Postcards from Down Under: December 2013

In which our hero and her friend finally actually make it to Toowoomba, not like the first attempt where they only got as far as Mt. Tambourine ...

So now the date is September 21, in other words immediately following the previous day's adventure to UQ. I haven't yet told you about the first expedition to Toowoomba, but I will. Basically, Rachel and I had a plan to go there, because it's supposed to be really nice. We took a slight detour to see Mt. Tambourine, and got distracted for the rest of the day. That was a few weeks previous. This time we actually had a goal, which was the Toowoomba Flower Festival (it was springtime, after all). And we had two other friends of Rachel's with us, so we couldn't just go off on our own tangents.

So off we went, departing my place at around 9:00 a.m. It's a couple of hours drive, so we arrived just before lunch time. First we stopped at a city park, where there was some music and ice cream and flowers and flower flavoured ice cream. We walked around a bit, got ourselves a map of the prize-winning gardens, and made a plan for the day. The final thing was to be back to the central city park for the parade at like 3:00.

But first, we saw some of the lovely things to see in the park where we were.

The lovely view. Toowoomba's on the top of a bit of a hill, hence the lovely views.

More lovely view, but with close-up trees.

Walking along the path at the edge of the lovely view.

Statue of a dog named 'Puppy' that was the mascot of the town band.

Garden and railings of the little restaurant that was nearby.

Picture of a lady taking pictures of a rose.

15000-ish km to Ottawa.

Now most excitingly, remember in the previous bit of writing how I mentioned flower flavoured ice cream? Well, we all had some. Here is the little banner explaining what it was:

And here is the ice cream itself:

It was delicious. Not too sweet, just perfect. I highly recommend it. Also, just as a point of interest and trivia, the wattle, which is the yellow one on the banner, is the reason that the national Australian colours are green & gold. I'm pretty sure, anyway.

So here is the plan we made for the day: We'd go see the prize-winning garden, get a picnic lunch at a grocery store and head to the Japanese Garden for a picnic, then head back into town for the parade, which we planned to catch the end of as it came into the park.

What follows are the pictures of the prize-winning garden.

It was really really quite lovely. Heaps of flowers, lots of different colours, beautifully manicured lawn. Just great. And a little fairy house as well.

We then headed to Coles to get picnic. We got a half a roasted chicken, some cheese, some rolls, strawberries, chips, and ginger beer. Then we headed to the Japanese Garden, which is associated with the local university. I very much enjoyed that bit, because I love Japanese gardens.

The view from our picnic spot.

A picture of Rachel taking a picture.

Here is part of the local university. Probably the University of Toowoomba. I can't remember.

Here are some things we saw while walking from the car to the park.

I love these houses. Sort of wide and flat, with wrap-around verandas. I believe this is what's called the 'Queenslander' style.

There were very old trees lining the streets. I could imagine when the trees were younger, and the roads were made of dirt, and the people went along them in horse and buggies.

This is the fabulous thing, see. They clearly paved the roads around the trees, rather than cutting them down to the road fit. It's great. It makes for a bumpy curbside though.

Bowls club. (What we would call lawn bowling).

A beautifully naturally shaped tree.

When we got closer it looked as if it could be climbed like a ladder.

When we arrived at the parade spot the floats were already coming in, so we quickly found a place to stand and watch. It's funny how parades are basically the same everywhere. It was called the Flower Parade, so I assumed there would be lots of flowers, but it was pretty much just a parade.