help with some of the grunt work as the scale is too large for one man. He probably called in lots of favors from mates...




We were promised that the park would be the most amazing thing we'd ever see in Australia, and although I'm not sure if that claim is really legitimate, it was well worth seeing - there is plenty more features that I haven't pictured, and the park is really very pretty. I would recommend anyone who has some time in north Queensland to have a look, and not just for the crazy tour guide :)

Brisbane to Cairns

So - as you have all noticed, we have not posted for ages.

Here is the quick list of where we travelled in the van:

22nd June	Picked up van and drove to Surfers Paradise. Stayed at Caravan Park.
3rd	Visited Dreamworld, stayed at Caravan park
24th	Visited Whitewater World, drove north and stayed at Beerwah/Glass House Mountains 20hr stop.
25th	Visited Australia Zoo, stayed near Noosa Head somewhere on side of the road.
26th	Drove thru Gympie looking for Laundromat. Stayed just south of Bundaberg at 20 hr stop.
27th	Stay at 1770 campsite.
28th	Found an iCafe at Rockhampton. Stayed at some 20hr stop between Rockhampton and Mackay.
29th , 30th	Stayed at Caravan Park at Whitsundays / Airlie Beach.
1st July	Stopped at Dingo beach. Stayed at Bluewater just north of Townsville.
2nd	stayed at Wallaman Falls.
3rd	Visited the Murray Falls. Stayed at Paronella Park.
4th	stayed at Innot Hot Springs.
5th	stayed at Babinda Boulders.
6th	arrived in Cairns.

I’m sorry that there haven’t been any posts recently, it has been hard to find iCafes along the way between Brisbane and Cairns. The few places that did have them were quite expensive - $5+ per hour.

So here I am in Cairns having to remember what we have been doing. My last post stopped at Australia Zoo, and so I’ll attempt a whirlwind tour of what we have did.

We got to the Zoo about 8pm, and I pulled in to the carpark to see if staying the evening in the van there would be a go-er. As soon as I pulled in, a security ute tailed us, so I stopped (against Princesses protests) and waited for the guard to come and talk to us. He did, of course, and explained that we couldn’t stay here, but there was a place just up the road that we could stay.

Turns out that Australia these sweet rest stops, much like NZ, that you are allowed to stay overnight in (the sign says up to 20 hours). They usually have (long drop) toilets and shelter to eat in. Basic but free – found my brand!

We drove up to Noosa heads and looked around – very much like the Gold Coast, a beach and lots of high rises and malls. Eew!. I was planning on popping in on an old family friend, but I didn't realise that they were so close too Noosa, so by the time I realised we were close, I had only the afternoon free - and they weren't home. Sorry Karen and Pete..

The weather was bad, so we were trying to put some kilometers on the clock so we could relax when we got better weather.

We drove thru a treat of a town called Gympie - this is a classic hick town. They had the red box warehouse that looked like the one in Lower Hutt did back in the early 90's - a $2 shop looks more glamorous! The only thing going for Gympie was the sweet smell of coffee and chocolate from the Nestle factory...

We drove thru and headed to Bundaberg. We knew it for the ginger beer, and everyone there was surprised! They thought they were famous for their rum. I expect that Bundaberg Rum is available in NZ, but as neither of us are rum drinkers, well we didn't know.

One of the surprised Bundaberg-ians was an amusing old boy called Arthur A, who worked at the infodesk in Bundaberg. Hes is an ex-pom who had lived in Wellington and told us a great story about how the english lads showed the kiwi blokes up back in the 60s because they knew how to look after the girls - the kiwis were all drinking beer and not paying attention. Arthur and his mates were carrying drinks for the ladies and entertaining them in their band - Can't remember the name, but they met at some soccer club and drank and played. Very amusing!




We went to the ginger beer factory, but didn't go in because we didn't want to spring $ for the tour. Still, we have been to Bundaberg.

Having seen the site in Bundaberg (yeah there isn't much else to see there unless you like Rum) we headed out to a beach site called 1770. The Aussies aren't very inventive with their naming - this is the site that Captain Cook landed in.. you guessed it .. 1770. A kiwi couple we met on the Gold Coast suggested it as a beautiful place, and it really is. As we were driving in I swear I thought we were in Summer Bay! I don't watch Home and Away, honest...







This is us up on the cape at the end of 1770, with Princess pointing towards our home, Aotearoa. We miss you NZ! Check out the extra we found in our sealed salad pack from Coles supermarket:



Yep, thats a fly! Thankfully we spotted it before opening, and Coles did swap it no questions. Still, eeeeew! As part of our super-cheap-meals-because-we-are-on-a-budget, we ate lots of salad buns. I wonder how many had unknown flys in them?

We drove on north thru Rockhampton and Mackay with nothing exciting to report. It was somewhere around here we started noticing sugar cane plantations and coal trains - lots of both! Australia has mineral wealth, whereas NZ has, um, sheep?

We stopped at Airlie beach next to the Whitsundays, a group of islands that mark the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. Airlie beach itself isn't much of a beach, its really just pubs, resorts and stack of shops for purchasing cruises. Though we didn't actually go out to the islands, the water and beaches around the area are simply gorgeous! Dingo beach was our pick around there, and it looked just like the pamphlets of the beaches on the islands. Mmmmm.... we spent all day reading in the sun!

At the campsite I helped these 2 Dutch guys fix the exhaust of their ghetto old suzuki baby-van.


Their exhaust had cracked around most of the circumference - the only thing stopping it from falling off completely was the fact that the crack spiraled down the length slightly, meaning the crack was helix shaped.



I suggested getting it welded, but they wanted the quick n dirty fix, so we wrapped it with epoxy exhaust tape and then got a bit of tin can, wrapped it around like a splint, then tightened it all with hoseclips.



Would it hold? I wasn't sure, but if I interpret their blog correctly, its still in place and going well!

After a day of relaxing on the beaches, we Headed north again, and we were both struck by the geology of Australia - it is such a flat county. Hills protrude from the earth very sharply, and so the perimeter of any hill is very clearly defined. They really are rocks sticking out of the sand! We saw this one that was so prominent, I decided to take the van up and have a look...



This was a very steep road - first gear for lots of it. Mt Inkerman has a very small footprint, a perimeter of maybe a kilometer or 2, but the surrounding land was so flat that it sticks out like, um, a big stikky-outty thing!



Yep it was something like a 20% grade in parts. Yep, that means for every 10 meters forward, you go 2 meters up!



The views from the top were awesome though, you could see forever in any direction.

We were both surprised by Townsville, this city was obviously more affluent and metropolitan then any of the other towns we had been through since Brisbane. I think it was a mix of the coal wealth, sugar refineries and the navy/army bases that were nearby. Whatever the reason, it was a refreshing and pretty city.

From Townsville we decided to head inland and see some of the sights off the coast a bit. The Atherton Tablelands is an area that is raised higher than most of Aus, and has hills and farmlands that look at bit like home, in addition to the tropical rainforests, which do not!




We stayed a night in the forest next to these falls, which are just amazing - that is a bloody big fall!



The road out there was windy and changed from tarmac to mud/gravel at least a half dozen times..very odd. Aus has some shocking roading off the main roads, (as does NZ) but even the Bruce highway, the main one from Brisbane to Cairns, was really bad, especially the northern end. At 110kph we were playing dodge the potholes - and they were numerous. And only the Aussies would call a highway Bruce!

Driving thru the tablelands we chanced upon a place called Paronella Park. This adventure will be getting a whole blog post on its own, but I'll put this pic up as a teaser of whats to come!



We stayed our second to last night at the innot hotsprings, as princess wanted to bathe in warm water. This is a natural hotspring that bubbles up and spits out into the creek. There are a couple of caravan parks and motels that use the water and have their own heated pools from the springs.

Unfortunately, Princess' skin didn't like the water so it was only me that ended up getting any soaking done!



Our final night was spent at the Babinda boulders, and awesome natural valley - it was so good, we since re-visited with Princess' family from Cairns. We'll write more in the following posts on the boulders.

We then drove into Cairns, dropped off the van, and carried our stuff to the motel and sat outside waiting for the rest of the family to arrive...