Australia: Paronella Park

Just because we are back from Australia doesn't mean I don't have more adventures to share! :)

So, you may recall, but after one goes diving, they have to wait 24 hours before flying. 

We needed something to do while waiting over the weekend, so we drove up to a place called Paronella Park. 

Paronella Park was built by one man. His name was Jose. He bought this land, and had a vision of pleasure gardens and buildings for public enjoyment. In 1929, he purchased the land, and worked nonstop everyday until 1935. Jose' had made his fortune in sugar cane, so he was able to build off of what he had made in the past.

Every building was hand-made by Jose'. He mixed his own cement, and used train rails to provide the structure. The walls he smoothed with his hands. They have his finger trails and prints all in them.

While there are many smaller buildings around the park, the largest and grandest by far, is the Central Hall. Here guests were entertained with movies every friday evening, dances, social receptions, and more.

The upper room of the Central Hall

Here is the back view of the Hall. You can see there is a main floor, and then the smaller upper level

The Ballroom

The Ballroom of the Central Hall was where all the cool stuff happened.  There used to be a ceiling, where a large disco ball, also made by Jose, was lowered. People danced, watched movies, or listend to music in this area. In the 1960s, it was converted into a place where ceremonies were held, the majority of them being weddings. 

At the foot of the Grand Staircase

Jose made much more than just one building. He also made a "Grand Staircase" That led people down to the stream and the tennis courts.

The Observation building of the Tennis grounds.

Another main attraction of the park, were the tennis grounds and the surrounding buildings. It provided the perfect place for casual conversation and socializing, but also enough room to do as you please. 

Changing rooms for Tennis and the pool on both sides of the observation building.

Gravity Fed Fountain

For Jose not to have a shred of architectural training, he made some pretty cool stuff. Take this fountain for instance. Unlike most fountains, it is powered by the waterfall nearby. Since it is lower than the falls, the pressure from the water forces the water through small pipes, and into the air. In other words... gravity fed.

Another building where people can stand, talk, and enjoy the garden.

A side observation deck for the Tennis court.

While the buildings Jose constructed were amazing, even moreso, are the gardens he created. The majority of the plants in these pictures were planted by the man. He had hundreds of plants brought in, most not even native species. A walk in this park is something truly memorable.

A spring fed creek, providing clean drinkable water.

Jose was a bit of a romantic, so, he built all paths just wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side. For his wife, he made "Lover's Lane". It was a path that led to the tunnel of love.

The Cave- erm. Tunnel of love.

In addition to being a farmer, builder, and businessman. Jose was an entrepreneur. He had to dig out tons of dirt for paths, cement, etc. There was a hill that was made of red clay, so he dug all the way through it getting dirt. 

   Later, he decided to make some money off of this... hole in the hill, and call it "The Tunnel of Love" It is dark, damp, and full of spiders. And bats. I fail to see the appeal. 

The main residents of the tunnel of love. Tiny little bats.

Even the picnic tables he made by hand.

Something else to note, is Jose powered the entire park by a homemade Hydro-Electric system. It was the first in Queensland. It still powers the park today.

The Falls that power the plant.

It was truly a peaceful, and beautiful place. The ruins were impressive, so I can't even imagine what they must have looked like in their non-ruinous condition.

"But Austin!" You say, "These buildings are only a couple decades old!!"
Very true, let me complete the story for you. :)
   In 1946, the rain seasons came. Water built up against a railway bridge upstream. Being clogged with trees and brush, it piled up more and more until the entire bridge broke. All the debris and water rushed downstream and destroyed the majority of the central hall main room.
   Jose, and his children now, worked to rebuild, but he died of cancer in 1948. His children continued to rebuild and maintain, until more floods hit in 67', 72', and 74'. They kept working to keep it going until 1977, when they sold it.
   What really destroyed the buildings however, was a fire that tore through the park in 1979. It destroyed much of the great hall, and other things. Still today, more cyclones and floods hit the park, further battering the already crumbling structures. It is now marked as a national trust, and there is a full time staff dedicated to preserving the buildings as art.

Sunset on the sugar cane valley.

Driving home that evening, after hearing about how a man's life work was mostly destroyed in a matter years... brought this verse to mind.

Mathew 6:19-21

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Australia: Diving on The Great Barrier Reef!

Ok Folks,

Here is the one you have all been waiting for. ;)

Diving.

On the great Barrier Reef.

When I put this one on my bucket list a few years back, I never would have thought it would be possible to do this so soon!
   It all started when dad said there was a chance we might get to go to Australia, of course, I immediately said "Can we Scuba if we go?" Now, I didn't know a thing about Scuba, how much it cost, what training you needed...
Not Anything.
After it was decided however, mom and I found a Dive Center. Initially, just myself and my bro were going to dive, but after experiencing what it was like in a "Demo" class, dad and my other bro joined in.
   Two weeks and a lot of training later.
We became Certified Open Water Divers. :)

Once in Australia, we spent a lot of time discussing where exactly we were going to dive. Turns out, The best Great Barrier Reef Locations are north. About 20 hours drive time from where we were. We finally decided as a family though, that since a plane ride was much cheaper from Surfer's Paradise to Cairns... Than from USA to Cairns.... We would go there. ;)
   Honestly, I would have been happy diving anywhere, but the fact we actually flew up to the reef... takes the cake.

The day of the dive had excellent weather. A little breeze, 75 degrees, and not a cloud in the sky. We rode out for about an hour on a dive charter we selected. It was TUSAdive. The staff were Excellent, boat very nice, and the equipment very nice. I had rented a camera the day before, and was allowed to use that instead of their more expensive ones on board.

We dove in two places, for a total of three dives. "Hasting's Reef", and then "The Fish Bowl". Each dive lasted about 20-30 minutes, depending on how much air we had left in our tank. I always had the most air left, and dad was always the first to run out. ;)

If you think God's Creation is cool on the surface... it is even moreso underwater. It amazed me to see the depth of design and intricacies in every piece of coral, fish, and shells. The colors, the textures, the size... all so vast and unique....
We truly have an awesome Creator.

I am guessing now you'd like to see some pics... I did take all of these, and it was fun to do so. :)

Click play on the Player for some music to go along with the pictures. ;)

One of the first things we saw... Nemo! :)

Branch Coral

Lettuce Coral

Toadstool Coral

Brain Coral

A mix of corals.

Tree Coral

Great Star Coral (The Tan one) And Toadstool Coral on top of that. 

A Giant Clam, and a mix of Various corals.

Some Yellow Damselfish in Stag coral.

A Butterfly Fish

A fleeing Parrotfish

A photogenic Parrotfish. ;)

Another Butterfly fish.

Parrotfish and some Table Coral.

A Giant Clam. It was over 2 feet long.

A "Reefscape"

Clownfish.

More Clownfish...

And another... Clownfish! ;)

A Triggerfish.

My favorite Butterfly fish

A Miniature Grouper fish. Excellent Camo.

Coral and a Butterfly fish.

Another Reefscape.

A Sea Turtle. :)

Aaaaand, if the pictures weren't enough, here is a video I also made while diving:

Diving is an amazing experience. If you ever have a chance, definitely get certified and take a dive.

You won't regret it. :) 

Australia: The Sydney Opera House

To start off here, I have to say this was one of my #2 favorite thing we did in Australia. The absolute intricacy of this structure's design wows me still. To hear the story of its origin, and hear all the labor and work poured into this building is still amazing.

Plus, it is a cool building. And you know I always fall for cool buildings. ;)

The Sydney Opera house, Taken on a boat in Sydney Harbor.

I suppose I should start at the beginning. The Sydney Opera House was created as a result of a worldwide competition. The Australian Government wanted an iconic Opera house build on a small outcropping of land.
   After some time, this sketch was chosen, though almost missed, as it was turned in past the deadline.

Photo courtesy Public Files from the Australian Archives.

   This was all the engineers got to make the building. No blueprints, no other angles... nothing. They had to call in the original designer to help them with the creation of the building. The story is a long, and sometimes sad one, which you can read many other places, so I won't go into it here. ;)

Regardless of the Story though, it was built, and we took a tour of it. :)

Standing on one of the viewing platforms outside the Opera House, you could see awesome and incredible views of the city, the Harbor, and more.

The Upper Level Entrance's doors were made of reflective glass, so as to keep the heat out of the room. :)

Now, this is really cool. Between each of these brown struts, there are panels of glass. Theses panels of glass and struts are built to allow expansion when they heat up, and then contraction when they cool down! The entire thing can move based on the rubber joints placed in certain areas of the struts.
Ingenious IMO.

This Purple room, is like a routing place to go to all the different theaters in the Opera house.

The Opera house itself is really more like a shell. The dome structures form something like a Giant... Pavilion. Once they were built, the actual enclosed theaters where built inside the domes.
  To use a smaller example, like building a park pavilion, then a bunch of little club houses under the pavilion.
   Anyway, these domes have millions of tiles on them. These tiles were installed onto preformed pieces of concrete, then the concrete portions lowered into place. The tiles are self cleaning too, so whenever it rains, the roof is totally cleaned.

Kinda bad picture I know, but here you can see the structure for one of the domes. Those are concrete pillars fanned out in a way that gives structure to the round shape of the roof.

And here is one of the opera theaters. All the theaters were build with cedar wood on the inside and out. Cedar wood reflects the human voice with the least amount of distortion, which is why they choose that type.

After the tour, we stopped and had lunch at their restaurant. We did some drawing while waiting for lunch...

And here is what I got, a Mushroom Pasta Linguini. It was excellent.

And that finishes our trip to the opera house. We learned tons of stuff that day, and if you are interested, do some googling on the building. It is a quite fascinating piece of Architecture.