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| One of the wonderful paths within the gardens |
As most people know I really enjoy throwing everything in the car and just taking off for the day, grumpy grumbles, but generally does enjoy the day out. This day off we went for a few places we had hear of in Ipswich, which is about 1 hour from Brisbane and around 45 minutes from Gatton -Lockyer Valley area.
We drove around in search for the entrance to Queens Park a place we driven passed a number of times but never venture in until today. In the pass I was told there were Japanese-themed gardens inside the park and few days ago someone said there is a petting zoo also, so we are off to find them.
As we drove in we saw the signs pointing us to Japanese Gardens, we found a great parking area between both the gardens and Nature Centre the whole place is looks plan out for visitors with toilets between the two areas and signed well. Finding a park we got out to find the entrance to the Japanese themed Gardens (Nerima).
We found this fellow welcoming us as we entered the protective gates to the Nerima Gardens. It is so beautiful and peaceful, and welcome you to journey around on the pathways, you walk around a picturesque lake, crossing the Life and Peace Bridges over little rivers and had a beautiful viewing deck area where you can view the gardens and ponder the world. Follow the path leading up to a small Tea-room, or pass through garden Door following the stone path to the Secret Garden. While we were there we watch a family having professional photographs done in this unique gardens.
The Nerima Gardens were open in May 2001 by former Ipswich Mayor John Nugent and Mayor Saburo Iwanami of Nerima to commemorate the sister City Relationship between Ipswich City and Nerima City Japan. The Gardens are closed on a Monday and have Winter and Summer opening times so checking on the Ipswich council site to not be disappointed.
After our wonderful stroll through the Nerima Gardens and Grumpy quite enjoyed and wasn't to picky, we headed down to the Nature Centre to find this petting zoo. Any preconceived notions I had they were very wrong, but instead encountered a place to get close and informed on Australian wildlife.
This little zoo is a fun experience for the whole family, even gumpy enjoy the walk around visiting the different areas, looking at sleeping lizards, wombat, kangaroos, dingos even a free fly bird area. Each area has signs and information about the animals and is quite educational. We took our time wandering though spending a little while in the Bilbi enclosure , enjoying the fine weather but we started to get hungry
Entry to the Nature Centre is a Gold coin Donation to help with the up keep if the animals and grounds, and they ask you not feed the animal's ir picnic inside. The Nature Centre is closed on Mondays otherwise opening hour's are 9:30am to 4:00pm.
Exiting the Nature Centre we saw signs heading the Queens Park Cafe which was only a short walk from where we where. As it was a fine day we walked down to find a wonderful cafe and educational recycling display which kids would love. So we had a lovely lunch with a view of the park to enjoy.
It was nice to see so many families enjoying Queens park, not just the Nature Centre but the free bar-b-q, play grounds and open areas. So we finished and wandered back to the car, we took a drive around the park to see the other areas of the park, outside chapel and the Greenhouses.
We then headed over to North Ipswich to the Workshop Rail Museum, which was a 10 minute drive few sets of lights to pass though, located on North Street North Ipswich, just follow the signs it's pretty easy to find, and parking the car was not a problem in there carpark and short walk to entry gates.
The place was a little quite for an afternoon and out of school holidays, means we got the opportunity to enjoy to interact with the trains and hands on displays as well as the simulators in the real locomotive cab. The museum is a fantastic history on how Queensland Rail operated in Queensland over all these years, even I learn a lot of new things and brought back a lot of great memories. Even watching all the model trains steaming around their tracks.
The place is quite large, bigger than I thought , it was good to all the different sections from old to the newer trains, even a section comprising of the Nippers Railway for children and some exhibits of lego train models.
We missed the guided tours and blacksmithing as tours finished at 12.00, have been told they are a must do, so we will just have to come back soon. Next timewe will check the Workshop Rail Museum website before to check what is on, as the museum does hold many events and exhibitions though out the year.
Travel as much as possible and don't overlook the little things may surprise you
Destination Everywhere
