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Gold Coast

Visiting The Gold Coast Botanical Gardens

August 21, 2015 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Last weekend, I went to the Gold Coast for work. It’s a bit weird saying I’ve gone anywhere for work. Especially when you’ve been out of the workforce for 8 months.

Regardless, I was at RACV Royal Pines in Benowa for the yearly Problogger Conference. I was there to live tweet so only had a small amount of time to actually explore. I did my research in advance and realized that the resort was just a short walk from the botanic gardens.

Even better, intermediate egrets (the bastards) were known to frequent there.

I woke up early on the Sunday. I was exhausted and even considered skipping the adventure and sleeping in. I’d spoken the Glenn the night before about my sheer exhaustion and he said to just go. “You’d regret it if you didn’t.”

So, shortly after 8am, I mosied down to reception and called a taxi to the hotel.

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I’ll get straight to the point. I did see an intermediate egret. Despite all my efforts, I still struggle with telling them apart. I logically know they are rare in Victoria but want to be accurate with all my reports. So, I always double check with questionable egrets. And they are always great ones.

Which is fine. It’s just led me to the conclusion that egrets are stupid, confusing, and I never have to worry about trying to ID one again 🙂 I can be such a cantankerous birder at times.

I posted this on Facebook as soon as I got to the hotel. I was rude while hanging out with friends but I quickly got the answer. Yes, I was right. The primary way of telling is that the bill is shorter and thicker.

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Back to the original story. The taxi driver there was really lovely and helpful, explaining that he had gone there a lot and it was a lovely place. The first impressions were really lovely. It felt like a much larger version of Balyang in Geelong, but a lot prettier. There were lots of boardwalks over the feature lake so I spent a lot of time on that. It was a bit confusing walking around at first as I didn’t know what was part of the gardens or not, especially as it was so close to a main road.

You can get a map and lots of interesting brochures from the visitors centre. Once you know where it is 😉

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There was a decent amount of hard headed ducks, which I loved. I don’t see them nearly enough around here. It’s always teals, or one of the more rarer ones. I could have spent a lot longer photographing them if I had the time.

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There was also a solid number of Australasian grebes. Which was awesome, as I love them. They were a bit skittish though. I really wish I had the canon, with the zoom lens, instead of the Nikon as most of my photos from this day turned out pretty mediocre. I was impressed with the above one though.

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On the first they I was there I posted that the ravens sounded different. I was told they were probably Torresian Crows, another lifer. I still don’t know the difference between ravens and crows. I only said raven because I always refer to the ones down here as crows.

It was a good learning experience though.

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It probably would have been easy enough to just walk from the hotel to the gardens. I was having a lazy, exhausted day though.

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A cormorant. Because it’s cute.

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Noisy miners were EVERYWHERE. Which was fun for me, as I don’t often see them around suburban Geelong

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I initially thought the above birds were little egrets but after reading the ‘wildlife of the Gold Coast’ book I picked up for 5 bucks, I’m leaning towards intermediate. Simple because of the black bill and yellow legs. I really don’t have any idea, I thought they were too small. Regardless, was lovely to get a closer look at them.

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Butcherbird. I did see a juvenile and assumed it was another species because I am that clever. As you’ll see below, I also got photos of any signs I saw.

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I took the above photo thinking that there was a magpie with some noisy miners on the branch. It was a fair distance away and I didn’t have any binoculars with me. I took the photo, and immediately uploaded it when back at the hotel.

Turns out there are three Australian figbirds on there! I feel like less of a moron when I learned that because my initial hunch was an oriole of some sort, and they were on the same page in the field guide. I’m still picking stuff up even though I stick to a small area.

I now know that I also saw one of these at the shopping centre in Benowa. I dismissed it as a Bell Miner because it was a flash of yellow with a bit of red near the eye. I thought the red was unusual but I couldn’t get a better view as the tree was in the middle of a car park and I was waiting for a return taxi. I was so excited to read it was a figbird. I know nothing about their behaviour, other then that they are common on the Gold Coast. It was cool to see.

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A coot. I just liked the colours.

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Another of the grebe. I’m hankering for breeding season, I really want to get photos of grebes carrying birds on their backs. I’ll probably put the call out on Facebook and check some of my favourite haunts – especially the stormwater pond at Eastern Park – to see if people see any. Do hoary headed grebes show this behaviour?

The remaining photos are generic birds you get in the area. It is a really beautiful place. It shouldn’t be too high on the birding bucket list, are there are much better places to see birds in the area. It is still a lovely place just to sit for hours and practice photography. I could see myself spending days here as you can get really clear views of the birds. On the Sunday there was a lot of kids which made some of the birds skittish.

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~

I’m very keen to return to the Gold Coast, and Queensland in general, to do some more wildlife adventuring. It truly is a magic place. A couple of days just doesn’t do it justice.

I’m planning on creating ‘bucket lists’ for various regions, and researching photography ideas. I really do think Glenn would love Cairns.

Filed Under: Gold Coast Tagged With: Australian figbird, Gold Coast Botanical Gardens, hard-headed duck, intermediate egret, pied butcherbird

Day Trip To Byron Bay

November 10, 2013 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

I have mixed feelings about this tour. Nothing against the company, though. To explain, I’ll borrow a comment I left at Style and Shennanigans,

We were on a holiday in Queensland and were on a tourist trip to Byron Bay. I had just started on new antidepressants and they made me a bit nauseous. No big deal.

We were about 5km from Byron bay when my tummy started going funny. I looked at Glenn. I tried to hold on. Eventually… BLERGH. I couldn’t warn the driver so just vomited into my backpack…. which also held my boyfriends wallet and the camera bag. It happened about 5 times and I felt water seep through the bag onto my lap.

We couldn’t get to the lighthouse fast enough. We threw out the bag and Glenns wallet. I washed up. Spent the next two hours sitting under a tree waiting to return.

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Glenn said he immediately knew when I felt better. He could hear me quietly munching on Pizza shapes.

My experiences with the tour are marred by the nausea and delightful side effects of new medication. Nonetheless, I’ll provide a recap for those who are curious.

Hastings Point

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I’m not exactly sure that this is hastings point. It was the first place we stopped on the tour and it was really beautiful. We could have stayed for ages.

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Crystal Castle

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The ground here were very beautiful. My mum would have loved it here. It was very serene, very calm and made for some great photographic opportunities.

It took about 20 minutes to get served (for an ice-cream!) in the cafe area, because a group of seniors were there for lunch. This was frustrating as we only had a limited amount of time and I was starting to feel dizzy.

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I ended up sitting down feeling yuck while Glenn took photos. It didn’t really interest him. I got an aura photograph out of curiosity and showed it to mum who disagreed with it’s accuracy. They did sell a lot of new age stuff here, too.

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Byron Bay Lighthouse

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This was the main reason I came on this tour and I believe it was well worth it. I was too distracted cleaning up to do anything. The views were beautiful though, we had a lot of fun taking photos. Heck, I would have liked to skip going to the town of Byron Bay and just stay here the whole time.

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Glenn got this photo which I thought was pretty nice. I wish I could redo this day and return here.

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Neither of us really liked the township. It was marred by my being ill. Glenn thought everything was overpriced and the guide commented that it had become commercialized and lost it’s vibe. I sat in the same place for two hours, too sick to even eat chips, until the guide came to pick us up.

The trip was one of those unfortunate ones that happens to every traveller. I prefer to fuck up and get sick when I’m alone though and not drag others with me. I ended up taking my anxiety medication at night time instead and the symptoms lessened. I tried going back to the mornings but ended up vomiting again, this time after a 10km walk.

I wish we’d chosen the glow-worm tour instead of this one as our bonus but hey, everyone needs a silly travel story!

Filed Under: Gold Coast

Second Visit to Currumbin: A Great Day Out!

November 3, 2013 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

This time, I loved Currumbin. Really loved it. Last visit, we had our airport departure and check in times hanging over us. We had to rush through all exhibits and skip the shows.

This time, we got to experience the free flight bird show. We got to feed the lorikeets. We got to spend as long as we wanted photographing the various animals and observing them in a relaxed environment.

It turned out to be one of the best days we spent on our trip.

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One of the highlights for Glenn was these little lizards floating around everywhere. It didn’t matter how many we saw, he had to photograph every single one. He was pretty impressed with his camera – especially once I told him that those red shots show you where it is focusing.

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Glenn had the exact same idea that I had the previous time – head straight to the koala enclosure and get some close up pictures. They are incredibly photogenic. They were just getting fed and Glenn got a fantastic series of shots of this koala yawning. Heck, even the guys at Australia.com on Facebook thought so! They posted the picture and it received over 10k shares and 80k likes. It’s Glenns first real taste of viral success.

A lot of people commented that it looks like Yoda and they are right.

The birds:

Glenn didn’t get as much out of the free flight aviary as I did. I saw this bird lying on the ground, which I didn’t photograph last time.

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He did have a bird poop on his shirt, though. The mess was spread on both the front and back of his shirt. We took a photo of the offending bird for good measure. Unfortunately for Glenn, this wasn’t the last he’d, er, feel from his birdy friends.

Free flight bird show

I really wanted to see this the last time I was here. This time, I made sure we were there nice and early so we could snag ourselves a good seat for photography.

This show is worth the price of admission alone. They power through the many bird species (birds of prey, cockatoos, pelican and macaw) and show off the various tricks. I’m a bird nerd and though I knew a lot but I was captivated by a lot of what I saw.

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It’s one thing knowing that a buzzard can crack an egg with a rock. It’s a completely different experience watching it happen.

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We loved getting a look at the barking owl. It’s eyes were so piercing. Above is an example of the many, many photos that Glenn got.

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Of course, the red tailed black cockatoo was a highlight.

It was also awesome watching the other birds of prey. They flew above us and caught food that the handlers were throwing up for them to catch. We also got the chance to pose with a wedge tail eagle. If you ever get the chance to do this, just do it. Don’t think. It’s so humbling to be close to such an intelligent bird and the photographs work out to around $10 each if you get multiple ones. This is so affordable and it all goes back to support the animals.

Kangaroos and Emus

There is an area where you can walk amongst, and feed, the kangaroos and emus. This area is awesome. It may be a bit boring if you’ve done this type of experience before but it offers a lot of great photo opportunities. There were ducks and pigeons amongst the larger animals.

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Glenn had a ball while I just sat and watched the animals. I noticed that the dusky moorhens had babies! This didn’t bode well for the kangaroos. Some had wanted to hop past a family but the mother hen got incredibly defensive and jumped up, attacking the kangaroo.

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I noticed that particular bird walking with a limp later on, and hoped that she didn’t have any long term injuries – and that the baby would be okay. This is why I have to be careful around animals, I get way too involved.

Lorikeets

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The lorikeet experience was awesome, although it felt extremely disorganized.

You don’t have to pay to enter the park to take part in it. You just have to make a small donating to the park in return for a small metal bowl of nectar. The birds will fly to you instantly if you have this but be warned: they drink it very quickly.

If you aren’t front and center in this area, the staff will miss you when it comes to refilling your bowl. I got incredibly frustrated at waiting for about 10 minutes while the main presenter was talking about other paid opportunities we could take part in. I understand the need to make money but I know that there would be other people, like myself, who were missing out because the staff were focusing on a small area when it came to refilling

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The good thing is that the area settles down after about 15 minutes. Most of the people move away and the lorikeets, and staff, are still there. You will have plenty of time to have those close encounters with the birds, despite the initial frustrations.

The lorikeets also fly off every time a plane flew over.

Overall

I had a much better impression of the park this time, primarily because we dedicated an entire day to it and didn’t have to rush around. This shouldn’t be rushed. I recommend checking out the website first to make sure that you have enough time to fit everything in. It’s one of the better wildlife parks that I’ve visited and I’ve gone to a lot.

Filed Under: Gold Coast

Springbrook, natural arch & tropical fruit tasting

November 2, 2013 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

This was probably our favourite tour for the trip. It came second to our day at Currumbin. Glenn got so many photos and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Springbrook is a must-see if you are in the gold coast region. We could have easily spent several days exploring the many walks. This tour was great as a taster. It showed us the best stuff and made us want to see much, much more.

Springbrook forest

The forest is fantastic. Fantastic. We got to go to several waterfalls and lookouts. The photographic opportunities were endless and the flora is very different to what we get down here. On the way up I lost count of the amount of kookaburras I saw. It was surprising to see such a different kind of rainforest so close to the artificial Gold Coast.

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This photo captures a small fraction of the view from the aptly named ‘best of all’ lookout.

The short stroll to the highest lookout on Springbrook Plateau passes through some ancient Antarctic Beech forest. The lookout lives up to its name by providing a panoramic view across Mount Warning to Byron Bay and Coolangatta, though the view can also quickly disappear in the fog and mist that can suddenly roll in from the coast.

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The waterfalls were amazing but didn’t have that much water due to the lack of rains. In a number of cases you are a fair distance from them so don’t expect spectacular views and photo opportunities at every one. We still managed to get some really beautiful shots at the two waterfalls we got close too.

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The flora in this area is completely different to what I’m used to. Barry, our guide for the day, taught us a lot and was incredibly friendly and funny.

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I highly recommend this part of the tour

Natural Arch

Oh. My. Gosh. This area was one of the best things I’ve seen in my life. It was a slight walk to get there – some parts of this tour may be a struggle for those who struggle with steps and hills. Again, I loved the forest. !IMG_8417
And then we were there.

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Words can’t describe how beautiful this was. I could have sat here for hours just watching the light change. This photo was part of Glenns experiments with long exposure waterfall photography. I’m hoping to return here at some point after decent rains, and I’d love to see the glowworms here. Barry gave Glenn enough time to be a photography nerd, which was appreciated. We then headed to Springbrook Manor which was an incredibly photogenic place. The chips were meh (something that was consistent at *every* place I ate at) but it was the type of place that is fun to instagram. If you’re into that kind of thing 😉

Tropical Fruit Tasting

We crossed the border into NSW and my jaw dropped. I was too busy looking at the view to get a camera out as nothing could do the view justice while we were driving. It was one of the best landscapes I have seen and I’ve visited many parts of Australia. Wow. Shortly after, we arrived here.

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It’s important to note that the tropical fruit tasting does not take place at Tropical Fruit World. It takes place at a large farm. This is fine, but it may lead to disappointment if you don’t read the brochures properly. I was excited to taste different varieties of fruit but we only got to taste 5 different types, mostly generic ones. Then, the owner explained the various products made from the fruit. It felt more like a pitch then an experience. It was still interesting, but you have to go in with low expectations.

Overall

This tour is a must-do. It doesn’t matter which company you go with – choose something that is aligned with your interests. The tours have slight differences but these can affect how much you get out of the tour, especially if you are only there for a week or so

Filed Under: Gold Coast

Our O’Reilly’s & Tamborine Mountain Rainforest Safari Experience

October 1, 2013 by Jade Craven Leave a Comment

Feeding the alpacas

This is the first place we went to. You wouldn’t think it would be so fun… but it was. Look at this face! [Read more…] about Our O’Reilly’s & Tamborine Mountain Rainforest Safari Experience

Filed Under: Gold Coast

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