2nd October

all I have to add is that we are having a brilliant holiday and I haven't even bothered to upload photos or information about our trip!

Tassie trip September 24

To say I have been tardy with our travel blog would be an understatement.
We have had a very busy year with a range of unexpected speed humps which we have mostly come through. To help us on our way we have had a range of mini breaks in an attempt to get through but today we started the next leg of a longer road trip to Tasmania.
So here we are after a reasonably pleasant day on the road down in Wagga Wagga. We enjoyed visiting here last year on our BIG road trip so decided we would come back.
This afternoon we took another stroll along the Murrumbidgee which has its own Wagga Wagga beach, a little similar to Revesby beach but more sand and a bit prettier.
The kids enjoyed a play in the playground and I took myself off for a walk after being in the car for too long.
I have some pictures but I'm too tired to load them now so hopefully I'll get a chance in the morning (while we have good internet access-it won't be like this all trip!)

Days 19 & 20 -Surfers Paradise

We decided to head out to Warner Brothers Movie World on Sunday, I had memories of a reasonably fun atmosphere and we headed off with our usual sense of adventure. We hadn't even parked the car and both kids declared hothat they weren't going on the green lantern roller coaster, a bit of a relief really as I couldn't imagine how I would possibly manage it either.

It's funny how the WB characters were such a big part of my youth (as inappropriate as many of them and their actions were) I felt like I was forever answering questiins about who and why or what regarding one character and another. We headed throughpast many of the big rides to discover a street dance party and Lewis got right on in dancing his little heart out. We followed this with the stunt car show which I remember as the Police Academy stunt car show.

We then headed into the Looney Tunes area with the smaller and less fearsome rides. Despite stating there was no way they would go on the mini roller coaster they changed their minds after having conquered the lead to drive dodgem car circuit which Lewis loved. We lined up for the roller coaster, Aimee was ok going by herself, I was going with Lewis and Brett was on bag and photo duties. We ended up in the first two rows of the ride which was good but as we climbed the first rise I suddenly thought oh no wjphat if Aimee is freaked out! I kept talking to her and she was fine.

We had some lunch, strolled around the park and saw the Wile Voyote and Road Runner 4d movie and we were pretty much done by 2.30. I was surprised at how small it all seemed, I assure there used to e more movie based activities and things to learn about, maybe there were but apparently they don't do them anymore.

We sat waiting for the character parade but the kids grew tiresome sitting doing nothing for so long 30-40 minutes so we decided to leave as we had another engagement, we were meeting up with Tania, Maddy and Mehan (Dave was at work) we found their new house no troubles and it was lovely to catch up again, Tania and I just chatting like we saw each other yesterday and the girls and Lewis played together so well. Mandy was so excited to see Aimee she threw herself around her and hoagie her the biggest hug. It was a really fabulous afternoon and evening sharing a meal together.

Today we travelled the 5 km up the road to SeaWorld.

We had a wonderful day with the kids declaring it to be the best day (or one of the best days!) ever.

I was a bit worried after Movie World yesterday but as soon as we walked in I was confident we were going to have a great day. From the King and Gentoo penguins to the creatures of the deep, the dolphins (we went to the dolphin show twice), the seals and petting the rays. It was a hot day but we had such a great time. I would happily return tomorrow and do it all again.
Aimee loved seeing the sea turtles in at Shark Cove and Lewis enjoyed the sharks and the touch pools. We must have stood and watched the fish swimming for close to an hour all up.

I would love to actually stay at the Sea World resort and possibly do a snorkel or meet and greet experience.

We were pretty lucky too as we also saw one

Day 18 -see you Bundaberg

last night we had the most incredible rain! (I know, there's a surprise, rain for us this holiday!) it was crazy how heavy it was, it woke both Brett and I from our sleep. Fortunately it did no train that much during the day.

We left before 8 having munched on out ham and cheese bread roll toasters., and continued on our journey south.

We arrived at Gympie before 10 at a great park to meet up with Brett's Uncle Warren and Marion. We hadn't seen them for ages so it was great to see them, catch up, have them meet the kids. We had a really nice time. The kids talked heaps to Warren and Marion too and also had a great time playing in the park.

When we finally left we had full bellies and settled into our trip to Surfers expecting to find some traffic delays around BrisVegas but we had a pretty good run.

We didn't really have a proper lunch stop but somewhere south of Brisbane Aimee needed a toilet so we improvised when we saw a Mitre 10 Super store, I figured they would have a toilet (which they did) and the kids shared a bacon roll from the BBQ out the front. As we sat in the car park btprett chuckled about it being one of the weirdest places he has stopped for a lunch/pit stop-a hardware store car park.

We made it to Surfers, never having been here before I knew there were lots of big buildings, we are on the 24 th floor! Pretty high but there are plenty of taller buildings. Our balcony looks straight onto the main beach at Surfers. The streets are busy even the Motel is busy, every time you go to get into one of the 5 lifts there are always other people in the lifts already. Surprisingly 24 storeys up you can still here plenty of street noise which I guess just echoes on all of the buildings. I imagine it is horrid here during schoolies.

We had a walk along th ebeach this afternoon, kids had a swim and we ate the seafood buffet dinner tonight..

Hopefully tonight I'll manage to upload some photos.

Day 17 -ah Bundaberg thanks for a great day!

Full day in Bundaberg today and we had a top one!

Thanks to Mr I'll wake at 4 am Lewis our day was a reasonably early start! I'm guessing bed time will be soon upon us!!

Not long before we went to head out this morning the heaven's opened and it bucketed down but all things considered we didn't have too much of a problem with the rain throughout the day.

Our first stop was The Barrel, or the Bundaberg soft drink factory, we missed doing a tour here last time so it was a must do this time. I remembered to take my 20% discount voucher in with me only to be told I couldn't use it as they were doing 50% off tours, insert happy dance right here.

The tour was really fun, not exactly what I had expected but entertaining and informative, very glad to have done it and I would recommend it to others. The kids loved the end of the tour because they give you a taste of all 15 flavours, sugar overload!!!

Our next stop was Bargara a very nice area on the coast with great walk/cycle ways and playgrounds for the kids.

We headed to an inlet called the basin which is basically a man made sheltered beach area where you can swim and snorkel and even despite the gusty winds we were able to safely snorkel and see fish 🐟 it was a heap of fun even if visibility was low.

We then headed to a great cafe for lunch, it looked ok, it was actually brilliant , we all had great meals, sitting by the beach feeling fabulous! Delicious seafood, cooked to perfection! It was just the perfect holiday meal I had been hoping to have at some stage on our trip and we stumbled onto it by chance.

After lunch we went for a walk along the coastline northbound to Mon Repos, this is an area devoted to the conservation of sea turtles, you can actually do night tours where you may see the turtles come onshore to lay their eggs or at this time of the year possibly see the hatchlings head to the sea. It is a very informative centre with loads of details about turtles and the significant misunderstandings we had about their breeding and development. Fortunately now there is a much better understanding of the turtles and their lifecycle but like so many other species they are greatly threatened by our actions.

After our seriously long walk and visit to Bargara we headed the 15 or so km back into town to visit Alexandra Park and Zoo, it is such a pretty little area by the river with a free zoo with emus, dingoes, wallabies, many birds. Surrounding the zoo is yet another great kids playground, they are so good with playgrounds up here.

After all of that we headed back to our little room for a makeshift dinner and now time for bed. Tomorrow is a big drive day.

And of course no photos again!
Hopefully they will come soon enough

Day 16 -Bundaberg

On our first really big road trip last year we had the pleasure of discovering Bundaberg, we were pretty sure that there was quite a bit more to it that we wanted to see so it was a definite stopover we wanted to add.

As Brett packed the car this morning in Yeppoon it started to rain(lightly) rain and wind are definitely two things I think we will forever associate with Yepppoon.

 We headed off via Emu Flat stopped briefly for a photo of their Anzac memorial (it was raining thee the other day so we missed the photo! And then continued south to Rockhampton and grabbed a photo at the tourist information centre where they have a marker for the Tropic of Capricorn.

The drive today was not super big/long in km but seemed to drag quite a bit, rain, single lanes caravans!

We stopped for a pit stop at Miriam Vale where they had an amazing playground, perfect place for the kids to get out, have a stretch and a play, it was brilliant.

Our next stop was Gin Gin, we had planned to stop and try an award winning pie and I had been messaging Sue from Nutty Creations (she is on Facebook) who had made our cute turtle hatchling Gina who we had purchased on the way up, she has a selection of creatures and we ended up adding a crocodile, blue tang and platypus (all hatchlings) nad Aimee's favourite a manta ray! I haven't taken photos of them yet but I plan to. (Not that it would matter greatly as I don't have enough internet to power the photos on, again!

With only 50 km to go to Bundaberg we headed south east and had a brief stop to view some craters which were discovered in 1971, apparently geologists are unsure as to their formation , volcanic?meteorite? But they were quite unusual in appearance especially the way that the red oxide and sandstone have formed together.

Last stop for the day, Bundaberg and once again it seems I have selected a less than average dwelling but the pool is good and it is literally right beside the shopping centre. The kids had a fun swim this afternoon and we had some much needed salad for dinner.

We have plans to really get out and about tomorrow so here's hoping things go well.

Day 15 Great Keppel Island-no photos

With quite a good deal of rain and wind we were unsure what today's weather would bring.
Today we were booked into a special tour of Great Keppel Island including a glass bottom boat tour, snorkelling, free time, morning and afternoon tea plus lunch.
Before we had headed off we had received a phone call from freedom fast cats advising us that it was going to be very rough and that the glass bottom boats were likely to be cancelled due to poor visibility, could we come tomorrow? No! Today was our last day in Yeppoon (forever known now in our books a town of wind and rain!)
Optimistically we headed down to the ferry terminal a mere 5 minute walk from our accomodation. Despite missing seeing the platypus out of Mackay and the wallabies in the sunrise, I was holding high hopes of manta rays, reef fish and marine turtles as well as the many memories of my childhood watching the reef floor through a glass bottom boat.

Once we arrived we discovered that the glass bottom boat was definitely cancelled but we could still do everything else. Ok, good!
We took our precautionary seasick tablets and waited.
The young girl from reception came out to us to advise snorkelling had also been cancelled, what did we want to do? Well of course we would still go!

We boarded the vessel and finally settled on our third choice of seat downstairs in the mainpart of the boat, engines started and off we went, the marina was smooth and then it started to get a bit rough, actually quite rough but we were ok in fact it was a bit of fun, Lewis was waving his hands in the air like he was on a rioller coaster and even Aimee was smiling! Then the lady in front began to be sick and then another and then another. Aimee was fading and leaning all over me, stoic for a bit and then she needed a cool cloth and a seasac, Lewis followed. To their credit neither of them used them. Thankfully we hit the calm waters 10 minutes out from the island and they were both ok, I'm not too sure I had much more time left in me to be honest.

Once we arrived to the island the sun was out and the water looked very inviting and we were left to our own devices. The main beach has(had) a resort on it which has now become derelict so it was a bit univiting. Eventually we headed up a goat track which was sign posted to a beach we had heard had good snorkelling so in our best trail walking thongs! We headed off and up and then down, I found the most appropriate way to scale down the rocks was a sliding shimmy type of movement on my bum! Hey, it worked. We found a quiet secluded beach area and went out into the water. Brett and the kids both saw a striped fish, yep one! But they were pretty excited, I missed it! And then proceeded to worry about the incoming tide and the rocks! Lewis bobbed around like a kid who has never been to a beach, stealing in delight as the waves rolled him around and then the kids went into their crazy sand building, digging frenzy that they always seem to get into on any sand.imnot too sure why Aimee gets so into it as she constantly complains about sand being everywhere once she has had a play. And as for her feet! Oh my, she hates and on her feet in any shape or form.

After a good deal of paddling, playing and digging we headed back over the goat track to the mai beach to be collected for lunch and a bit of a tour onboard our boat which was really quite good, only about 18people doing the lunch component so good numbers.

After lunch was boom netting off the back of the boat, I couldn't tell if Aimee wanted to really do it or not but when for about the third time after asking if she wanted to and her replying only of you will do it with me I realised I had to step up to the plate as a mum and do something I wasn't too keen about as my girl wanted to have a go!

So in we went and it wasn't too bad,but best of all she loved it! Getting out was far from glamorous but I eventually go out and didn't fall off!

We had about an hour to spare so headed back onto the island but the rain caught up with us so we didn't get much done, Aimee was unhappy as all of the sand had washed off her while on the boom net and now she was covered in sand again.

Our ride home was so much better than the one out, more like a Manly ferry on rough choppy Watters so that was a big bonus.

It sounds like a horrible day but it was still lots of fun, it usually is when we do things together. It wasn't what we had expected and the loss of activities was a little disappointing but I think it was all the fault of the weather rather than anything else and we couldn't control that and based upon the weather that we have had since we have been here the weather at the island was fabulous. Brett got too much sun on his face, my arms didn't have enough sunscreen and the kids have both got ruby cheeks but not too bad.

So to finish off our last night In Yeppoon we decided to have a cheese/seafood plate, we started off getting some Moreton bay bugs and banana prawns but ended up adding a mud crab to that too!. All from the fish market which we walked to/past on our way home from the ferry terminal. All of the seafood was delicious and a nice dinner to finish off our adventurous day

Of course the internet is not coping well here especially with the wind and rain so I have no photos to add tonight.