Month: April 2009

Daintree Rainforest


One of our little jaunts out of Port Douglas was a trip to the Daintree. Both Robyn and I previously felt our tropical citizenship was somewhate lacking having not seen crocodiles in the wild so a croc tour was the order of the day.  Unfortunately the crocodiles did their best to maintain the status quo. But we did spot two little’uns on our trip with the Crocodile Express. Hurrah. 

Unfortunately, prior to the tour Robyn had, in her haste, locked the keys in the car. How embarrassment. I was confident of my breaking and entering skills having made the same mistake myself on occasion – but alas, the piece of box tape I procured was not up to the task. It slipped off the button lock thing over and over again. We were doomed. To a life spent in the Daintree Village – the locals, perhaps fearing the consequences of our relocation, leapt to our aid. The woman manning the information centre had previously worked in a correctional facility and the residents had given her all the tips and tricks. But she fell short of the mark – and called on two hardened locals who seemed all too handy with a screwdriver and coathanger… after a couple of minutes, and a couple of stubbies of XXXX Gold, we were back on the road. 

One of the things that you don’t get warned about (adequately) is that to get to the Daintree Discovery Centre you need $19 cash in hand for the return car ferry trip. So be warned. 

The trip is probably worth it – provided you’re not expecting to come across real, live, cassowaries. 



There are statues though, and a chance to experience a cross section of rainforest flora – from canopy to undergrowth.

April 21, 2009

Port Douglas

Our base in Port Douglas was the Mantra Links – one of Port Douglas’ many resorts on one of its many golf courses. We were there for three nights thanks to a Getaway special.

Two of the things that came up in our pre-marriage counseling was that Robyn and I have slightly different expectations from our holidays and different ways of using down time (or relaxing) – so one of my goals is to teach Robyn to relax. To discover her inner sloth. It goes both ways… my dream holiday is pretty much a beachside resort with a good cafe and an extensive library… and I’m happy to say we managed a holiday that was finely balanced between Robyn’s need to explore new things and my need to veg out on a beach with a book, or several books.

David Baldacci is my stock standard holiday fare – and I ploughed through three of his books in two days. They’re a continuation of the “Camel Club” series – and feature an aging special forces assassin who’s also a conspiracy theorist. So if you want to borrow The Collectors, Stone Cold, or Divine Justice ahead of your next holiday just let me know. I’ve also got the first couple of books in the series.

We had a couple of nice dinners at Zinc and Watergate – on Port Douglas’ main drag.

The icing on the cake, so to speak, was our final breakfast yesterday at Soul’n’pepper – where the portions were big – and the service interesting.

The staff all looked like pirates on shore leave, and the waiter paid a lot more attention to the two European backpackers at the next table than to us. The food was greasy and the big breakfast was big – and served in a frypan.

April 21, 2009

Skybury Coffee Plantation

I can’t help but wonder why this plantation isn’t named “sky berry” coffee plantation – given the elevation and the fact that coffee starts off as a berry. But who am I to pass judgment on a name…

I’d been looking forward to visiting a coffee plantation for a while – and the Skybury experience doesn’t disappoint (except perhaps for the coffee at the end). The Zimbabwean owner has big dreams for his farm – which is home to the Australian Coffee Centre. There’s a “Material Change of Use” notification in front of the shed and our guide mentioned plans for a luxury hotel, and it’s certainly beautiful countryside.

The plantation tour was informative – did you know for example that the average coffee tree will produce 7kg of coffee berries per year, and those will result in 1kg of green coffee beans after processing, and that will result in about 850g of roasted coffee, which will result in about 47 double shot coffees. Skybury removes coffee trees every seven years – and only harvests them in their third year of existence – that’s four years of production per tree – or 188 coffees. That’s a high end estimate because there’s a fair bit of sorting that happens between tree and cup – with a lot of beans literally not making the cut. Any beans that don’t meet particular shape, size and density requirements slide of the shaking mechanical graders and become fertiliser – or worse, instant coffee.

The owner of Skybury has also developed a revolutionary piece of harvesting technology – which is best described as a carwash like machine that thwacks the berries off the tree and collects them in a container. This is a significant improvement on handpicking – one person handpicking coffee will harvest about 12kg of green beans per day (that’s 84kg of berries) – half a 25kg coffee sack, a mechanical harvester will harvest 8 tonnes of green coffee in a day – 320 25kg sacks in a day.

Australia produces about 200 tonnes of coffee annually, peanuts as far as exports are concerned… Skybury produces more than half our annual exports. They’re a major player in a pretty small pond on the global scale.

Australian beans are in demand though – the quality control employed in our processing of beans means Skybury sells its beans to the international coffee market at about 3 times the price I pay for my green beans.

The post tour coffee wasn’t the best (or worst) I’ve ever had. It was a cappuccino with no foam at all. It seems Queensland coffee naturally comes in at either extreme of the froth spectrum if you don’t get served an iceberg sized ball of froth you get a millimeter of microfoam and coffee diluted by watery milk.

April 21, 2009

Mungalli Creek

One of our first stops on the Tablelands was the Mungalli Creek dairy – home of the locally famous Mungalli Creek yoghurt. Coffee Dominion also swears by their milk – apparently it doesn’t gurgle around in your stomach like ordinary milk.

The Mungalli Creek dairy also produces a range of organic cheeses and other milk produce, and a tasty ploughman’s lunch… or in this case brunch.

Threading the narrow backroads of the Milla Milla was no mean feat – but its worth it for a stop and quick stroll at the Mungalli Creek Falls – just so you can play with the exposure settings on your camera…

April 21, 2009

Port Douglas Holiday

Robyn and I spent the last 5 days (not including today) in far north Queensland – that is anywhere north of Mission Beach (actually our boundaries have been redrawn and it’s probably anything north of Cardwell… statistically speaking)… but I digress.

What follows will be a series of reviews of the things we did while exploring the far north.

We spent most of our time away in Port Douglas – but made a couple of journeys to the tablelands, spent time in Cairns and made an eventful trek to the Daintree rainforest.

For the record, I really like going on holidays with my wife.

April 21, 2009

Dear planters

I have mentioned my feelings on the current wave of church planting enthusiasm before… But in summary – I think church planting is a good and necessary thing – particularly in areas experiencing population growth. I also think attendance patterns at churches (particularly Presbyterian Churches) in Queensland demonstrate the need for culturally relevant (dare I say “missional”) churches…

But, I am constantly frustrated by church planters and would be church planters putting down the old ways and old guys as they scurry up the ministry ladder. So I was greatly encouraged to read this post by Tasmanian church planter Mikey Lynch on why he likes to hear what the old guys have to say. There are a few bits of his list that seem to damn the old guard with faint praise – but the sentiment is praiseworthy.

You can head over there to read my comment. It’s long. And I feel a little bit like the Apostle Paul when I lay down my “credentials” for feeling the way I do… reluctantly foolish.

Also – in order to maintain my fantastic search engine ranking for the phrase “Driscoll fanboys” I should mention that those are the particular people I’m targeting with this rant.

Driscoll made broad generalisations when he visited our shores that have been latched onto like a mantra by a generation of bullish, headstrong, and arrogant young men (much like myself). Who want to make a difference and perhaps are looking for a point of difference. I’m not talking about people engaged in actual church planting currently – but those in pews being fired up and looking to lay blame for the current state of staid conservatism that misses the cultural mark.

That is all.

April 21, 2009

C words

I need a word for sport that starts with the letter “c” and is an appropriate category title.

I have ruled out “competition” at this stage because I think that’s misleading.

Due to a bit of a “rebrand” of my categories it’s the only non-c category.

I can’t put up with this for too much longer, it seems I have inherited some of my father’s OCD fueled pedantry after all.

April 21, 2009

Youtube Tuesday: Pacman in real life

French prankster Remi Gallard has won a couple of nathanintownsville guernseys* in the past for his outrageous stunts. Today he wins a feature for his real life Pacman efforts – the funniest I’ve seen so far (real life Pacmans that is). Especially when he eats someone’s golf ball for a power-up. There’s a subtitled language warning hear (and possibly a spoken one too – I didn’t have the sound on)… but it’s funny. And thematically appropriate…

April 21, 2009

Dear producers

Producers of news programming in particular – and those who force clips from “…’s got talent” down our throats in the specific.

I don’t watch these shows. I choose not to. I am sick of seeing contestants who needed the platform your show provided paraded before my eyes everywhere I look. They are not news. They are not a “reason to hope” in these gloomy times any more than a lottery winner. They are the products of a vociferous, voracious, voyeuristic viewership – a body I do not wish to belong to.

Leave me alone. Keep your singing cat ladies to yourselves and viewers who have a nominal penchant for these trivialities.

I do not want your singing spam, I do not want them Sam I am.

That is all.

April 21, 2009

Dear blogger

Please don’t include a big block of ads between your title and your content in your RSS feed. I won’t read it. I won’t scroll down. If you’re lucky I’ll hit the “j” key (in google reader) and skip you. If you do it all the time I’ll just unsubscribe.

I expect better from you – particularly if your blog is all about how to have a better blog.

That is all.

April 21, 2009

Dear emailer

Please don’t feel compelled to open your missive to me with a joke. Particularly a joke that is not funny. Just get to the point.

That is all.

April 21, 2009

Self Help Books for Dummies – A beginner’s guide to writing self help books – Introduction

The book bestseller lists in the last few years have been dominated by works of non-fiction. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as pieces of non-fiction, creative or otherwise, are much easier to write than a novel. Rather than relying on creativity and conventions of narrative, like plot, description and characterisation, non-fiction writers can rely on careful research, experience and the ability to string a cohesive sentence together – never suffer from writer’s block again. Writing is much easier when you don’t have to use your imagination.

While this trend has been worrying to many novelists, the news isn’t all bad. Books in the “self-help” genre have been selling particularly well. The self-help market requires very little research and a writer can achieve success with only a small amount of expertise and a lot of creativity. For those frustrated creative writers out there this piece should be seen as a guide to finding success in the dog-eat-dog world of self-help writing.

The most important thing to have in any industry is a plan. The fewer steps involved in the plan the more efficient and impressive it sounds. However, finding a balance between too much and too little is a very exact science, while a five step plan sounds impressive and well rounded, a two step plan looks like you just haven’t put enough thought into things. Here is this writer’s six step guide to writing a self-help book.

Step 1 – Picking a topic
Step 2 – Choosing a title
Step 3 – Establishing your credentials
Step 4 – Writing the book
Step 5 – Designing the Cover
Step 6 – Getting published

April 21, 2009

Promises fulfilled

I often make promises here that fall by the wayside – like a post listing all my best posts. That’s turning out to be a bigger ask than I thought… anyway, last week I mentioned I’d follow up my self help guide to taking over the world with a self help guide to self help writing. And here it comes. One post a day for five days.

April 21, 2009

A bunch of links – April 20, 2009

April 20, 2009

Our holiday by the numbers

1807 pages of novels read by both of us.
780 photos taken.
1188km driven.
5000+ unread Google Reader items upon our return.

April 20, 2009