After a three month stay in Brisbane, we are happy to embark on a new adventure. On the other hand, we are going to miss many lovely places and some daily routines which we have developed since the beginning of September.

I wrote a lot about typical things here in Brisbane and described some trips we made, but now it high time to say something about our homestay. At least, we spend more than 50% of our time at this amazing place.

Our homestay is located in the suburb Chelmer, which is around 10 kilometers from the citycenter. Dissimilar to the neighboring areas, Chelmer is quite flat and it’s easy to walk or to cycle in there. Although it isn’t so close the center, the railway takes only 15 minutes to the downtown. A magnificat river is flowing through the outskirts and makes them much more green and natural. And indeed, our homestay is build directly on the river. The house has a very charming and shady terrace on which you can easily relax or work.

We lived in quite comfortable room with a big king size bed, a large wardrobe, and desk and some shelfs for our staff. Furthermore, we had a separate bedroom with a restroom and a shower. We were also be allowed to use the kitchen and, of course, the terrace. As an impression, I added the following pictures.

Besides the marvelous location, we had a very lovely housemother. She is a piano teacher and pianist and plays very impressive. The teaching lessons started often before seven, but it didn’t disturb us at all. Like a typical Australian, she is very open-minded and kind-hearted. It was a very pleasure to stay with here and had a profound insight in the Australien way of life.

Some of you asked what I was doing when Jonas was taking his language course. Well, there were many things:

As all of you know, I don’t like to get up early… So sleeping in was the first thing I did 😉 After that, there were a few things I did:

• Get ideas for the Sonnehuus Fest (Flyer, Guestbook, Information…)
• Create the Sonnehuus Fest flyer and send to the print company
• Write invitations to doctors, mayors and many other people
• Find all the addresses to send the letters
• Create the “Gönnerverein der Rudolf Steiner Schule Solothurn” flyer and sent to the print company
• Read a quite interesting book about beeing a Steiner School teacher
• Write some portfolios for my studies
• Type a paper for the AfaP-students to help them working with Microsoft Word (no, you don’t need to write the index manually… Word can do this!)
• Get the new AfaP forum ready and inform the students
• Finish the new http://www.sonnegold.ch website (have a look 😉 )
• Work on the Sonnehuus work schedule for next year
• Wash our laundry

Seven days ago we spent a long weekend on the famous Fraser Island. The island is made from sand and is indeed the biggest isle of this kind. We booked a guided tour with 34 other tourists from all over the world (one Swedish family, a talkative Italian guy, who is living in Australia for about two years, a couple from Mexico and one from South Korea, two independent travellers (UK man & Japanese woman) and two large groups from South Korea and China). The level of understanding was very differing, the UK man was able to understand any detail from the guide and mostly of the Asians didn’t catch a word – I guess. Anyhow, the tour was very exciting, and we discover all the main attractions of this beautiful part of the world. But, what is so spectacular on Fraser Island?

As I explained before, Fraser consists only of sand, no stones or something similar. Of course, there is some organic material that are being produced by the various and numerous trees. Besides the large forest, there are some lovely and clear water lakes and endless and quite superb beaches. These beaches are definitely not suitable to take a bath (to the dangerous causes of sharks, sharp stones and poisonous jellyfishes). They are more ideal replacement for the missing streets on the island. If you want to visit this sandy place, you will use a four wheels drive vehicle. Even then, you could bog down in the sand. But, which were the main appeals of this tour?

First at all we visited a very Maggi Place. The rainbow beach got his name from the different colours of the sand. The sand cliffs is made of yellow, red, white and brown kinds of sand. The name “Rainbow beach” is furthermore the name for a little village next to this beach and close to the ferry bridge to the Fraser Island. The transfer from the mainland to the isle is unexpected simple, a small ferry and two natural, sandy shores. That’s it.

After a four hours drive in the coach, we needed an active break. How about walking through a fairy-tale wood and taking a bath in a lovely lake? That was less a question than a fixed event in the guided tour. However, I enjoyed the barefoot stroll to the little pond in the middle of a moving sand dune. Without a doubt, sand dunes are shifting from one place to an other and during this walk they bury the forest without any hesitation. No matter what, we took pleasure in spending some time at this wonderful place.

The next day, after a very entertaining evening with our roommates (a swedish doctor and the independent UK traveller), we did some sightseeing on the island (visit an old shipwreck, take a bath in a Champaign baths and a very refreshing river) we were offered the opportunity to take an island flight. Ok, 75 $ / person is a bit pricy for 20 Minute flight. But, firstly we haven’t known the length and secondly the airplane was starting and landing at the beach. How awesome is that! Regrettably, we only were flying about 20 Minutes, but it was quite magnificent.

The sum up, like in an advanced writing, the whole trip was imposing.

After two weekends full of work (writing an essay and preparing the final presentation for my language course), we visited the rainforest mountains near Brisbane. The region with the name “Scenic Rim” has a very green and hilly landscape and includes a lot of breathtaking outlooks. We looked up four different locations: the skywalk, the Polish Place, the curtin falls and the botanic garden.

Our stations in the area of the Tamborine Mountains

The skywalk in the Tamborine Mountains is a well-prepared path trough the rainforest. The roundway is a combination of small trails on the ground and a stable stale constructive bridge trough the treetops. It was very impressive to walk in an Australian rainforest and discover the different local plants. The flora is quite dissimilar compare with the trees and grasses in a european forest. Especially the large and playful roots and the high-rise and tropical trees are just imposing.

A second attraction in this countryside was the Polish restaurant on the top of the hill with a breath-taking outlook. A second appeal was the high number of parrots, which has been fed in the restaurant. By the way, my food was delicious, but the assortment for Maggi was not that big.

We spend the afternoon in the national park. This green area is quite extensive and includes different places like a small waterfall or an attractive and lovely botanic garden. This botanic garden was more garden than botanic. Even then, you can easily study the diverse plants and insects. (–> the owners also created a fantastic and particular informative path for children which explains the fundamental knowledge about nature and the specific rainforest environment).

impressions from the Tamborine Mountain

Last week I wrote something about our car experiences, this week I want to write something about the two villages Coolum and Noosa. Coolum was the location of our stay and Noosa is a beautiful place and quite famous as a surfer paradise.

Coolum Beach & Noosa (for the interactive map click on the picture)

Coolum Beach

the red yellow flags at the Coolum beach.

The small village along the beach is quite touristic, but the location is also a favorite place for the locals. The main attraction is, of course, the beach! The beach has a length about 5 – 6 kilometer (or more, I didn’t measure –> if you want, look in Wikipedia). Compare with the mediterranean sea, the ocean in Australia is more rough and dangerous. Easily you underrate the high-risks like poison jellyfishes, strong drifts into the ocean or sharp rocks (sharks aren’t really a big deal). If you want to take a bath, you have to consider the special areas. At almost every beach, you can see different flags from the Australian life guards service (named: surf life savers). You’re strongly suggested only to enter the water between the red-yellow-flags.

Noosa

the outlook from a path in the natural park in Noosa

Noosa is, of course, the best-known village at the sunshine cost. If Coolum Beach has a lot of tourists, Noosa would be overcrowed. But, Noosa is still quite impressive, the very large beach, a beautiful pedestrian area with a lot of small (but expensive) shops, nice cafés and a very magnificent natural park. The park includes a lot of natural plants and animals (we discovered a large lizard and a sleeping koala  top on the tree). We paths crossing the park are quite interesting, on the one side you see the wild and open sea, on the other side you are able to notice some new creatures. Besides visiting the park, we ate lunch in a large restaurant in Noosa, owned by the surf life savers. If you like burgers, this restaurant is a strong advice (also suitable for vegetarians). We also bought two hats for the soon summer – the best action against sunstroke.

In conclusion, this weekend was very relaxing and exciting. Cheers…

The last weekend, Maggi and I drove to the sunshine coast with a hired car. The decision to do this “holiday in the vacation” came up in mind last thursday. To discover the beautiful beach and collect some experiences of “driving on the false side” were the key arguments.

We rented a car for three days at a car renter at the brisbane international airport. Afterwards, the location “airport” was not a great decision, not because of the car rental company, but the trip to the airport is very expensive. (not the whole trip, only the way between the last station before the airport and the airport.) If anybody wants to hire a car in Brisbane, we advise to hire a car at an other place (except you do want to hire a car directly after flight arrival). The woman behind the car rental company desk was very friendly and explained all the things we have to do different the next time :

• you have to carry a print of your voucher
• you have to be at the corner at the time you have ordered (and not 2 hours later as we did)
• it’s better to go to the other corner (at the domestic airport)
  notice: in the booking info wasn’t any information about the exact position of the corner

After about half an hour of explanation, we were able to get on the car. We hired a little Toyota (Maggi knows the exact type, but I don’t). The distance between the airport and our hotel was about 140 kilometer. It was important not to drive to long for the frist time. We arrived our hotel in Coolum Beach on time and without any serious damages. But, what are the key challenges to drive in Australia:

• the roundabouts are a bit different compared with the ones we have in Switzerland. Most of them are bigger (most have two lines). Also the way of indicating the direction is divergent: Before you enter the roundabout, you have to show the direction (left blinking for the left exit, no blinking go straight away, and right blinking for the right exit).
• Keeping the car in the middle of the street could be a little challenge. Because you’re having the seat on the right side, you have to be aware not to drive too much on the left side.
• The most serious problem was the mistake between the windscreen wiper and the blinking operate stick (or however this thing is called :-)).

In conclusion, the experiment of driving in Australia wasn’t that serious as we expected. Of course, driving in Australia needs more attention in compare with driving in Switzerland. We hired a automatic car (the best invention in car engineering), therefore we were able to focus in the different functions and environments here in Queensland. As a non-rountine driver, I must be attentive all the time, also in my hometown.

Beer and Australia are strong related. Although, the unbelieveable high prices and the the very strict laws around this topic, Australia is a great beer nation. Lets begin with the the costs.

Alcohol and especially beer is very expensive, you can easily combare with the prices in the northern countries in europe. Depend on the time of the consumation and the location, you have to pay between 7 and 11 australian dollar for one pint or sometimes even for only a little bottle. A lot of restaurants have happy hours. So, if you are a clever tourist or even a Australien citizien you can take advantages of this information. In lots of the suburbs or in small town, a lot of the australians are member of some community clubs, in which you can buy cheap food and drinks (including beer and other alcohol).

To drink alcohol in the public is not allowed in whole Australia. Therefore, you can only drink alcohol in the pubs or in your private home. The law is settled to prevent public drinking parties. The police practice is quite similiar with our law about canabies. If you only drink one beer beside a normal meal in a park, the police won’t give you a fine. If a group of young people are hanging around with forty bottles of beer, the police will stopp this dinking party.

The choice of tasty beers are huge. The majority of the beers we have tried were absolutely tasty. The Australiens like strong aromatic beers. Of couse, you can also drink some less flavor beers, like the xxxx-beer, but I recommend definitly the the Ale-Ones (e.g. little creatures, pacific ale). Most of the bars or restaurants offers a wide rage of different beers, usually more then four brands. The most impressing topic about the beer culture is the ale-bank, just fascinating.