Paronella Park - What The???

Yesterday we did Paronella Park.  We had never heard of it until people started telling us we must go.  It's absolutly stunning, its something else, you won't believe it, you must see it to believe it, we where told all this and more.

So we went  and we stayed.  It was very hot and humid and I was suffering.  They had had 5 inches of rain in the 2 days previous to us arriving.  Needless to say it was very wet under foot.

On entering Paronella Park we where meet by very friendly Paronella Park People.  We where taken on a tour of the park that explained how the park became what it is.  The story goes that Jose Paronella was a Spainish immigrant, he was a pastry chef, a miner, a sugarcane worker and a sugar cane farmer a seller and buyer of farms.  Jose took it into his head to work night and day to build the first a cottage for his new wife.  This was built from sand from the nearby Mena Creek.  He built the cottage in 3 months.  He then went onto build a cafe, movie theatre and ballroom.  Jose started his building back in 1930 since then his life's work has been affected by 3 floods, 1 fire and 2 cyclones.  What remains is something that feels like a set of Raiders of Lost Arch or park as Pete says.

Enjoy the photo's.