PARONELLA PARK

Hello everyone! 

As promised in last weeks blog post, i have a whole feature on the wonder that is Paronella Park! 

This park looks as though it was created as a set for a movie, but it is fact the way the park has developed, due to a serious of unfortunate events. But before i get on to that i will tell you how this place came to be in the first place. 

It all started with a Spanish Immigrant called Jose Paronella, whom arrived in Australia in 1913. For 11 years after he worked hard to earn enough money to marry the love of his life, and so that they could both spend the rest of their lives in Australia. In 1925 the couple married, and returned to Australia. In 1929 Jose purchased the plot of land, that would become Paronella Park, for £120! In 1935 the park was finally open to the public. He built this place from scratch, including planting 7000 plants. The centre piece being the castle that housed the refreshment rooms, and most importantly the ballroom.

Now to the unfortunate events that have helped shape the park into what it is now. Paronella Park is situated next to Mina Falls, a small but powerful waterfall. In 1946 the steam, which runs through the park, became blocked, eventually the water pushed the blockage free, causing the whole lot to fall onto the park, flooding it. More floods came in 1967, '72 and '74, meaning repair work was continuous. In 1979 a fire swept through the castle, causing the park to officially close for the first time. A cyclone battered the building in 1986, and another flooding in '94. In more recent times two more cyclones have hit the park, in 2006 and 2011, causing more setbacks and challenges for the team. 

New owners took over the park in 1993 and their aim was to keep Jose Paronellas dream alive, their aim being to preserve and maintain, rather then rebuilding it into something that Jose wouldn't have wanted. 

It's a truly special place, and the story behind it more so. This place could have easily been abandoned and left behind, but it continues life as a pleasure garden, just maybe in a slightly different form to what it used to be. 

The staircase to the Mina Falls, and the waterfall itself. 

A water feature that sits in front of the castle, and look at all the flora and fauna that fills the spaces.

Whilst here i enjoyed imaging all the couples dancing in the ball room, all the families having picnics in the gardens, and see that magic that used to be.

I just love this place, and it's history. I love how it seems abandoned, it seems as though it is overgrown, moss is growing wherever it can, but i believe this is what makes this place stand out and makes it even more charming. 

If you want more information about Jose's dream, or pictures of how it once looked then head on over to the official website by clicking here

Thanks for reading, xo

*As with all pictures featured on my blog, they are all taken by me unless otherwise noted. I use a Canon S120.

5 HIDDEN SPOTS ON THE EAST COAST OF AUSTRALIA

Hello everyone! 

So i was going through some of my photos from my self-driven trip of the East Coast of Australia, and i realised how many places i visited that you normally wouldn't be able to see if you took the standard Greyhound bus from Sydney up to Cairns...

So i thought i would share with you all the 5 places i visited, that are more or less off the beaten track and not filled with too many tourists! 

1) Wallaman Falls

Situated in the Wet Tropics area in Queensland, this place is Australia's tallest single-drop waterfall! It is about 51km (an hours drive) from the nearest town of Ingham, driving through rural properties but well worth the journey! We managed to find a free campsite situated on the property of the Ashton Hotel, in Long Pocket which is surrounded by mountains and sugar cane fields and is closer to the falls then the paid campsites in the nearest town. 

(A beautiful sky at our campsite in Long Pocket):

(A view half way to the falls, stopped for a spot of lunch!):

(Finally we got to the falls, which you can actually walk down too but it's a very steep hike so we didn't attempt it):

2) Shute Harbour

Everybody has heard of Airlie Beach, which is Shute Harbours neighbour (only 10kms away). We decided to venture into this small port town and although you have to pay to park, we drove around until we found a free parking spot... which also happened to be the car park for a bush walk which lead to the beautiful Coral Beach. So unknown that we were the only ones there, which is why we loved it so much. Views across the Whitsundays and taurtles popping their heads out of the surf! If  you are in Airlie and fancy a walk then this is the place to go! The car park is just off Passage Avenue, before the turning to Harbour Avenue!

(There's a reason why it's called Coral Beach, and that's because it's filled with washed up coral from the reefs, and all these multi-coloured pebbles!):

 3) Inkerman Hill Lookout

This place is hard to find unless you are driving and manage to spot the 'scenic lookout' sign, well i mean Mount Inkerman is surround by flat land so when you're their it isn't that hard really...

The drive up the mountain is quite steep, but well worth it for the views. It makes a great place to stop, mainly because it breaks up a long journey but also it has picnic facilities at the top and is a great place to relax. We also met some of the wildlife, in the form of wallabies!

(The wallabies weren't too afraid of us humans, and stayed for a while so i managed to get some great photos!):

 4) Big Crystal Creek Rockslides

Most people coming though this area would go to Big Crystal Creek itself, but we decided to follow the road until we reached a gate that would let us go no further. We parked up and carried on,on foot, until we reached the rock slides. These are rocks that are naturally smooth and therefore can be used to slide into the water. A lovely quiet, relaxing place.

(On our way to the rockslides we came across this fruit and vegetable stall, owned by someone who lives in the area. The stall was full of a whole range of home grown goodies, which were being sold for almost nothing. We met the woman who was running the place and she was very very friendly, it's nice to support the locals so we really did stock up on food here!):

 5) Millaa Millaa Lookout

So this place is only a five minute stop, but i want to speak about this whole "area" in general. I lost my photos of Millaa Millaa waterfall, and didn't take any in Ravenshoe, but this lookout is in between both places and therefore should definitely be a place to stop as the views are incredible.

It's worth noting that we were on our way to Innot Hot Springs, a place i don't recommend because it's not as great as it sounds. The springs are basically just a puddle that are too hot to touch, with one campsite, that's it. Not worth the journey.

Ravenshoe is the town which is situated the highest above sea level in Queensland, which we didn't learn until we arrived. A very small place, but the main town in the area. A post office, supermarket, fuel, cafes, a few antique shops and accommodation for visitors to the many waterfalls in the area.

Which brings me to Millaa Millaa waterfall, infamous for being the waterfall featured in the herbal essence commercial and also in the video for Peter Andres Mysterious Girl. Easy to get a tour to, but then you don't get to see the surrounding area which is just as impressive.

Before i finish this post, i would also like to mention one more place. Paronella Park. I had found one leaflet on this place, and thought it looked amazing. Then whilst driving the East Coast i saw a sign for the real deal, and didn't realised how close we were. So i made us pay a visit. This place was so amazing that i'm going to give it its own blog post, so look out for that next week!

I know there are many other places on the East Coast, but these are my top five places that are less known in comparison to places such as Magnetic Island, Airlie Beach, Noosa and many more. These places are beautiful too, but can all be reached on public transport. This post i wanted to feature those places which can only really be self-driven to, and therefore gives you places that aren't filled with tourists or backpackers who are drinking at every hour of every day. Please note that none of these pictures have people in them, and that's because there were no people except us. We had all of these places near enough to ourselves, a rare occurrence in the land down under.

Thanks for reading, xo

*As with all pictures featured on my blog, they are all taken by me unless otherwise noted. I use a Canon S120.

TESTING 35MM CAMERAS

Hello everyone! 

This post is a little different, a change from all the previous Australia themes! Now i'm very into my photography, but since being home i haven't taken much unless it's on my phone. For a while now i've had a few cameras as decoration in my room, but i'd never tested to see if any of them work. 

A few weeks ago i decided to finally buy some film, the cheapest and least quality, but film nonetheless! It was purely to use as a tester to see what the outcome was, considering all of these cameras are older then me! 

The first camera i trialled was the Praktica Super TL2. This camera was very hard to google, and therefore it was just a case of working it out for myself. Saying that, it's the prettiest looking in my collection and therefore was hoping and praying that it would work... and it did! 

Colour wise, this camera produced the most vivid colours and it has a manual focus and therefore i was able to blur the background, or foreground depending on what i wanted. The shutter speed is quite slow and therefore my pictures turned out slightly blurry because i know that my hand isn't as steady as it should be. But mostly i'm quite happy with the way they turned out:

The next camera that i tested was the Minolta Hi-Matic GF. I liked this camera, for the whole vintage effect. This camera does have a working flash, and even in conditions that looked as though it wouldn't need the added brightness, it did in fact need it. This was the only down-side. Note to self: Flash on, most of the time! 

 Last but not least, i decided to test out my Hanimex 35X, which scouring the web i had found some positive feedback, but when i put it to the test it i only managed to get a few photos off as they had all interlinked and there's no way of seeing where one photo ended and another began. So was left with a few faded photos. Though the photo at the bottom was created when my film got stuck, resulting in an accidental layering of two different photos. 

 I do have a few more cameras that i wish to test, i just need to get more film, one of which i am quite excited over as it's a Canon, and therefore i am hoping will produce some reasonable photos. I also have another lens that goes with the Praktica, so some time this year i will test this out too! 

 If you have any 35mm film cameras that you can recommend, please leave a comment so i can check it out! 

Thanks for reading, xo