Sunday, February 28, 2010

Matt and Nicole's wedding, Queensland

We headed over to Queensland for a long weekend to go to a friend's wedding 3 hours east of Brisbane at Wallangara, right on the border with New South Wales. We expected it to be stinking hot, but it turned out that even from a Wellington perspective it was a little cool at times. We were up at almost 1000m, and it even snows there in Winter. I never knew that it snowed in Queensland. Fortunately it stopped raining for the wedding as I don't believe there was a back-up plan for the outdoor venue in front of a lake at Girraween National Park.


The married couple


Aaron, Sarah, Prof Dave Ellis, Anna and Alistair (aka Beaker)

The reception was held at the community hall. It sounds like the whole community was involved in the wedding. All the food came from local gardens and farms and was cooked by the rural women's association. All the decorations and outfits for the bride, bridesmaids etc.. were made by Nicole's mum who is a seamstress and according to everyone we spoke to - she also runs the whole town!

It turns out there are also a few wineries around the area. I have never heard of Queensland or New England wines, but Sarah and I of course had to taste test a few of them and decide for ourselves if they were any good. They weren't too bad.

There are a whole bunch of National Parks around. Bald Rock National Park is just over the border in New South Wales. We drove out there and climbed up the rock on Sunday morning. It is pretty spectacular and from the top you can see great views across the countryside. It reminded us of a smaller, Australian version of Yosemite.


Bald Rock the largest Granite rock in the southern hemisphere


Aaron walking down the face of Bald Rock

There were quite a few little rock wallabies around, we also saw an echidna and heard lots of kookaburras.


Rock wallaby

The bush and country towns reminded us of places around Canberra. It was nice to catch up with a few people from ANU as well. We hope Matt and Nicole are having a lovely relaxing honeymoon in Vanuatu.

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