The Crystal Caves- Atherton

On our way to Ravenshoe to stay with a host, we stopped in Atherton for the afternoon. We had brunch at a lovely cake shop called Giddy's. Their cake and espresso drinks were fabulous. We then wandered over to The Crystal Caves.

The Crystal Caves is a gem shop started by a Dutch man who is passionate about it. The front quarter of the building is a shop which has a separate room called the Amethyst Room. The Amethyst Rom is unreal. the walls are covered in purple egg cartons and then there are breath taking pieces of amethyst everywhere. The big pieces have their own lights to show off the crystals. they have chairs for you to sit in and take in the experience. They also have relaxing music playing. I could spend an entire day in that room.

The rest of the shop is like a museum. It is built to look like a cave and has actual specimens attached to the walls. You wear "mining helmets" with lights to help you see. You walk through different sections looking around to find, see and touch the specimens. It was great because you could take pictures and you were allowed to touch almost everything. Some of the display ideas were quite ingenious and have inspired me to use crystals in a different way. They even have a huge "rock" door inspired by Indiana Jones, where each side takes you into a different room. The main room it takes you into is where The Empress and The Fountain of Love are. The Empress is the largest amethyst geode in the world and is unreal. It had a presence and was quite the experience. There was also a fountain made of 4 tonnes of Rose Quartz. That was unreal as well. It was all back light and was magical. In another room there were spheres of rocks in the dark that appeared brightly coloured and speckled under UV lights. They also had a carving out of Lapis Lazuli that is pretty amazing.

We ended spending about 2 and a half hours in there. I really didn't want to leave! For those who don't know, I absolutely love crystals, rocks and gem stones so this store was a real treat for me. I also bought a geode which I got to crack. It has smokey quartz crystals inside with oxidized iron around the outside. It is pretty neat to think I am the first person ever to have seen the inside of the rock. This is definitely a favourite experience of mine.