Paronella Park. Never give up on your dreams

On our journey up the Bruce Highway towards FNQ, we had heard from many fellow travelers that this place "Paronella Park" was a must do. Some quick research on Trip Advisor confirmed this anecdotal information. Paronella Park is rated as the Number 1 must do in Queensland and has been awarded a trip advisor Award of Excellence.

Prior to phimsioztrip, i had never heard of this place, and as we drove an hour north of Lucinda (near Ingham) and 30 minutes inland, i still did not really know what to expect. Basically, all i knew was that a Spanish man built a castle near a creek called Mena Creek. Its' reputation however, was that it was a "magical" place and as you can imagine the kids were all super excited.

On arrival, we were immediately greeted by a very friendly staff member, who directed us to our camp site, asked about our travels and gave us information about the tours that were included in our stay. This customer service and genuine friendliness and enthusiasm continued throughout our entire stay.

After settling in, we did the 3.30pm tour of the grounds and the story of Paronella Park, including how "The Spanish Dreamer" Jose Paronella made it a reality, its' demise through natural disaster and neglect and its' more recent revival. I am not going to tell you the full story (i couldn't do half as good a job as our tour guide Mandy did), but unlike other tours, i certainly wasn't bored and neither were the kids (or Ophet, i think). Jose Paronella was a dreamer and a hard worker and way ahead of his time. I did buy his biography, so can pass it around when we return :)

Today, many of the structures are unfortunately not deemed structurally sound due to neglect and destruction from flooding and cyclones (Yasi hit them hard). The gardens are amazing, especially since Jose planted much of it himself . He designed everything with precision, using the waterfall as the feature from many areas of the grounds.

 After spending a few hours in the grounds, we popped back "home" to have some dinner and then went on the night tour. Endless stories from our tour guide, more fish feeding and some searching for glowing mushrooms, meant that the kids were captivated. The night finished with some delicious gelato (em's choice of green apple was by far the best!!!!)

 Turtles, jungle perch and black bream all fought over the pellets we threw in (there were hundreds of them).

With the promise of  some of the structures being re-built over the next few years (the main ballroom being one of them), i would definitely like to return. Grace left yesterday with the idea that maybe one day she could get married on the grounds. Today however, she has decided that if the Spanish Dreamer can make it happen, why can't she have her very own castle in the rainforest. She spent the car trip today drawing the blueprints for this castle and has decided that she might become an architect. She is however a realist and decided that she might need to call in help for a few things such as a builder, plumber (for the many fountains and water features) and possibly someone to finance the whole thing..... any takers????

This final picture is a little souveneir that Ophet decided to help himself to..... sprung!!!