Winter Dawn at Bilinga Beach, Gold Coast, Australia to improve or enlarge any picture, just click it Across the ditchI've just been across the ditch! Two weeks holiday. New Zealand is separated from its South Pacfic neighbour, Australia, (Oz) by the Tasman Sea – a four hour flight. I stayed at Bilinga Beach on the Gold Coast – a seaboard stretch at the top of New South Wales and the bottom of Queensland. The headline photograph above, I clicked the from the balcony of the apartment where I, my wife Marion and our friend Tony, lived for nearly a fortnight. Pleasant temperatures – about 22° C. Under the radarWe were on the Gold Coast to play croquet. We've played in the annual Gold Coast Tweed Tournament for the last ten years. Croquet? Whoever's heard of croquet? Well, it has its own distinctive playing community, but publicly it certainly flies under the radar. It seldom features on TV or in a major newspaper. It's just not known.
The young staffer is not alone. Most Gold Coasters I've met don't even know they have croquet clubs nearby. So I suppose those of us who play this wonderful game must just accept, that, by them, we are condemned to oblivion or to an obscure corner of history! White laces
"I don't want to disturb you, but could I buy a pair of white sports shoe laces?" "We don't sell laces." "You don't sell laces?" "No we don't. Sorry," she said and closed the door. I stood unbelieving, looking behind her at a dispay of sports shoes all with gloriously white laces hanging out of them. "Australia is a stange country," I said in a voice too soft for passers by to hear. Tell us a storyOn a Saturday morning when I didn't have to play croquet, I drove to the mouth of Currumbin Creek to see if it would be a good place to fish. The last weekend of the Queensland school holidays was in full swin.. Crowded. People everywhere: kayakers; paddleboarders; swimmers; walkers and hang-about idlers. No place for me, so I decided to move on. Going back to the car, I first walked across to the public toilets. The path swung past a large three sided shelter. Standing in the nearest open corner were two men. As I came past the more prominent one greeted me. "G'day mate. Tell us a story." I paused, uncertain. "Let him go to the toilet first" said the other man, from slightly behind his friend. I went, and on my way back the front bloke started to approach me again. I got in first "Are you a Christian?" "Yes." "You don't want a story. You're evangelising, aren't you.You want to lead me to Jesus." The other man laughed, stepped forward and shook my hand, presumably because I'd seen through his mate's subterfuge. The proselytiser flusteringly protested his innocence but then settled down. The companion laughed again. He was like a one man version of a Greek chorus, commentating on the main drama. However, they became friendly and we chatted a bit before I wished them well in their faith journey and moved on. "Another odd Australian experince," I murmured to myself as I slid into the car. Swoffing - s(alt) w(ater) f(ly-) f(ish)ingBut it wasn't 'shut in' as Currumbin had been. Here I could lose the crowd. Miles of beach stretched south, and not far away I could see the entrance to a big gutter. Gutters, drop offs, holes and rips are the vocabulary of beach fly fishers. Fish feed in them. I pushed the rod together, clipped on the line basket and set off. Although I've been a trout fisherman for years, in swoffing I'm a tyro. So I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that I caught nothing. An hour or two later, back by the car I dissasembled the gear, put it inside and returned to buy a cup of coffee from a servery at the corner of the clubhouse. As I approached a woman came up to me. "Did I see you with a fishing rod earlier. Fly rod?" "Yes. I'm from New Zealand. I'm playing in a croquet tournament but I like to fish on off days so I bring my gear with me." "My husband, and my son they fish. You were fly fishing in the sea?" They'd be really interested. "Yes. It's called 'swoffing.' Clearly, fly in the sea was new to her. That's not surprising. Swoffing is a very minor part of the fishing scene even in Australia where the word was invented. As croquet is to sport, swoffing is to fishing. We said goodbye, she moved away and after a lengthy wait I was called for my latte. Drink in hand I walked slowly towards my car and as I did so, Jenny, if that was her name, looked up at me from a park bench. She had a phone to her ear. "Oh," she said "I'm just telling my husband about you. Come and speak to him." I did. He was in Mebourne or some other distant city. He asked a lot of questions. I gave whatever answers I could. I explained how to look up my website and follow this blog. Then we wished each other well and said goodbye. Another odd unexpected Australian encounter. Croquet at SouthportPhoto: Ken Barker-Southport club member Two days croquet at Southport in the north of the Gold Coast concluded my fortnight in Oz. Croquet amongst skyscrapers. We have nothing like that in New Zealand. Most of our croquet clubs are in parklike suburban settings. The croquet was fun, the socialising pleasant. We New Zealanders received buckets of sympathy after that terrific World Cup Cricket final against England when New Zealand got beaten by a fingernail, and a technical one at that. Normally Australia and New Zealand are great rivals – witness the World Netball final just a few days ago. But in the cricket, after Australia had been beaten in the semi-final, there was a closing of South Pacific ranks. I thought that was great. G'day mateI took part in some odd conversations in my two weeks. Quirky. All part of the fun of being in Australia. At the grass roots level – on the beach, on the bus, on the street, in the shops, in the surf clubs or bowls clubs – it's an easy-flowing "G'day mate" sort of place. I like it. ########## John McInnes Friday 26 July 2019 Offer – particularly to readers outside New Zealand. If you would like to receive an email each time a new post is uploaded to this blog, please send an email, with 'free subscribe' in the subject line, to >[email protected]<. This will save you from having to calculate when 'after 4 pm New Zealand time' is in your local time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 Comments
|
Welcome
|