Brisbane & The Machine

Location: Brisbane, Australia
Address:  Brisbane City Botanic Gardens
Date: May 2012
Website:  www.brisbane.qld.gov.au

  We found ourselves walking around Brisbane in the evening while we were in Australia.  The first night we were looking for somewhere good to eat.  We headed south and ended up at the Queen Street Mall.  It is a pedestrian only road with many stores and restaurants.  It also has a pixel light display above one portion of the street.  We were looking for somewhere nice to sit and relax and enjoy a meal after a long day.

  One restaurant caught our eye.  It had a familiar logo.  This is Hungry Jack's and is the Australian franchise of Burger King.  Another hamburger chain was already operating as Burger King when the American company decided to expand down under so a different name was chosen.  We didn't really feel like a Whopper so we continued our search.

  We turned around and there were people enjoying dinner on a balcony.  A little rainbow lead the way upstairs.  This is Jo-Jo's and we decided to check it out.

  We were given a number card on a stand.  We were told to put it on our table and then we could go to the stations to choose what we wanted to eat.  You had to pay at the stations and then someone would bring your food to you back at your table.  This was the first time we encountered this service, but it was common in many places around Australia.  We enjoyed our dinner and then took a stroll around Brisbane.

  The next night we didn't try too hard to find a new place to eat.  It was back to Jo-Jo's.  This time we ended up on the balcony and held card number 11.  We now knew how the routine worked.  After dinner we went for a little walk again.

  We walked out of the restaurant and noticed a lot of people headed south along Albert Street. We decided to head south as well.  We were curious where everyone was going.  As we walked we noticed more and more people.  Soon we reached the gates of the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens.

We decided to follow the crowds into the park and see where they would lead us.  It was very dark in the gardens and we could barely see the strange trees around us.  Maybe they were doing fireworks in the river? 

  We went deeper into the gardens.  Some people rushed past us.  On the edge of the garden was an old building.  This is Old Government House.  It was built in 1862 and was Queensland's first public building.  We went a little further and could hear music.  Then we were at the gates of the Riverstage.  This was the end of the line for us and we would wonder no more.  The tables selling merchandise told us that British act Florence & the Machine were playing a concert that night.  Mystery solved.  We do enjoy the band's music and would have loved to stay for a show, but we had another busy day planned tomorrow and no tickets.  Instead we fought our way back against the flow of Florence fans and past Jo-Jo's one last time

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Map of Our World
Wintergarden
Hungry Jack's (Brisbane) , Jo-Jo's
Brisbane City Botanic Gardens
Old Government House

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Post # 221

Maui Air Flight Over Kilauea Volcano

Location:  Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii
Address:  4050 Honoapiilani Hwy
Date: June 2010
Website: www.volcanoairtours.com

  The Hawaiian islands were formed by volcanoes.  The island of Hawaii is usually referred to as the Big Island and is home to the most active volcano.  It has been erupting for close to 30 years.  We chose to book a small plane tour and fly over this volcano.  Why not?  The volcano is called Kilauea and has been erupting for decades.  It is currently wreaking havoc on homes on the Big Island.   A 6.9 magnitude earthquake at the beginning of May 2018 took things to a new level.  When we visited it was during quieter (but still not silent) times.

  Our flight departed from Kapalua airport and it wasn't long until we were flying along the Maui coastline.   

  Our pilot was Captain Billy and he made sure to turn the little twin prop plane so that we could get a bird's eye view looking straight down at the coast.  To get from Maui to the Big Island we had to travel across the Alenuihaha Channel.  The channel is about 47 km wide and for a while there it was just Pacific Ocean as far as the eye could see in every direction.   We were glad when land came back into sight.

  The Big Island has beautiful valleys.

  It also has the Kohala cliffs which have waterfalls streaming down the side.

  And of course it is home to the Kilauea volcano.  As we approached the crater we could see steam rising into the air.

Captain Billy made sure we could get a good view.  We got closer to the mouth of the volcano.

And even closer.

  And then closer still.   We could smell and almost taste the sulphur. The small plane was completely engulphed in sulphuric gas.  Looking out the window we could just see the propellers working to guide us through the thick smoke.

   Traffic ! Traffic ! went the warning in our headphones.  A small buzzer sounded.   Lights flashed on the control panel.  As we emerged from the smoke we realized we were not alone.  Several other helicopters and planes were bringing tourists to take a look down the throat of Kilauea.

  As our plane turned sharply to give us another view, the combination of gas and turning started to take its toll.  We started to sweat in our big noise cancelling headphones.   Traffic ! Traffic !  went another warning as we turned yet again.  We felt a bit queasy.  Many people including at least one of us are quite allergic to sulphur. 

 

  We moved away from the main plume coming out of the volcano and we started to feel a bit better.  On the edges of the volcano we could see flashes of bright orange lava along with the dark grey from lava that had cooled and formed a crust.   Some groups of trees were on fire as the volcano's lava flow took them in its grasp.  We were in awe of the destructive powers of the volcano.

  Eventually we left the Big Island behind and it wasn't long before we were headed past the hotel row near Lahaina.  One smooth landing later and we were back on Maui.  Captain Billy gave us the shaka sign as we said goodbye and left him beside his plane on the runway.   He would probably be re-fueling and then doing it all over again.  We can always re-live it all over again in our memories as we watch the sun set across the Pacific.

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Map of Our World
Kilauea Volcano
Maui Air (Kapalua Airport)

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Post # 214

A Night In The Ice Hotel (Hotel de Glace)

Location: Saint-Gabriel-de-Valcartier, Quebec, Canada
Address:  1860 Boulevard Valcartier
Date: Feb 2010
Website: www.hoteldeglace-canada.com

  The Hotel de Glace or The Ice Hotel is located just north of Quebec City.  It is built out of snow and ice each December and tourists come to admire the beautifully carved rooms.  We blogged about these in a previous post.  Guests can start spending the night in January.  We spent a night in early February 2010.

  Quebec gets a lot of snow and gets very cold.  There was so much snow that a team of shovellers had to go to work clearing the roof of a nearby lodge.  As far as the cold, outside of the hotel it often drops below -25 Celcius.  Inside the hotel it is around -5 Celcius.  To spend a night here is a bit of a challenge.

  Just in case you need some real warming up, there is a lodge next to the Ice Hotel.  It is a regular structure with normal temperatures inside.  This is where we had lockers to keep our luggage, clothes  and toiletries  We also had trouble sleeping and visited this area a few times during the night.

 

  Our room was not one of the fancy rooms with carved sculptures inside, but a simple space for us to sleep.   The room was located down one of the long snowy hallways that got even harder to navigate in the middle of the night.

  The doorway is just a curtain which is part of the reason you keep your belongings in the lodge.   The bed is made from ice and wood and then covered with a fur.

    Aside from wearing thermal undergarments we were also given our special sleeping bags.  They were designed to keep you warm in extreme temperatures.  They had a double layer and a zipper inside so you could zip yourself up like you were in a cocoon.  They would cover over part of your face and then there was a hood to pull over your head to reduce skin exposure.  The only issue for one of us was that the biggest bag they had was still a little too short.  Any sort of kicking or stretching while you were sleeping and it would pull tight on the hood and you would wake up in a panic.  Fortunately you could unzip quickly to finish the stretch, but it made for a long night.

  The best part about spending the night in the Hotel de Glace was that once the busloads of tourists left we had the place pretty much to ourselves.  We headed to the Ice Bar.

 

  At the bar you could get a drink inside a glass made of ice.  We enjoyed a few of these and when we were done the bartender just threw them behind the bar.  The ice was specially formed so it would not stick to your face.  It did melt a bit as you sipped your beverage while dancing to the DJ.  The glasses also did some neat tricks when we slid them across the tables made of... what else but ice.

  Eventually even the bar had to close.  We went and did some more night time exploring.

    In a small open section there were washrooms and change rooms located in a small building.   We made a few visits here in the night due to the combination of the cold and the time spent at the bar earlier.

  If you were really brave you could run to one of the hot tubs and sit out under the stars.  We didn't see anyone brave enough to go for a dip that evening.

   Aside from a few drunken people that mumbled something at us, the only other person around in the middle of the night was a security guard near the main gate.

  There were torches allowing us to find our way back into the hallways that would lead us to our room once more.

  Eventually morning arrived and we packed up our gear and left our fantasy castle of ice.  We had a once in a lifetime experience and some great stories to tell.  The Ice Hotel is beautiful, but we were planning to get a better night's sleep at the Chateau Frontenac that evening.

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Map of Our World
Hotel de Glace

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Post # 203

Hotel de Glace (Hotel of Ice)

Location: Saint-Gabriel-de-Valcartier, Quebec, Canada
Address:  1860 Boulevard Valcartier
Date: Feb 2010
Website: www.hoteldeglace-canada.com

  The Hotel de Glace or The Ice Hotel is located just north of Quebec City.  It is built out of snow and ice each December and guests can start spending the night in January.  The hotel continues to be built and by February it is complete.  Then come April it is demolished before it melts away.  The next December the whole process starts again.

   We were brave enough to spend one night inside the hotel, but most visitors come just for a brief daytime visit to see the ice sculpted rooms.  We will discuss our overnight stay in another blog post.  First let us take a tour of how the hotel looked in 2010.

  The green section in the floor plan (above) was built by January 4th.  The red section was built by January 12th and the final blue section was finished January 19th.

  We entered through the fur covered front doors.

   The first room we entered was the Igloo Room.  It had a tall curved ceiling.

  An ice chandelier hung from the ceiling as tourists roamed the Grand Hall area.

The Ice Bar had tables made of ice and huge ice pillars holding back the thick snow roof.

  It also had a fireplace to help you forget that it was -30 degrees outside and below freezing inside.

  A slippery ice slide was set up in a corner and grown-ups took turns acting like children as they played in the snow.

  A long hallway of snow and ice leads to the special hotel rooms.  We spent our night in a basic room, but the special rooms are a highlight of the hotel.  Each room has its own theme.

  There was an ocean room with whales carved into the walls.

An eclipse room where it looked like you could reach out and touch the sky.

A room with a mermaid watching over you while you sleep.

A rose room with a pink glow and flowers carved into the snow and ice.

A Greek room complete with statues and pillars.

Above are some other highlights from the various rooms we visited.

Just behind the hotel is the ice chapel.  There have been many visitors to the Hotel de Glace who have chosen a chilly start to their new life together.  Many weddings have been held here each year since the hotel first opened in 2001.  Each year the chapel melts away with the rest of the hotel and is reborn with a new look the next year.

  The chapel had a beautiful etched ice window at the back.  The entire Ice Hotel with its carvings and coloured lights is quite a sight to see.  Spending the night inside the hotel is a different story.  We will continue with that story in our next post.

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Map of Our World
Hotel de Glace

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Post # 202