Created in the 1930s by a Spanish emigrant, Jose Paronella, the park has one of the most inspiring stories in Australia: a man who follows his childhood dream of building a castle. As a young fellow, Jose moves from Catalonia to Australia and starts working in sugar farms. After saving some money he starts building […]
Heading up north we made a short detour recommended by the travel guides in the area – the Mount spec Road, 60 km North of Townsville. It is a very beautiful scenic road that was built by hand during the Great depression in 1930. Winding through Paluma Range National Park, it features beautiful stonework, especially […]
We reached Airlie Beach on an extremely hot afternoon so the only thing we were capable of doing was chilling out on a “Vama Veche” style terrace, with live music and big beer jugs. Despite its name, Airlie Beach has no accessible beach, but just an artificial lagoon where you can swim and sunbathe or […]
The biggest sand island in the world, this World Heritage Area and the traditional homeland of Batchulla people, is a small piece of heaven. As the sand goes as deep as 500m, it is said that it contains more sand than the Sahara desert! And that’s why one can enjoy it only by using a […]
The home of Steve Erwin, Australia Zoo, is said to be the biggest zoo on the continent. The number of international species is not as impressive as in other European zoos (e.g. Valencia), but koalas and lizards are everywhere!!! We arrived there on a hot afternoon, just in time for the koala information session where […]
“Happiness is Australia’s biggest theme park”! This is Dreamworld’s logo and they are right! I couldn’t stop smiling and laughing like a child the whole day. Adventure, water fun, small zoo, ancient race cars expo, Dreamworld is all in one place. We arrived there in the very morning, so we were the first adventurers to […]
Wow! Lots of kilometers of gold, soft sand beach! Truly amazing! Our first day here was quite “un-probable” as I like to say. We arrived in the morning and knocked at the door of our host (a friend of a friend of the Bear) – let’s call him Sam. We knocked and knocked and called […]
Hamilton Gardens or 2014 Garden of the world is definitely a must-do if you get to the Northern Island! We found here a history of gardens from all around the world – from Japanese Gardens of Contemplation to Italian Renaissance, American Modernist, Indian Char Bagh Traditional Maori or Fantasy Gardens! A wonderful mix of colors […]
We felt like kids again for one day while experiencing the fantastic world of Frodo, Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins – Hobbiton movie set. Built on the wavering hills of Alexander family farm, the small holes with multi-color doors and carefully crafted furniture, with flowers at the entrance and surrounded by fantasy trees are just like […]
After having trained through the jungle on the Pinnacles, we needed something more! So we accepted the challenge of crossing Tongariro – 19.4 km up to more than 2000 m surrounded by volcanoes (one of them still steaming – last picture), at almost 30 degrees Celsius. 2 more difficult climbs – Devil’s stairways and Red […]