April 2, 2004

I flew into Brisbane a few days ago to stay in a rambling pseudo-Victorian home occupied by four college kids. One of them, a Tasmanian named Maya, demonstrated real Aussie hospitality by making me a pavlova. Despite rumors that pavlova is the Kiwi national dish, she insisted that it was really Australian and that Aussies are the only ones who can make a proper pavlova. Let me describe pavlova, since I had never heard of it before traveling down to this hemisphere. A pavlova is a large merengue-like cake that is crispy on the outside and has a fluffy almost foamy texture on the inside. It is basically a merengue with the inclusion of a few teaspoons of vinegar which prevent the whole thing from drying out. Pavlova is traditionally topped with a healthy dollop of fresh whipped cream and an assortment of fresh fruits including passionfruit, strawberries, and kiwifruit. Although it is a bit sweet for my taste, the texture is just amazing and all you really need it a nice big metal bowl and an electric mixer or a strong forearm and a hand whisk.

I've spent the past few days driving down the Gold Coast and lingering a little bit in Surfer's Paradise, which really doesn't strike me as paradise at all. Unless, that is, you call crowds of tourists, an overabundance of 60 storey high rises, high prices and strip clubs paradise. Not for me. The waves are, however, quite nice and I did take out a surfboard for an hour of futile surfing. My surfing skills have obviously deteriorated dramatically from the already sorry state they were in four years ago when I lived in southern California.

One thing that I found pretty amusing in Surfer's Paradise is the Metermaid service. For the past 35 years hot young things have been strolling the Esplanade in tiny golden bikinis posing with drooling tourists and putting coins in overdue parking meters. I haven't had the pleasure, but apparently if a Metermaid sees that your meter has expired, she'll top up the time and leave a card letting you know that she's done it. I'm not sure how the financial arrangement works because I strongly doubt that they are just a charitable service. I did see a shop in the mall belonging to the Metermaids where you could take pictures with them. Maybe you are supposed to go there to express your gratitude at their saving your ass from a parking ticket by donating some money to them. The police force around here, understandably, doesn't really appreciate their presence (though I'm sure they don't mind looking) because there are much fewer parking tickets and the city doesn't make as much money off tourist's cars.

Today I'm off back to Brisbane to find the zoo where my parents took me when I was a toddler. I have a picture at home of my father holding me and a koala, one in each arm. I was approximately the koala's size. Now that i'm a tad bigger, I'm hoping to find that koala, who I suspect is residing at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. I will have to hunt through the 130 koalas there, however, to find one about the right age and get a photo with it.

I'm picking up the family I stayed with at Otamatea Eco-Village on Saturday afternoon and we'll all start traveling up the Sunshine Coast starting the next day.