Australia Part 3 - January 2010

Well, we have had a very exciting busy three days in Cairn. First a bit of description.

Cairns is a city of about 120,000 people and it is situated about a 3 hour flight north of Brisbane. Being much closer to the equator it is a hot humid area, very tropical . 

Which means that in the summer you can get tropical downpours without much notice . 

The forecast for the three days was thunderstorms for the first two and cloudy with possible showers for the third. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Every day was very hot and humid; but mostly sunny with short tropical showers. 

We stayed in a great bed and breakfast place...It was just north of the city limits of Cairns and right in the middle of the rainforest with a waterfall and creek running right next to your bedroom. It was like out of a movie. 

The couple who run the place, Ivan and Lorena, originally from Hamilton Ontario, went out of their way to get us kosher food (lox, cream cheese, bagels etc) and even provided a new cutting board and knives ( they learned that from the research that they did on the web). 

It is not hard eating kosher in Cairns; bread and bagels, smoked and cooked salmon, canned fish, herring and rollmops, hommous and other kinds of locally produced Israeli spreads, cream cheese, jam and peanut butter and of course lots of fresh fruits and veggies are available almost everywhere...we are certainly not starving!!! And most of the places that we have rented have a full kitchen or a kitchenette.

When we arrived in Cairns we immediately headed for the Skyrail which is a ski lift that takes you up into the mountains and the tropical rainforest (needless to say, there is no skiing in this area as even in the winter the temperatures are quite high). The length of this chairlift is about 7 kms and there are stations along the way where you can get off and hike in the rainforest or hear interpretations by a forest ranger or see beautiful vistas and waterfalls. 

At the top, you are in a village called Kuranda which is quite touristy ...Fran and I visited the butterfly sanctuary there which was quite interesting and beautiful. 

For a change of pace, getting down from the mountain was by a vintage railway which was built 100 years ago and which hugged the cliffs as it descended. 

Then it was back to the B & B for dinner and a swim in the refreshing pool at the B & B. 

On Tuesday morning, we got up very early and drove due north for two and a half hours to a place called Cape Tribulation which is literally where the paved road ends!!! 

The only way to go further along the coast is by 4 wheeler jeep along dirt and gravel roads. This place was named by Captain Cook (in addition to Mount Sorrow and Mount Misery) because of all the trials and tribulations that he faced when he found the area way back when. 

It really is a very natural place, untouched and unchanged over the years. You are here to explore and experience nature. We went up for two attractions ...the first was something called Jungle Surfing... Take a look at it on Google and Youtube and you will what this is...you climb up in a tree to a height of about 12 meters and then you move from tree to tree by zipline for a distance of hundreds of meters and all the time you are ending up higher from the forest floor till you are zipping along about 40 or 50 meters up, which is about the equivalent of 15 stories!!! It was amazing. Irving and Ruchama did the last stage upside down!!!

After a well earned lunch we went to a fruit farm, totally organic, started by a husband and wife team, former teachers from Melbourne who were tired of city life and decided to leave for the wilderness. 

From scratch, they now grow more than 150 different kinds of fruit most of which you have never tasted or heard of. We sat thru a most interesting discussion of the different kinds of fruit, the challenges of growing them and then we had a tasting of many of the fruit. Delicious and fascinating!!! 

On Wednesday we went for a half day cruise on the Great Barrier Reef and saw the sea life in a submarine and glass bottom boat as well as snorkeling in the warm water in the reef. It is really not to me missed when you are in this part of the world. 

A three hour flight brought us back to Sydney and today we are off to the Blue Mountains together with some friends from Sydney. 

Hope you are all well....we will continue on the next few days. 

Best regards to all

Fran and David

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

Australia Part 1 - January 2010

We arrived on our flight from Christchurch at about 5 PM on Wednesday night in Sydney, picked up our car and made our way to the home of our hosts, Ivor and Ruth David. 

Lovely people who are close friends of  the mechutonim of our cousins in England. They have a real open home and made us feel instantly like part of the family. We had a delicious dinner with them consisting of Lamb Chops, Beef Steak and Sausages.

The next morning we went to the airport and picked up Irving and Ruchama who arrived from Israel. We checked them in to the David Hotel and then we went off to explore downtown Sydney. 

It was kind of overcast so we decided to take an indoor tour of the famous Sydney Opera House. What a magnificent building and there is an interesting history to the construction of the building which we will fill you in on when we see all of you. After the fascinating tour where we actually saw the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson preparing for the concert that they would give later that night, we sat outside having coffee and actually met Jeremy and Debra Berkovitz of Jerusalem who were on our Tuscany trip with us last year....small world.

We then walked around the famous picturesque Sydney harbor and thru the Botanical Gardens and then, given that the Alters were working on very ittle sleep, decided to call it a day.

The next morning we were up bright and early to catch our flight up north to Surfers Paradise for Shabbat. Surfers Paradise is part of the Gold Coast which is like the Miami of Australia. Miles of clear sandy beach with gigantic surfable waves and hotels and high rises lining the beach for miles. We stayed at a very nice little apartment on the beach which was a block away from the shul and the kosher store.

We had a very relaxing day on Friday after preparing for Shabbos and then we were off to shul. Shabbos was very nice and pleasant...very nice people, a nice rov who gave a sermon at every tefillah and a shiur in the afternoon and very relaxing afternoon. After Shabbat, we went out for Baskins Robbins and then got caught in a tropical downpour which we are told is quite common here. In fact they are predicting alot of this kind of rain over the next few days...we will see....

Tomorrow, Sunday, we are off to Brisbane and then on Monday to Cairns (about 2 and a half hours north by plane) which places us in real tropical country. There we will see the barrier reef and some rainforests...we will catch up with all of you then....

Hope all is well....

Best regards and Shavua Tov

Fran and David