Bowes Updates

Within an hour’s drive from Adelaide are three fantastic wine regions: the Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, and the Adelaide Hills.  The wineries were all very friendly, and we tasted some incredible stuff.  Though some of the very best stuff has put Australian wine on the map, they drink mode of the good stuff at home. We tried some fantastic wines that, if exported at all (and often not), aren’t sold in Canada.  One exception was at Geoff Hardy, from where we’ve been buying wine for years through Opimian.  Luggage is a bigger issue than customs, though we still managed to bring home a couple bottles of shiraz-based port and a “black champagne”, also made of shiraz.  The photos are here

Adelaide was pretty relaxed.  It was unseasonably cool when we were there (low 20’s), but still beautiful weather.  The city itself is nice…really livable, but not all that exciting for tourists.  The highlights were mostly gastronomical: Vilis for a pie floater (take an Australian pie, turn it upside down in a bowl of split pea soup, enjoy!), a Coopers beer (roll the bottle to disperse the sediment at the bottom…enjoy!), and wine country (more on that later). The photos are here

Pictures can’t do it justice…but this was one of the most incredible things we’ve ever seen.  There was an endless parade of millions of brightly-coloured fish spinning around the vivid coral.  It was like an aquatic acid trip.

We took a bus from Cairns up to Port Douglas, from where we took the “Aristocat” out for a couple dives.  The suits we’re wearing aren’t for the water temp (it was like a warm bath) – these “stinger suits” are to protect against the Irukandji jellyfish, though nobody could recall any serious (much less deadly) stings since 2002. The photos are here and the videos are here

Cairns is well into the tropics in northeast Australia (Queensland), and man, it was HOT. The town itself (sorry, Cairns) is a bit of a dump, with a crocodile-infested muddy waterfront and not much of a city to see. However, it’s just a few miles from the Great Barrier Reef, a short train ride to Kuranda, and has the Ochre restaurant, where you can munch on Kangaroo, Wallaby, crocodile…

Kuranda is a bit tacky (it was a hippy retreat in the 60’s, now more of a souvenir-gathering retreat) but offered an interesting opportunity to walk through a tropical rainforest on the Atherton Tablelands. We took an old-timey train up there, and a gondola over the forest canopy home.

Other interesting notes from Cairns:
– The biggest beetle I’ve ever seen outside our hotel
– Swarms of “flying foxes” (a bat by anyother name) every evening
– XXXX Bitter (brewed in Brisbane) is much better than the name would lead you to believe…delicious, even!
– To make up for the gross (and dangerous) beach, they have a beautiful park with BBQ pits and a nice pool 
See the pictures here

After the epic party that was Kristy & Peri’s wedding, Des and I headed off for a couple days of recovery on the Whitsunday Islands. These are just into the tropics along Australia’s east coast, and are absolutely beautiful. We went for a nice long bushwalk to the peak of the island (it doesn’t look that high, but in 40º heat, it’s a tough slog!), took a cruise to Whitehaven (quite well named – the beach is an ultra-fine white silica sand that makes a squeaking noise when you walk), and relaxed in paradise for a bit.  Did a bit of snorkeling too…at the time, I thought it was pretty cool (we hadn’t been to the main body of the Great Barrier Reef yet).  

Though worth it, it’s a bit of a pain to get here – the flight and ferry schedules are both infrequent and expensive.  Airlie Beach is an alternative way to get there (we flew into Hamilton Island).  Photos are here, and videos are here

Day 1 in Australia: Lauren met us at the airport, and we drove up to Avoca Beach for Kristy & Peri’s wedding (more on that soon). It was a gorgeous couple of days getting past our jetlag, and acclimatizing to the Australian summer (from the Canadian winter).  Should you find yourself in the neighborhood, Terrigal was a nice town with a great pub.  More photos here.

Jon had a course in Orlando, so we took the opportunity to spend the weekend at Disney (neither of us had been before). There happened to be a food and wine festival on at Epcot, so that ended up being the highlight. Space Mountain was pretty awesome, too!  The Small World ride fully delivered the kitschy awesomeness we expected. The rest of the photos are here.

A few of the Stantec crew (and Jon) went out to Niagara-on-the-Lake for a short tour of the Tawse winery and the wine college (plus a nice brew pub for lunch).  Pictures here

Erin adn Al got married in Saskatoon. The ceremony was lovely and the reception was a great time for seeing old friends..  Photos here.