Winter walks in sunny Queensland

Another super week getting to know the Redlands Coast and loving the winter weather here. Temps haven't dropped below 22degrees during the day, brilliant sunshine during the day, cool nights - perfect.  

We explored the Tingalpa Creek Reserve, about 5 minutes from where we are staying. Again the facilities for the community are so good with covered fishing platforms and clearly marked paths. We watched a young girl fishing with her dad. It was great to see her  squealing with delight as she landed a tiny fish - gotta start somewhere :)   

The area we were walking in was clearly marked as having had a recent fire burn-off to prevent future wild fires. The air was thick with the smell of smoke. The further we walked, the stronger the smoke smell became. We were mindful to stay on the path to avoid any falling branches. 

As we walked the smoke became stronger and next thing we saw actual flames where some of the burned off material had been flamed alight again.  We stamped out the flames and retraced out steps lickety-split. 

Our little neighbourhood has a range of  walking paths, nature reserves and food forests for the wildlife - koala if you are lucky and an amazing array of bird life. As we quietly walked along one track that  looked like it hadn't seen much foot traffic, we startled a young Whistling Kite who took off with a great rustling of its amazing turkey-like tail feathers - alas not quick enough with the camera.

The flora and fauna is very different to what we are used to and we love the texture of the paperbark trees. I read there is an essential oil in the paper bark that is good for treating skin infections..... I should get distilling as the little biting midges and bugs are feasting off my blood and leaving me with awful biting souveniers...no amount of extra strength insect repellent deters these Australian blood suckers. 

Whilst saying unprintable things about the great Aussie biting machines I enjoy the gorgeous flowers in the parks and gardens...Queensland the sunshine state lives up to is name. 

We were advised that Sunnybank is the best place for Asian food. It's overtaken Chinatown as home to Brisbane's biggest Asian community and is now the in-spot for authentic Asian eats and shops. There are Chinese, Taiwanese, Malaysian, Japanese, Korean, Singaporean and Vietnamese eateries  and some very 1970's style shopping plaza that have been made over by the Asian community. You can take guided food tours here to  ensure you don't miss out on any of the gems. We followed our nose and  chose That Viet Place which is like Vietnamese street food - cheap and cheerful and so delicious. It will be hard to switch our early allegiance to try other places, although numerous dumpling houses look tempting. 

Winter and people are still swimming as the sea temps are around 22 degrees.   We hit Wellington Point beach on Friday night to catch the sunset after a stunning day. The sunset didn't disappoint - check out the pics below - remember click on the pic to enlarge.