Day 205 When we got up this morning we had a chance to see where we stayed the night as it was dark when we pulled in. We were beside a little creek, a small wooden bridge with no rails crossing it and a build up of logs downstream was a reminder of past floods. Many of the bridges here are without rails so debris can't get caught during the flooding. Simple but effective. We didn't spend much time there after breakfast as we were both excited to see our next POI, Paronella Park.
We drove the 10 minutes to Mena Creek and checked in. The next tour was leaving in fifteen minutes and we took it. What a good decision, our tour guide was great and there was only six of us in the group (the rest of the day we seen groups of twenty plus almost every tour and it started raining). What an amazing place. Named after the creator Spaniard Jose Paronella, who started building it in 1930 after he immigrated here. He built 80 percent of the castle and surrounding buildings himself by hand. His vision is inspirational. He picked this place right beside the water so he could harness the waters energy and use it to run his castle, and it still does today. He first had electricity here in the mid 30s while the rest of the area was powerless till the mid 50s. People from around the area would come for many reasons. His castle included a ballroom, which he also used as a movie theater, (decimated by 2 recent cyclones) a love tunnel, a picnic area, tennis courts and much more.
The tour started beside Jose's house which was in remarkably good shape, it's walls a bright yellow faded with time now housed the a museum. He built the castle within a few meters, and the Ballroom with an ice creamery in behind it was the closest room. A window in the back wall was used to hand out the ice cream during movie nights. The ice cream fridges are still there to this day. The ballroom burned badly in a 1979 fire that some say was electrical failure others claim arson. There was a beautiful chandelier that was the center piece made of hand carved crystal that was never found in the fire remains. Cyclone Larry ripped out one of the walls and also the whole projector room. From there we went down the Great Staircase. This 47 step staircase was the first thing completed on the property so Jose could bring all the building products up and down from the creek side. Everything he used was from there, even the concrete he mixed and put on the walls and pillars using his bare hands. You can see his finger prints to this day. Forty seven steps doesn't seem to high but it is relatively steep. The bottom of the stairs led onto the picnic area right beside the pool under the falls. When you look at the falls on the right hand side you can see the tower that houses the turbines. There are concrete / stone picnic tables and benches in strategic rows along the sandy shore with steps leading into the pool. Tourists could swim here till about seven months ago when a croc moved in. It was spotted as recently as three days ago, we however did not catch a glimpse. From here directly across from the grand staircase about eight to ten steps led up to the refreshment building. This building had change rooms built in on the north and south sides. Two double doors opened on the east and west sides so you can walk straight through. There is also an elegant water fountain that stretches the whole east side of the pavillion. You could also see the falls right through the castle building from the tennis courts on the far side of this fountain. The falls was the focal point and everything he build was so the falls could be seen. To the North was the kitchen in a building of its own. Both of the buildings had roof access for spectacular views. From here we walked down Lovers Lane, which Jose made wide enough so two people could stroll side by side holding hands. This short path led to the Love Tunnel. This 138 ft tunnel was hand dug by Jose and two helpers. He had many ideas for this including an aquarium which he did build but had to close soon after as it was leaking. He even built a ticket booth in front of the tunnel for this aquarium. Today the tunnel is home for a group of micro-bats, and is only half accessible for safety reasons. Today the tunnel is the home to a group of micro-bats. When Jose broke out on the far side of the tunnel he found another water fall, a small one, and named it after his daughter Teresa. Teresa said once that if anyone was looking for Jose and couldn't find him he'd be here for sure. Once we returned from Teresa falls - there was an alternate path built - we made our way over to the last stop on the tour, Kauri Avenue. This lane is planted with towering Kauri trees on both sides. The trees tower in their current 80 year old state but will get even bigger as they are known to grow for hundreds of years and reach meters in width. The condition Jose put these trees up with was that they would never be logged and that agreement is still on the property today. This was the last spot the tour guide took us to, here she gave us the option of going back with her or staying and taking pictures, we did the latter and hung out for quite the while taking shots throughout the park.
Like I mentioned earlier the park has taken a few hits over the years. In the grand staircase picture you can see three plaques, each noting the height of a flood. The first and highest flood was in 1946 when a mass of logs from a clearing upstream took out a bridge and came crashing down on Paronella destroying the refreshment rooms. Then there were two more floods, cyclone Larry and Yasi in 2006 and 2011 respectively.
On our arrival back at registration, which also has a gift shop and a cafe with a huge covered deck, we picked up the van and drove to our camp spot in a matter of seconds. We were just finishing lunch when the clouds and rain rolled in and gave the area quite the soaking. We sat at the cafe deck with cappuccinos watching the tours going out. After a late dinner it was time for the night tour. This was relatively shorter as only a few things were lit up. The falls, the refreshment building, and the water fountain were all glowing in the night and Lovers Lane and Kauri Ave had Noma lights lighting up the paths.