We spent a bit more time on the walking tracks of Mt Keira. The next lookout was totally closed off too. But the sculptures we were looking for were all there. We rested on some rocks. Peter discarded his long distance glasses on one of the rocks while he was busy doing something with his camera. When you have a very close look at one of the pictures, I think you can make out the glasses. But they are really hard to see.
After we had walked back on another very even track to where our car was parked and Peter wanted to put on his glasses for driving, he couldn’t find his glasses. He figured out that he must have left them on this rock near the sculptures where he had been sitting. So he went back all the way. Sure enough the glasses were where he thought they might be. And he assured me that they were awfully hard to see on the rock. Interesting that later on in the photo I could barely make them out. They absolutely blended in with the rock!
Back to the sculptures now. while we were sitting there a man with two kids appeared. The kids were full of beans and straight away started climbing around on the sculptures. They were overjoyed that they had found them. Apparently their Dad had told them they would be looking for the pyramids. And there they were in all their beauty! It didn’t take them long to look around. Soon all three of them disappeared again on another walking track.
So this big lookout to the Five Islands was closed off too. Nothing we could do about this. We sure didn’t want to risk falling down the cliffs!
After Peter had found his glasses again we could leave the mountain. Our way back led us along the Freeway. The Nan Tien Temple is close to where we had to pass. We hadn’t visited this temple for a while. So I suggested we could stop there for a cup of Chinese tea. Reluctantly Peter agreed. But a cup of tea doesn’t cost all that much, right? – Wrong.- We ended up each having a great vegetarian meal as well. The meal was excellent and, I think, really worth the expense. It’s just that Peter wants to save up for our trip to Germany. This trip starts in about three months! We really have to try a it harder to save some more money.
At the temple we took heaps of pictures again. This time we didn’t enter the temple. Walking around the gardens outside there were lots of motifs for taking pictures since the gardens are full of sculptures. We went along a way which leads the the Pilgrims’ Lodge. This is a place were ‘pilgrims’, that is visitors to the temple, can find overnight accommodation.
All in all, we had a truly lovely day. Afternoon coffee we had at home with Danish Apple cake, a frozen cake that we baked for half an hour in our oven. The oven warmed up our kitchen. And the cake was delicious.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
At the cafe at the foot of the Buddhist temple we had a lovely meal.
Today in between uploading these pictures we had a nice soup for lunch as well as coffee and the rest of yesterday’s cake, which was delicious warmed up a bit and topped with custard.
Thanks to Peter for letting me use some of his photos.
AuntyUta 
Excellent work 🙂
Thanks Jake. And congratulations on being the first to view this post!
The uploading of course took quite a while. However taking the pictures was easy because there was such an abundance of motives.
hello aunty uta, thanks for finding my blog …. we are just down the highway south of bateman’s bay …. we had a lot of rain overnight but today was mostly fine … we had several walks as you can see on my other blog dadirridreaming …. and i photographed some birds here at home …. thanks for your lovely trip up mt keira and the visit to the temple, we have not been there, always in a hurry to get home when we are coming back from sydney! christine 😀
Thanks, Christine, for your reply. Coming back from Sydney it would take you quite a few hours to go back home. For us it takes only about two hours to get back from Sydney.
I looked up your ‘About’ page yesterday. I was very interested in it. I should do something about my ‘About’ page because so far it doesn’t give much information. Maybe one day you can make a special trip to Nan Tien Temple. We weren’t inside on Saturday but I can assure you it’s worth a trip! There’s a real lot to see. And it’s such a calming environment. I am not sure though whether you are allowed to take pictures inside. We live pretty close to the temple.
What wonderful pictures. Have only just discovered your blog, and enjoying every word and image. Thank you. Cat
Hi Cat, thank you for your comments. At the moment we’re still watching a lot of TV about the jubilee celebrations in London. Are you following any of this in Switzerland? I looked at some of your pictures already. They look beautiful. I’ll have to look at your and your daughter’s blog in some more detail later on. I’m glad you enjoyed my blog.
I’m in England at the moment, so diamond jubilee non-stop! It’s a wonderful atmosphere here – I doubt if I can do justice to it on my blog.
The temples are just spectacular with beautiful views all around. The playful buddhas made me smile. Looks like it was a fun and wonderful trip. Your smiles are just beautiful. What an amazing Saturday in June. Thanks.
The best part was that it felt very relaxing walking around the gardens at a leisurely pace and taking pictures. Nothing about our outing had been exactly planned. We did everything quite spontaneously. This was a good day for us. The best. Thanks for commenting, dear Island Traveler.
Oh wow such a great trip! Thanks for sharing and I really enjoyed the pictures! It was like being with you on the trip!
Thank you, Inigo. This trip was not far away from home. Soon I’ll be going with Peter on a very long trip, including a 24 hour flying from Sydney to Berlin. You know all about flying, don’t you? I was very impressed with what you had to tell about it.
What a wonderful outing. I find those stacks quite interesting… Any significance to them?
Thank you for the comment, Eliz.
The sculptures are called
‘Merrigong Environmental Sculptures’
‘The six daughters of the West Wind’
Here is what it says about them:
‘The sculpture is about the local
Aboriginal story of how the five islands
of our coast were created.’
On one of the signs you can see
an arrow that points to the Five Islands Lookout.
But the lookout was closed off.
I had mentioned the beginning
of our walk on Mt Keira in the previous
post ‘Beginning of Winter’.
I don’t understand why they talk about ‘six’ daughter
when there are only ‘five’ islands. Maybe there used to be
six islands previously?
I think now I should have left the post about Mt Keira separate from the post about Nan Tien Temple Gardens, even though we did both walks an the same day.
I give you a hint where Peter’s glasses are: They are to be seen lying on the stone between Peter’s camera and Peter. He’s probably looking in his mobile phone!
I was wrong when I said he’s doing something with his camera.
Wow! Very interesting photos! Looks like you did enjoy this trip. I love the photos! 🙂
Thank you, AuntYuta for liking and leaving a comment on my post: “A Matter of Choice.”
Thanks for the comment, Adrian. Yes, we enjoyed our outings on that day. Strolling in a peaceful environment is very rewarding.
Aha! I found the glasses but only after I enlarged the photo. Tell Peter I lose my glasses all the time, usually on the couch where I shouldn’t put them in the first place.
Magnificent, how you were able to find the glasses in the picture! Thanks for going to the trouble of looking for them and telling us about it. I lose my glasses all the time too.