Tag Archives: Australia

Australian adventures: One

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Isn’t this fun NaniViv & Kerry?

It was a busy couple weeks in Australia; a miscellany of many things, starting in Melbourne. We looked after our granddaughters for a few days; busy times indeed working around their activities. We visited the National Art Gallery to see the Triennial exhibition; a host of fabulous contemporary art. NaniViv (as I’m called), was travel-worn and hot, but the girls not. I suggested afternoon tea, and they suggested the city centre. We did both. It was fun trying on clothes at Cotton On, and buying a top each. Though they were extra excited when I suggested shoe shopping, having just lost a heel off mine at the gallery. Next came groceries, and the need for fruit ‘straps’ for a secret treat they wished to make for dessert. They had no idea these would harden on contact with the ice cream and cause a spectacular dripping.

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Port Douglas: Part 2

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The second week in Port Douglas passed in a similar pleasant style to the previous one, seeing us mingling with our friends at the beach, or over drinks in the evening. The weather was warm and skies calm until the end of the week, when strong wind ruffled the sea and waves rolled onto Four Mile Beach. Kerry was undeterred by the strong wind as he loves nothing better than body surfing the waves. I was happier either walking or sketching. But this week had a different focus, because we decided to visit a wildlife habitat a short distance from the town. Never before, I must add, had I ever posed for a touristy photo like the one you see here. I only agreed as I love owls. What a hoot!

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Port Douglas: Part one

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Kerry and I were lucky to be invited to spend time with old friends in Port Douglas, North Queensland, Australia for two weeks. We landed in Cairns (a 5 and a half hour flight from Auckland), and if you look closely on the map you’ll see Port Douglas marked above it. It is an hour’s drive further north.

We left in winter temperatures and arrived to a summery 27 degrees. The sky was blue, the water likewise. Too cold for ‘stingers’ we were told. Thank goodness for that I thought, knowing there were many that had wrapped their tentacles around unsuspecting strangers’ limbs in the past.

Four Mile Beach Port Douglas early morning

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Meeting Barbara at Heide

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Photograph by Jeremy Weihrauch of the new face of the Heide Museum of Modern Art

I was excited when invited to visit an art gallery in Melbourne I had visited before. The Heide Museum of Modern Art specialises in modern art and sculpture, is quite unlike others, and one I never tire of visiting. It is in Bulleen, a suburb of Melbourne, and was established in 1981 by art benefactors John and Sunday Reed. Thanks to their ideas and inspiration, the museum is a superb asset to the city, and sits well with the other, larger art galleries in the city centre. I was especially excited to visit this day, as they were featuring an exhibition of Barbara Hepworth sculpture. Hepworth is a British modernist artist and sculptor (1903-1975). > Barbara Hepworth

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I didn’t want to visit Australia because of our sky

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oznor

Auckland skies the week before leaving (photo not altered)

This was a long-planned trip to visit family in Australia but I was not filled with the usual mounting excitement. Our skies in Auckland reflected the awful reality of the fires burning over there, made all the more alarming given that New Zealand is over 3000 kilometres away. For days we had viewed flames ripping through communities in several parts of Australia, leaving utter devastation in their wake. And loss of life. Although we were heading north of the worst affected areas, there had been fires reported close to Toowoomba, near where my youngest lives. With assurances from her, that the area was quite safe apart from a smokey atmosphere, we flew to Brisbane, the closest International airport.  Continue reading →