Lord Howe Island

 

 The flight to and from Lord Howe Island is iffy because the landing strip is modest and guard by clouds wind and landscape, and no ground control: Pilots must actually must visually fly in.  Our flight to the island was delayed three hours waiting on clouds to clear (there are some electronic communications with the island to get a visual on weather). Unfortunately when we at last arrived in the vicinity the clouds had regathered and the pilot missed 2 attempts before getting down on the 3rd and last try. Waiting passengers on the island were disappointed as the pilot declined to take off until the morrow. Several flights had been cancelled over the weekend. We had no trouble leaving on the following weekend.

Lord Howe offers a rest from cell phones, and rations satellite internet access and newspapers. TV is available if necessary.

Lord Howe Island is good for walks, and migratory birds (we farewelled some waders that declined to photographed on their departure for the Russian arctic);  the mutton birds were not at home, but terns had come to raise chicks as had some swallows. A miniature woodhen

equivalent of a kiwi is unique.

Food at our lodge was rich and generous. The water was warm, the fish friendly, and from a glass bottom boat the coral the giant rays and giant green turtles and various other under water denizens exciting.

 The landscape is idyllic.

Sydney North Head

Memorial walk Google photo

Our entitlement to travel all day in Sydney on public transport for $2.50 is to be revoked on 31 December 2015, as the new electronic ticketing system, Opal, will not provide a concession for interstate seniors, at least for now:"FAQ 15 We are currently considering Opal and other ticketing options for interstate seniors and will provide more information in the coming months."

Possibly our last cheap Sydney ride took us by ferry and bus to North Head. Harbour views, wildflowers, and an apparent rabbit sanctuary.
The old Quarantine Station is now available for tourist accommodation.

www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au

Spring Northward

We have long planned some Spring days away in the north.
For the airport trip we decided to try Uber, allowing ourselves plenty of time. Unnecessary, since a car was immediately located and reached our home in 10 minutes. The sparkly clean and new to the owner Camry was driven by a courteous Ethiopian almost as new to Uber as we are , though he had a couple of years cab experience. He didn't have an e-tag yet so we travelled via Bell St. He was cautious dropping us as he said if the traffic wardens identify an Uber car they levy a fine. The journey was pleasant. We received a very detailed bill by email with the fare based on precise distance and time.

Qantas was also having a good day. The plane pushed back a few seconds ahead of schedule and throttled its engines for descent into Sydney after less than 45 minutes in the air. I wondered if we were being diverted to Canberra! We landed 20 minutes ahead of schedule.
In Sydney Sheraton on the Park were either using their usual enthusiasm or were specially keen to see us- well, we are staying 3 nights at the fulsome Spring rates. Although we are already in the Starwood preferred guest register Reception asked us if there was a special reason for our stay, and on an affirmative answer immediately accorded us free wifi (still a  privilege in Australian city hotels) and an introduction letter for a glass of sparkling in the bar. Later there was a handwritten note from Reception with a complimentary full breakfast voucher, and 10 minutes later another knock on the door delivered a letter of greetings from the Manager with a bottle of Red.

We walked around Barangaroo. While some of the foreshore is landscaped with sandstone cubes, we also  wanted to see if the Utopia TV satire had exaggerated its references to developments (it hadn't- most of the area looks as if it will be packed to the literal rafters with apartments and other accoutrements of civilisation.

We had dinner at Nick's, a casual fish place on Darling Harbour recommended by our concierge.

Posted with Blogsy

Lunch and Gallery at Tarrawarra: Triumph of Modernism

We went to Tarrawarra for lunch before visiting their major exhibition, curated by Edmund Capon, of an extraordinary collection of 60 works most collected by Eva and Marc Besen and now donated.

The restaurant and gallery have a fine setting, architecturally coherent with its landscape

 Photo- Tarrawarra website
 The Lunch menu was imaginative and tempting. The charcuterie entrée was very good and the salmon main well presented and enjoyable. Service from the young waitress was efficient, friendly, and contributed to our enjoyment. The party having a pre-arranged wine tasting with their substantial meal near us was quiet (too engrossed to have loud conversation?) so nothing impinged on near perfect ambience.

The exhibition provided a unique opportunity to see a century of best Australian artists together, and told a good story of happenings in our society. John Brack as a returned soldier had the opportunity to study art through the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme.  He had an interesting perspective on the post war housing boom

Subdivision

Brett Whitely had a satellite's eye-view of  civilization, the work including an attached branch and other items to make a 3D image

  Australia

 An outstanding exhibition. The one regret for us is that if there was a catalogue it had sold out long before our visit.

Sibelius 150, Melbourne Symphony, and Percussion

We couldn't get to Helsinki for the celebrations for my favourite composer, and anyway since his birthday was 8 December that might not be the ideal time for a visit to Finland. However when the MSO advertised a matinée concert with Valse Triste and 7th Symphony -his last, we decided it was time for a midwinter celebration of his work even though I perceive these to be a couple of his more sombre expressions.

After interval the world première of a percussion work was a surprise bonus. The interval was used for lining up front a variety of instruments including marimba, drum and cymbal kit, and some remarkable inventions and innovations: wine glasses with water for string bow accompaniment, a shallow cylinder filled with water and surrounded by brass spikes of graduate sizes to be struck and echo in water, and the arm band tubular bells described below.

This quick phone snap shows the set up in progress with the percussionist, Claire Edwards for whom the composer Iain Grandage wrote the work, obscured by the score. The MSO website quotes Claire  to describe how she sees the work, Percussion Concerto Dances with Devils. It is worth an extensive quote .

 Photo-MSO
From http://www.mso.com.au/news/2015/07/  
 "I was intrigued by Iain’s original inspiration for the concerto: four gothic stories about colonial females in history, and their relationship with the spirits and beasts of the old world...In the first movement, The Chosen Vessel, I am a young woman, dreading the return of a swagman to my isolated hut and finally falling victim to him. The movement features the gorgeous rosewood marimba and is dominated by triplet rhythms reminiscent of horse hooves...In the second movement, The Conquering Bush, I am a young woman who chooses death by drowning – a very dark story indeed. It features a series of metal instruments being transformed in pitch and timbre by water. This calls for two tubular bells which are physically attached to my arms – I need to pull them in and out of buckets filled with water to bend the pitch...In the third movement, The Drover’s Wife (a scherzo), I am the embodiment of Henry Lawson’s famous character...The final movement, Lola Montez, is my favourite. This is a tarantella inspired by Lola Montez, whose famed Spider Dance was the talk of the goldfields when she toured Australia in the 1850s. It’s a zippy little number, which combines impressive mallet percussion licks with lots of upbeat drum and tambourine rhythms..."
 It certainly needed the breather supplied at the end with a conversation between Claire, Iain, and conductor Benjamin Northey.

This remarkable work was made more so by Claire's swift barefoot movements between instruments, her dance-like address to the instruments, and the whirling blur of drum sticks, all of which made the work an audio-visual experience that may not translate completely to another performer or to a sound only disc.  The audience gave a standing ovation.

After this the Bolero was almost an anticlimax, but was a fitting conclusion that need no encore. 

I can only find one press note of the concert and the reviewer, while lyrical about the classic works' performances hardly seemed register what happened between interval and Bolero, making a one sentence comment after summarizing the work: "Edwardes' virtuosity combined with Grandage's clever writing made for a particularly enjoyable aural feast". SMH review July 19

Winter reise

We flew 7^o North to latitude 30 for a four day coldness respite, with a stop-over in Sydney.  The good hostelry Sheraton not only gave a large discount on high season rate, but upgraded us to a suite overlooking the Park as well.  Sydney must have been right off the tourist track this week, because we calculate our room cost less than 30 % of the quoted mid-Spring rate.  The night lit view of Hyde Park was rivalled only by the dawn view. Breakfast was as magnificent as always.

We had a modest motel near the Harbour at Coffs Harbour, 5 minutes by car from the airport, and immediately set out to explore the ocean scenery.  

 It is whale migration season; our hosts reminded us that one leviathan had been fatally marooned the previous week, and said several had been spotted that day. We anxiously scanned seawards and saw several large plumes, and who knows whether what lay beneath was animal or submerged rock.

We climbed Muttonbird Island (joined to land by a causeway) but the name birds were on holiday.  On returning via the marina we did however see two large green turtles sporting among the yachts, a school of fish- one or two of eating size, copious clusters of large cungevoi (are they protected from fishermen here?), and some pelicans.
  












The following day included a visit to the impressive and extensive Botanical Gardens, principally indigenous and several stands of rare regional trees.

Attractive unlabelled flora

The highlight of our stay was a trip to Dorrigo (Gondwana) National Park- beautiful ancient sub-tropical rain forest and waterfalls with an easy 6.6 km circuit walk. Spectacular strangler figs, fungi, ferns and birds seen (usually turkeys or wren-like tiny birds) and unseen but heard.

Driving past dairy farms on the way back we noticed one herd sharing their paddock with a flock of emus (never respecters of fences) so that rounded out our fauna experience.

 Later on the same day we took a walk from  the Harbour up Coffs Creek, partially along an extensive mangrove boardwalk.

 
  
  

   
Our last evening meal was at the Shearwater restaurant, sitting near Coffs Creek and unobtrusive. Worth going out of the way for.