Not every meal is some high-brow experience

Mrs. Lambert can regrettably testify to that, (quesadillas and fries at the pirate bar in Shenzhen - seriously sorry but I was on fire). Chris we are really sorry you weren't here for some of the greats and we think of you often as we know how you would have preferred the better chow. You did not miss much tonight in Sydney, but you did miss the table fries. We had never heard of this concept or marveled at its execution but we are now converts. Really! We miss having you with us with the great weather and food, a marked departure from our time in China unfortunately. But we had a great time with you! Table fries for all.

Snow egg dessert at Quay in Sydney

Covered in a thin powdered sugar, a white nectarine egg, sitting atop a white nectarine granite nest. When you break the shell (a very very thin crust under the sugar) you expose the meringue white and the white nectarine ice cream. Not only delicious - not too sweet - just the fruit essence - and crunch of shell with the texture of the white and yolk - and the nest ..... Incredible. In case anyone thinks working for me was a pain just think about working in this chef's kitchen. He is an absolute madman!

Check this dish out

The chef is trying to give this the look of his garden. All veggies, mostly radishes, stuck in goat cheese with dark bread crumbs on top, small herb leaves and flowers. Even if you are not a foodie this was a work of art.

The key to Chinese food ....

Don't eat it in China. Eat it in Sydney. Pork belly, smoked bacon, smoked tofu, tons of red chilies, very thin green beans, green onions and unanimous vote: best Chinese meal we have ever had. We also had a steamed white chicken with garlic Ginger and green onion oil - yum! Cucumber salad to relieve some of the heat and greens with garlic.

Spice Temple Sydney

Dinner last night at Spice Temple, specializing in unique and non-Cantonese (yeah!) Chinese food. It was so cool we walked by the door a few times because this was the door - a huge plasma screen that you pushed on to enter. Chris we thought of you so often and compared the ambiance here to our Michelin 3 star meal - what a difference. In fact, when we took our table, John ushered me to my seat and said - "you sit here Chris" because we were still thinking about how much you would have loved this place.

Bird's eye view of the "old" city from our room

Safe in Sydney

40th floor with a full wall of windows with 3 harbor view, looking down on town hall and St. Andrews. Someone is quite happy with his hotel choice! I thought a glass of champagne was the way to his heart - but it's not. A sweet hotel room with a killer view is really all he needs.

Pictures from our hike

A lot of fun, a little exercise and a beer at the end. This was a good day.

Natural surfing

Betty is pretending to take a picture of me, not the nude surfer we found on this beach. I mean nude surfing, come on, that just can't be a good thing for anyone. Can I help you wax that board homey??

Noosa Heads to Sunshine Beach

A great hike through the national park. About 5 miles along the coast. This is the last descent. We loved it.

Champagne Johnny takes .............THE BUS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can this be? Has he sunk so low. Is this a trick? No, we actually went on a long hike and this was the best way home (short of turning around and walking back). Short, quick but like everything else in Australia, expensive.

Lunch in Brisbane with Bob and Pat

We just came back from a great lunch with Bob and Pat Eichmann who drove an hour and a half from Toowoomba to meet us for lunch. Great food on the river and a really nice time. Thanks Mel for encouraging us to make it hapoen.

They start the training early

These kids were racing into the surf and back out around sunset. There was an instructor telling them what to do but to them it was clearly just fun.

King Fern

I know this picture doesn't look like much but the plant in the middle is a King Fern. It only reproduces once in it's lifetime and can only be found about 50 places on earth. This one was in the rainforest in the middle of Fraser Island. The fronds can grow over 20 feet long. Not impressed yet? This one fern is 2000 years old. Easier to believe when it's a giant redwood, but a fern? 

Creepy, crawly, slithery

Australia has one of the greatest populations of spiders, snakes etc. in the world. Found these all in about 10 minutes in one small area. The snake is a carpet python.

Fraser Island

The largest "sand island" in the world. Ferry over, directly from the beach, then drive about 25 miles up the beach at around 60 miles per hour, then inland for some beautiful lakes and a rainforest. The beach is actually 75 miles long and together with an adjacent beach on the mainland is one of the last great places where you are allowed to bring cars on the beach in Australia. The total drivable area is about 125 miles.

What is a "perched lake"

One of the top sites on Fraser Island is Lake Mackenzie. The lake starts from a large depression in the sand. Leaves and other debris fall into the depression and over a very long period of time form an impervious layer at the lake bottom, like a pool liner. The lake then just fills up with rainwater. There is not other water source; no springs, no creeks etc. The water is crystal clear and the bottom is beautiful sand, just like the beach.

Maybe the dingo ate your baby - no really

Fraser Island has a large population of native dingoes and they take the issue quite seriously. No food is allowed outside fenced areas because they can be aggressive. We didn't see one but there has been at least one fatality in the last year.

Annual Noosa Longboard Surf Championships

This week in Noosa. Big doings with competitions in all age classifications. Betty was taken with the over 60 class dubbed "Old Guys Rule". Pretty impressive. Lots of aging surfer dudes with long hair and beards. Quite a show.

The Spirit House

We had lunch at a place called The Spirit House, adjacent to some botanical gardens near the beach. Very Zen.