a few of my favourite things

Wherever we live, there are always a few things that become my favourites. Of course such things can vary widely from place to place, ranging from food treats, to stunning views, to old buildings or special shops. Living in far north Queensland has been no exception. Here, I have three favourite things, and they are all places. First place probably goes to Lake Barrine, east of Atherton.

Lake Barrine is a picture perfect crater lake of crystal clear water hemmed in by dense rainforest. There is a quaint old tea house that serves Devonshire tea overlooking the water. Immaculate gardens flow down the hill to the water’s edge and overflow with Ulysses and Cairns Bird-wing butterflies in the wet season when the Calliandra and Claradendron are in flower. We hunt through bunches of Bromiliads looking for frogs. We walk the 5km lake circuit to see birds, and a couple of times we have taken the boat tour around the lake to view the snapping turtles, eels, water dragons, pythons and more birds.

My second favourite place is the Skybury coffee plantation west of Mareeba. From the huge café there is a spectacular view east across the tablelands. The coffee is good, and there are always lots of birds to watch, if not a wallaby or two. I could sit and look for hours here. Contemplate life. Watch storm clouds roll in, or out. I've often thought I would love a house right on this spot. In April we watched a great bower bird rearranging the bright pink bling decorating his substantial bower. That pink peg has to sit in just the right place. That red plastic ribbon must fall just so. It was quite a sight seeing his efforts to attract a mate.



My other favourite place is the Daintree Rainforest, about 1.5hrs north of Cairns. The Daintree is a luxury rainforest – the kind that you can’t even walk in because it is so thick with vines and prickly things you are better off not touching. Here the rainforest pours down mountains until it crashes into the sea and both are spectacular. They have carefully constructed boardwalks through the forest in places so that you can view it safely. At first I found this somewhat disappointing, as a keen bush trekker, but on considering some bush crashing I soon understood why the boardwalks are a good idea for both me and the bush.

On our last visit we even watched a cassowary having a bath, but I may have mentioned that before. I love all the tropical plants, the heat, the colours, the humidity, the feeling of it all. And of course the icecream place that uses unusual tropical fruits like sapote for a yummy icy cold treat.

Leaving behind favourite things is sad, but it opens the door to find new favourite things in a new place. It is the same with faces. Another voyage of discovery awaits us.

Metamorphosis – Change – Transformation - Metamorphoō

Some orange-eyed tree frog (xanthamera) tadpoles where in our backyard this wet season and so I had the privilege of watching them transform from tadpoles to frogs. Trying to document changes is tricky, they can occur quite suddenly, causing you to miss them. One day the tadpoles have no legs, and the next, they do. Even when they finally emerge from the water, change is still occurring as they finally take on their adult shape and colourings. The emergent frog can look very different to its final form, as is the case with this xanthamera.

Even though change is occurring from tadpole to frog, it still has the same DNA. It is still the same animal! A different form means different abilities and activities, but being the same animal, it has the same ultimate goal or purpose.

We too are about to embark on yet another change as we move from sunny far north Queensland to Luxembourg. Change isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and it isn’t exactly ours either. Change is stressful. Change can also be detrimental. We heard recently that up to 90% of a plant’s roots die when it is transplanted from one place to another. We had a beautiful orchard butterfly lay eggs on our mandarin tree in January. The caterpillars grew and transformed into chrysalis’. Attacked by parasites, they never survived this stage, and so never became butterflies.

Some people have told us that it is easy for us to change, that we don’t have kids or responsibilities such as a mortgage. They couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s just that we are willing to change; Willing to not hold onto the past and to go back to the beginning. Willing to let go of familiarity and share ourselves with someone new at our own expense.

Similar to the orchard butterfly, we are vulnerable. Similar to the frog, our whole lifestyle will change in Luxembourg and we will function differently. Similar to a plant, we will make a loss and parts of us will die during the change. We do not relish change and often wish that we could remain planted in familiar soil. Change, however, is what we have been called to do. We look forward to Luxembourg for the new things we will experience. We will not dwell on the losses.
So life for us at the moment is all about researching shipping companies (again), learning French, and making the most of our last few months in this stunning part of the world.

Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a servant and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God. He was even willing to die, yes, even to die on a cross. Philippians 2:6-8

Vacation Time

What do you like to do on vacation? For me it is a jigsaw or two. With family helping this year we managed to get through 6 of them. we even did one of the MillaMilla falls which are from around here. A particularly fun series was from the Americana paintings by Charles Wysocki.

Once the family left it was time for a little hiking and looking for wildlife, although it were the leeches who found us!

Here is a Litoria xanthomera (Orange-eyed tree frog) and a little dragon (Diporiphora).

The rains have come in fervour this year. There has been some flooding around and about but nothing that has caused any problems for us.

Christmas at our place

Well this is the first time in 15 years that we have had Christmas at our place! So this is a big deal for us. In celebration we have gone all out and found a real Christmas tree - a caribbean pine with very long needles, but it seems suited to the climate up here.

We have family coming from Perth, Nelson, Cochabamba and Dublin, so we are very excited. Phil has been very busy with his "nursery' of plants in our tiny back yard, and has even put up a platform for the bird feeder, which keeps falling into the neighbours yard every time we get strong winds. Here you can see a white cheeked Honey-eater feeding while the Lewins Honey-eater waits patiently for him to finish.

The wet season has started along with thunder storms and we recently discovered that lightning is nitrogen fixing, which is partly why the grass seems to have grown about 10cm in the last week! It has been very hot and humid, and we have been loving it.

I have finished yet another quilt (on the wall below) and have had to pack away all my sewing gear to make room for family to stay.

Finally, what are we getting for Christmas? A weber bbq! We have been doing trial runs to make sure that we know how to use it effectively. We have already cooked steak, a roast chicken and a leg of lamb and are very happy with the results.

So that is it from us - Happy Christmas everyone! May you find time to reflect on the reason for the season.

Cape tribulation

Last weekend the weather was still fine so we decided to head off on another camping trip. This time we went north to Cape tribulation. We had been there before a couple of years ago, but it rained so we wanted to see it when the sun was shining. From the land, there is nothing "tribulating" about it - just stunning rain forest and beaches for miles.

The Cape itself is about 2.5 hours north of Cairns. We stayed Friday night at Wonga beach on the south of the Daintree River (which is a big river with crocodiles) and then early on Saturday caught the car ferry to the rainforest.

Driving through the trees on the narrow winding road is a delight. Although this is the Daintree national park, there are no extensive hiking trails available. There are three board walks around 1km long which demonstrate the different kinds of bush along the coast here. Each is unique and it was particularly interesting to see the contrast betweent the dry season now and the end of wet season when we were last here.

We were thrilled this time to see a Cassowary taking a bath in a creek - our first cassowary in the wild. It seemed to be aware of our presence, but not too concerned about it, perhaps because we were on a board walk up above.

We camped at Noah beach, just 50m from the beach in a government camping ground with very few facilities. But the beach was magic, so beautiful and so NOT crowded. It was super hot, so we even went for a swim, inspite of the risk of crocodiles and marine stingers.

We woke up to butcher birds at about 5.30am and went bird watching for awhile and then walked up the deserted beach (above). After breakfast we did another boardwalk and went to the viewpoint at Cape Tribulation itself (photo below).

Later we stopped at another beach on the way back down the coast, and risked another swim to cool off (not that the sea water was cold - more like a luke warm bath).

Apart from enjoying the scenery there is not alot to do up here. There are a few tropical fruit farms on the Cape, and one of them makes very interesting ice-creams to try. So we got to sample some wattleseed, jackfruit and mango flavours. The ice-cream place also has a fantastic collection of heliconias and ginger.

On the way home we went to check out the new Hoglunds glass place at Miallo, but it was closed. We did stop in at a Barramundi farm which also grows hydroponic lettuce and bought some of each for dinner. A tasty end to a relaxing weekend.

Undara

Recently we made a trip 3 hours south west of Atherton to the Undara Volcanic National Park. The wet season hasn't arrived yet so we are making the most of camping while we can.

Undara is 2500ft above sea level on the Great Dividing Range. What is fascinating about this place is the underground lava tubes formed by an eruption of the Undara volcano a very long time ago. The tubes run from Undara 160km north west to the sea. Lava tubes exist in other places in Australia and in other countries including NZ, but Undara is the longest lava flow from a single volcano.

As sections of the lava tube have collapsed from erosion and earthquakes, dry rain forest (technically referred to as semi-evergreen vine thicket) has grown up in the cavities which are much cooler and moister than the land above.

It is inland here so it is hot, about 35 degrees. You can't see the caves without a guided tour and we were glad we chose the 1pm as walking down into the caves was like turning on the air-conditioning! The Undara region is regarded as the traditional country of the Ewamian Aboriginal people. It is likely that they passed through during the dry season and used these caves as temporary accommodation (probably because of the aircon) as there is evidence of Aboriginal occupation. In the wet season, the collapsed sections of the tube act like huge drain holes for the savannah, filling with water.

In contrast to the dry eucalypt woodland above, the caves feature moss-covered rocks, fig tree trunks, ferns and tangled rainforest vines. Some of the cavities and depressions are also home to unique plant and animal life including insects and bats, due to their isolation and the habitat.
The tube walls are formed from huge chunks of basalt interlocked like a three dimensional jigsaw puzzle.

Above ground, huge granite outcrops punctuate the endless sea of green. Having grown up with so little wildlife in NZ, the abundance here still excites us, including the feisty wallaroos.

The next day we climbed up to the rim of the Kilkani crater to get a 360 degree view of the volcanic plateau. From here the darker strips of foliage indicating the tubes are obvious in the ocean of gum trees. Somehow it is very peaceful, albeit hot.

At night, Phil went on his usual frog search and found 5 different species, so we may have to go back after it starts to rain. Can't wait!