Australia Part 2 - January 2010

Subject: Sunday on to Brisbane

After davening Sunday morning we all went to Goldstein's Bakery for freshly baked muffins and coffee. Goldstein's has been in Surfer's Paradise since 1944 and now has 17 locations on the Gold Coast. Not all the products are kosher, but the ones that are are supervised by the local Chabad Rabbi. They are packaged and labelled. 

The shul also has a kosher store, so we were able to stock up on some food for our trip up north. We also now put away our Kosher Kiwi Guide and took out our Kosher Australia guide which was always present when we walked thru a local supermarket. 

We then drove about one hour north of Surfers Paradise to the beautiful city of Brisbane, a city of about 1 million and very modern.

We checked into our lovely two bedroom apartment in a modern high rise tower downtown. It was what is known as a serviced apartment. It has a full kitchen and allows for self catering.

When we travel to locales that do not have kosher restaurants, we generally look for self catering apartments or homes. That way we have lots of space, a full kitchen and a washer and dryer. Travelling with Irving and Ruchama just meant that we were now booking two bedroom apartments. 

In the morning we went to the Sunday Craft Market which features only Aussie made products. 

We then drove on to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and saw most of the native wildlife; koalas, kangaroos, sheep dogs, Tasmanian Devils, etc. 

The area with the kangaroos was amazing. We were walking through the field and all around us were kangaroos; up close and personal. We even witnessed a wrestling match between two kangaroos that were not appearing to be getting along with each other!

On the way back we decided to take a look at the only orthodox shul in Brisbane, built in the 1880s when Jews came here because of the Australian Goldrush. It is a beautiful old shul and the custodian gave us a personal tour...

Then it was back to the apartment and a beautiful dinner....

The weather held up for us today altho it was generally overcast and threatening. Tomorrow morning we have a very early flight up to Cairns...hope the weather treats us well up there as most of the things we have planned there are outdoor type things.

Hope all is well

Best regards

Fran and david