Our New Property

Mailbox - Aussie Style

 On our journey around Airlie Beach we found some fixer-uppers we could pick up.  At least it's bigger than our first house!

Classic Queenslander

Airlie Beach and Whitsunday Islands

Not Shown:  The Shrieking Eel

We all loaded into the Cruiser to spend a day snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef, and then spend the night before heading back Wednesday at a leisurely pace.  This simple statement required seven people to be fully packed and loaded by 5:30am.  Nevertheless, we made it in time and the drive was uneventful.

After the effort to get everyone to the tour on time, the tour we booked had boat problems (otherwise known as "not enough paying customers"), so we swiched it up and did a day trip bumming around Airlie before the big snorkel trip Wednesday.

We had a really fun family day.  Without a real timeline or destination, we just wandered the countryside and found some cool spots and took many pictures. 

The sugar cane fields are in full bloom, and we also went to Cedar Creek Falls pictured to the left.  Due to lack of rain, it was more of a Cedar Creek Trickle, but the water was inviting (for some) and they had a little swim.  When we finally settled in for the night we stayed at the Crocodile Club where the water was one degree above freezing and Leona practiced her snorkelling skills. 

It was one of those sweet days that are difficult to explain without being there, but just the right mix of kids, adults, patience and fun. 

Who says Mackay is just a mining town?

The "Cruise Whitsundays" tour is a large catamaran that drives you out to a floating pontoon platform 95km off of the coast!  The pontoon has an underwater viewing area, submarine, glass bottom boat, waterslide, and many other ammenities.  You couldn't even see the Whitsunday Islands from the platform.  Being so far out there the coral is in better shape, but it also is closer to (and zoned the same as) fishing areas so the fish are less plentiful.

Yeah, just a giant floating Pontoon Platfrom with a waterslide 95KM off the East Coast of Australia

The part of the Great Barrier Reef (actually a collection of thousands of reefs, not just one) that we dove is called "Knuckle Reef".  It was nice to see the reef, there were lots of small fish but alas, no sharks or large fish.  We got some great pics and video of our day.

It was a very full day of snorkelling, water sliding, sun tanning, and open water adventuring.  All of the kids (Alyn, Austin, Leona) snorkelled the reef, which was pretty cool.  First time for Leona - another checkmark on the bucket list!

Leona giving Jon some pointers

We understand that Denise Caruana (nee Abell)'s family once owned the Whitsunday Islands, or a large subset of the anyway.  So the marina that we launched from was actually named after her family!


Not many days left before the wedding, we're not sure what new sights we'll see in the next two days!  Will keep you posted.

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FireMan is world famous

Welcome to Mackay

We made it to Mackay!  Jon came and picked us all up in the Cruiser, as you can see we had no problem with our bags!

Quit Whinging and Get to Work

After a bit of a chill day on Friday when we met Chris and Janice Neilson (Tegan's Mom and Dad) and Tegan came to say hello; we went our separate ways on Saturday.  The girls all went to a Kitchen Tea which was a great opportunity to mingle with family and friends and drape tissue paper over each other.

That's Tegan in Lilac, and Alyn in Orange.  Alyn apparently won.

The sign says this is Tegan

Since I wasn't there, I'll have to assume the party was a rousing success!  Tabitha says "It was a delightful mid-day celebration of kitchen awesomeness".


Meanwhile the boys went on a camping trip.  We got to drive our utes on the sand, do some four-wheeling, and had a great time discussing fifth century art and other multi-cultural and intellectual fodder.  There may have been one or two beers consumed during the course of the day... I can't recall.

Lets just say that the camping spot was really spectacular, with a beach just across from where we camped.  We went out snorkelling with spear guns (alas the water was too murky), spent some time oystering, ate jumbo prawns, and had a shot (or two) of Phillipino Rum.  Austin approves of only the beer.

Not often we drive to the campsite on the beach

The next day we dined on the finest of eggs, toast, and bacon and did another little four wheel drive track to a lookout point.  All in all an excellent start to our Mackay section of the journey.

On Sunday we returned in time for the meeting and Amy's brother Ben gave the public talk, which was really excellent.  After the meeting we met up with some friends and played some beach volleyball for an exciting conclusion to our weekend.

Austin digging deep

Monday was a bit of a rest day, we slept in, got our suits in the the tailor (Janice's sister) for a quick freshening, went to the beach a few blocks from Jon's place and watched the tide come in, and then off to Janice and Chris' place for tea.  Tomorrow we're doing a big road trip to Airlie Beach (Tabitha just said quite dramatically (so do this in your dramatic Tabitha voice) "The Gateway to the (arms flailing) Whitsunday Islandsssssss") for some snorkelling at the reef!  Pics and story are upcoming - stay tuned!

SeaWorld

Thursday morning the plan was to pick up Tabitha and head to Sea World, since she had never been there, despite going to nearby Surfer's Paradise.  Nothing spells the beginning of a fun day like jumping off a 29 hour travel day - Welcome to Australia Tabitha!  Tabi's flight was a bit late, so we headed off a bit later than anticipated, but made the main gate around 10:30am.

The excitement is palpable

As we know, Sea World is full of... sea creatures.  Here's a bit of a sampling, but in addition to what you see below, we saw Penguins, Polar Bears, Pelicans and a full assortment of sharks and fish.

We had a lot of fun, dare I say more fun than Australia Zoo.  After a delightful $50 lunch (by delightful I mean exorbitantly overpriced) we made our way over to some rides!  Yeah!  The Sea Viper was Austin's favorite, and due to the smaller winter crowds we managed to ride it... about 10 times.  It has a loop and a corkscrew so we all had a good time.  We also did a ride called Jet Ski Rescue which had you sitting on a little Jetski (strapped down of course) but was pretty cool.  Alyn liked that one the best.

Just say "Sea Vipahh" in an Aussie accent

We  basically shut the park down on the rides, and then headed back toward the entrance and had a nice cool evening to wind down on our way home.  Tabitha held up surprisingly well, but started fading fast as we left the park. 

Not Shown:  Tabitha falling asleep immediately after the photo was taken

Tomorrow is off to Mackay!  We'll miss George and Denise and their hospitality - many thanks again from your Canadian family.

Coolum, Noosa, and Eumundi

Roy, Marianne, MacKenzie, Canada

After the Australia Zoo, we met up with some friends from... Saskatoon.  Roy and I worked together years ago, but he married an Australian sheila and lived Down Under for a number of years.  Marianne's son was just married last weekend and they are staying at their family's home in nearby Mooloolah.  .Although they currently live in Saskatoon, we thought we couldn't pass up the opportunity to stop and say hello while we both happened to be in Oz.  They served us some Australia desserts: vanilla slice, apple slice, scones, Tim Tams, and lamingtons.  Thanks for the cuppa and company!

After we met up with Roy, Marianne and family we drove to the Ettamogah Pub to meet up with close family friends Nigel, Amanda, and Bethany Toussaint.  It was great to meet them and we really appreciated the effort they made to come out and meet us, and serve as our guide to our arranged (thanks Nate/Amy) accomodations.  Unfortunately, we didn't grab a pic of the Toussaints - so Nigel you'll have to send us one!  This pub is apparently modelled after an Australian comic strip of some renown, of which the strips are plastered on the walls and the kids enjoyed reading.
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Not Shown:  Nigel, Amanda, or Bethany

Nigel and Amanda drove us to our home away from our home away from home, at Lindsay and Phillippa's house.  True story, we stayed at this lovely family's home, had a great time getting to know them, the kids had lots of fun with their son Kai... and alas I don't even have a last name.  Their place is on the top of a relatively large hill, and the poor little Suzuki had to be whipped to make it up to the top of the hill.  Awesome view though, and we had a nice visit with them, and their extended family who were also visiting from other areas within Australia.  Thanks again Lindsay and Phillippa, we know your house had three times the normal occupancy and your hospitality was most appreciated!
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Not Shown:  Lindsay; Phillippa's New Sports Car

Apparently, we're also beginning to fail miserably at picture taking, since we don't even have a picture of Lindsay... just one of Kai and Phillippa before we left. Its not like the night previous we were all dressed up for a meeting or anything ... d'oh!





I've got the events in somewhat of a muddled order, but the second day centered around exploring Noosa.  The picture below is Austin and I at a point called Hell's Gates where we stopped for a little snack.  We also went to the main beach at Coolum and got our first 'beach day' in.


Hell's Gates



After the beach, we headed back to Lindsay and Phillippa's place, got cleaned up and were able to go to the Coolum Beach congregation where we met up with many of Nathan and Amy's friends and enjoy the Tuesday meeting.  We remarked on how similar the meetings really are, truly a worldwide organization!

Austin and Kai Intently Focused at the Meeting

Wednesday we went to Eumundi markets which was also fun, and then went to another beach called Coolum Beach, which is massive!  Colder weather though, with the sand being whipped across the beach.  Thursday we pick up Tabitha early in the morning and head to Sea World - stay tuned to find out if we feed her to the Orcas!

1298cc of Fury and the Australia Zoo

With a raging 1.3L 79HP four cylinder under the hood, we packed up the Jimny and attacked the motorways of Australia north to the Sunshine Coast.

First day was Australia Zoo.

Well really, this says it all

This is a difficult story to put into a succinct and reasonable post.  The zoo itself is very well planned and cared for, and contains all manner of animals (glad you're sitting down for that shocker).  We got to feed the elephants (actual commentary "remember, you're feeding a gigantic nose, so that wet substance is not water"), feed the kangaroos, pet the koalas, and watch a couple of shows including the high energy show at the "Crocoseaum".

Don't pet the part with the fangs

Its almost too much to describe.  We've got tons of pictures of almost every animal - go ahead and leave a request we'll try to respond with an appropriate picture.

Funny thing is, the kids liked the inflatable crocodile slide probably more than the rest of the park, and Coralee and I felt the featured birds in the Crocoseum show were more impressive than the crocs! 

Don't worry, we've got pictures of crocs too.

Planking a Croc

Denise and Leona came with us to the zoo, and were very patient as we let the kids dictate the pace of the day.  After the park, we met up with some friends from... Canada!