emma_in_dream

Pearl got to choose one thing to do and she elected to go to the New South Wales/Queensland border in Coolangatta.


There’s a monument there – in the middle of a traffic island. I think this is the first tourist attraction I’ve visited in a traffic island. (Possible exception – Stone Henge which is kind of surrounded by freeways.)


There’s a line on the floor that you can jump over (which we all did).


Also, there was some interesting information about the people who surveyed the area originally, back when they decided on the wibbly wobbly border for this part of the world, going through the mountains. It was quite interesting as it spent a long time pointing out how reliant they were on the local trackers.

Ruby was very keen on visiting Tropical Fruit World which turned out to be an excellent choice and one of my favourite places we visited.


Tropical Fruit World lies in a valley once owned by the NSW Department of Agriculture. In the 1930s they ran experiments there in growing mangos, bananas, macadamias and avocados, to see if they would grow and if people would eat them. Of course I think of these as basic foods but they were once foreign and exotic.


In the early 1970s the property was sold off to a guy who has dedicated his life to finding and planting different sorts of tropical trees in this beautiful valley. There are 525 varieties of fruit growing, with tens of thousands of trees. It’s the perfect place for it because the whole area lies on the remains of a volcanic explosion 20 million years ago which has left behind some rich soil and rocky outcrops like Mt Danger and Mt Warning.


We paid $40 each for a tour, which seemed expensive but you do get a lot out of it:


A tractor tour of the orchards.
Feeding domestic animals, including a very greedy sheep.
River boat tour along the bottom of the property.
A park with a miniature train that we all enjoyed.
Tasting of different fruits, the most interesting of which was definitely the strawberry flavoured bananas.


The whole thing made me feel sorry for West Australian gardeners because of course you can grow anything if you have actual top soil and rainfall, the two things we lack.


Oh, plus there was a Big Avocado so my life is now satisfactorily Australian.

I am not a big sports fan, but there is always a pleasure in watching people do something supremely well. The hockey match we saw was Pakistan vs England, two strong teams with a grudge. I have never seen such a fast, committed game.


Since my Mum uses a walker, we had the best seats in the house, literally in front of the stand about two metres behind the fence. We were randomly seated in front of an area block booked by Pakistani supporters who cheered virtually non-stop. I learned that ‘Shabash’ (a word I had previously encountered only in MM Kaye and Kipling) is pronounced to rhyme with harsh not rash. ‘Diwa diwa Pakistan!’


The match was a draw, which pleased me because both sides were so committed and so competent that it would seem unfair if one triumphed.

We had a great time - here are the photos from my favourite place, Mt Tamborine. It is where rain forests meet gum trees.