A Kominar Chronicle: In the beginning… 

Salutations from the Sun!

Nadine and I safely returned to Australia. Despite the blatant lies of some QANTAS employees in booking our seats, Nadine and I still managed to sit together on both flights. It’s not pleasant when the agent at the gate tells you that booking your seats in advance is not reliable or trustworthy.

While waiting in LAX we had a chat with a gentleman named Roger who had recently joined the Guelph city council and regaled us with stories of Guelph’s master plan. How small a world it is. We had little difficulty getting through Australia quarantine, not a thing was taken from us! Nadine’s vials of snow and my Aunt Gayle’s macadamia nut biscotti all made it through.

It’s sunny and 23c down here in the Gold Coast, and apparently we left Canada just before the snowfall hit as they’ve had 14 hours of non-stop snowage! Ah well, c’est la vie.

Thanks to everyone for making our trip back to Canada so wonderful. Sorry to the friends that I didn’t get a chance to visit. Finally, stay posted for a recap of our trip to Canada!

All the best to my family and friends for a prosperous 2007.

P.S - We spent our January 13 2007 in the air all day. What did you do?

Although staying in the Gold Coast is nice, it was decided that we should go on a trip and see more of Australia. We started with flight and booked our hot air balloon. Next came water and our half-day trip to the great barrier reef, including glass boat tour. Finally came land, when we hovered over the tropical rainforests of Northern Queensland on the Skyrail.

Cairns is a beautiful and a wonderful place to go if you want to see a glimpse of aboriginal culture in Australia. Also wonderful if you fancy Japanese tourists!

Hot Air Ballooning (See More Photos)

It was this adventure that made us choose Cairns. The allure and charm of a hot air balloon was irresistable and it was followed up by a champagne brekky at local aboriginal restaurant, Tjapukai.

We were involved in the entire process from setup to take down. This included an opportunity for Nadine to let of a little steam about being woken up at 4:30 AM for hotel pickup.

Great Barrier Reef (More Photos)
We made a 1/2 day trip out to Green Island, the closest reef island near Cairns. The day was slightly overcast but the skies opened up for us when we went swimming on the beach.

True to form, I stopped to take a picture of the Blue Bottle Jellyfish you see adjacent. Their bodies littered the beach and their tentacles can be as long as 10m!

I celebrated losing/finding my camera with a celebratory splash into the ocean. Nadine and I finished with a glass bottom boat tour where we saw Nemo’s stomping grounds. A sea turtle managed to swim our way as well as some other fish. The tour guide had lots of feed with him and started a few feeding frenzies for us to watch.

It was a memorable trip to be on the Great Barrier Reef and relaxing in the tropics for the first time in my life.

Skyrail/Barren Falls

The cableways for the Skyrail run about 7.5km so it takes about 2 hours to do properly on a return trip. We showed up too late on Friday for a return trip and decided to drive up the mountain and see some lookouts for ourselves.

We weren’t disappointed, we were privy to the view you see above breathing and full of life. Nadine commented that the rain was a blessing as it gave the waterfall so much character.

On Saturday, we showed up with ample of time to ride the Skyrail but my battery was drained from the reef shoot in the morning. It was quite a memorable ride, and a great way to get in touch with the Rainforest ‘quickly’. It should be noted that although this trip to Cairns was very touristy, we took many nature walks to take in the scenery at low cost!

After thoughtful deliberation, the results are ready to be announced.

First Place

Bob Davis is the unanimous choice for the gold medal. His dedication to ‘ku’ing has seen no limits. From the subtleties of seasons, to the artfulness of the anagram, Bob has demonstrated it all.

I wrote this haiku
upsidedown in the winter
Gent gathers fall leaves

-Bob Davis

(Anagrammed)

Glean inner insane
translate strange nasal gruntin’
tis alien slur

- Bob Davis

Second Place

Silver mention to Peace for a heartwarming tale of a lonely Aussie Gent. I’ve always heard that Tasmania was a small place.

UPDATE: Contest is closed, ruling to follow!

Do you like…

• Mail?
• A single postcard? (Click to see back)
• Stamps?
• Ink?
• Mysterious surprises that will make it through customs?

Get your creativity neurons firing, I’m looking for haikus. Topics should be Australia related and humour is appreciated! I’ve given you some fodder to play with in the article below, An Aussie Gentleman.

The winner will receive this postcard and a hand-written note from yours truly. Curious what the mystery surprise is? So am I! I’ll figure it out and the winner can be surprised.

Instructions:
I’m just looking for a 5-7-5 structure, you can disregard the fact that it isn’t really a haiku. However, you can do me a favour and learn about haikus. (Wikipedia)

The deadline is next Sunday, March 26, 2006. Submissions will stop being considered arbitrarily in the afternoon, Gold Coast time.

Post your Haikus in the comments section below. Winner may be contacted via email so don’t forget to fill it out.