Day 10-our last leg northbound, Mackay here we come

This morning we left the industry of Gladstone behind but had just one more shot of the local scenery.

See ya later Gladdy, not planning on being back too soon(even though our accomodation was great!)

The drive today was reasonably long and this was pretty much what we were looking at.

We had a variety of pit stops along the way and had a shared lunch at  (some place we can't remember the name of and can't find on the map!) where they had delicious home made pies (not ideal fare for 35 degree heat but quite tasty)

And here we are at our northern most destination for our trip

We headed straight to the tourist information centre (we have learned from past experiences haven't we!) met some nice volunteers (as you do!) and gathered some ideas for the next couple of days. The forecast is for some serious rain, so serious that the council have moved all of the NYE celebrations indoors! Closer to where we are staying but not sure if we will head down or not!)

This afternooon we headed down to Blue Water Lagoon for a bit of water play, stepping into very warm water was delightful, no unexpected chills or gasps for air but after 10 minutes or so it becomes pretty warm!
The kids had a ball and I got out to play photographer

We had our crumbed rissoles for dinner tonight, Aimee loved them so that is a bit of a success.

Our current plan is to go to Parkrun in the morning and then do a bit of exploring. Here's hoping the weather is kind and we get to see some things

Day 9-full day at Gladstone

Today we had a full day to fill in Gladstone, which incidentally is an unusual town totally industry driven which, in part, is good as if there is something near the port or the industrial areas it has been well created and well maintained but other than that we have discovered that the old town of "Gladdy" is a bit tired.

This morning we headed to East shore  which is a beautifully laid out water park with a massive area of water jets and surrounding parklands. It was great, it was so much fun watching all the kids playing and anticipating where the water would surge from next.

Sadly at the water park Aimee's pink thongs had a blow out so we needed to head to Big W to buy new ones!

We headed to the Botanic gardens for lunch and a bit of a look around. Which was quite nice, a little hot in some sections and areas like the Daintree part did have a fair amount of mozzies.

This afternoon we headed to Spinnaker Park for a look around, an ice cream and hopefully a glimpse of some local dolphins (we saw one this morning and were keen to see more). We had success with the look around! No dolphins out and about and no ice cream (it is a recurring theme here, we head

out to see or do something only to find it shut when we get there). This afternoon it was 3.30 and the cafe was shut, yesterday the tourist information centre was shut before 5 ( which I have just realised provided us with morning and afternoon issues trying to get into Information Centres!).

It is quite unusual how in all of your landscape photos there is some dirty great big slice of industry in the background no matter where you are. It seems that people are generally quite proud of the smelter  or other similar areas.

This lilypond was quite pretty and an unusual chance for a photo with no industrial areas

A classic lookout area with the smelter as the showcase

Clearly the industry is why Gladstone exists an this lookout was quite informative too

One of the odd things that we have noticed is the ways in which the area has been advertised/promoted on the internet yet we are struggling to find evidence of it here in town, the Gladstone big 6 or the amazing local beef and seafood for example!
Actually today we decided that all of Gladstone seems to be on holiday, so many places are closed/shut we assume for the holidays.

Despite our not so great dinner experience last night we decided to try the other restaurant tonight,  very glad that we did as we had a much better meal (& cheaper despite being al carte). And as the accomodation and restaurants are all within the sports club complex I bought some meat raffle tickets and scored a tray of crumbed meatballs. Just as well we have the mini fridge in the car and a kitchen in our room tomorrow night in Mackay.

I hope to add some more photos tomorrow, I can't tonight as the internet connection is letting me down (come on Gladstone get your act together!)

So on that note I'll post what I can now

Photos added, formatting impossible! It is what it is, sorry!

Day 8- already away for over a week -Gladstone

This morning (after Brett took the kids for a walk to view squashed cane toads on the road!), we left Maryborough and headed to Hervey Bay for a quick visit to to Tourist Information centre and a short shop (ok the sales at Kmart and Cotton On are really good at the moment!). We expected to be able to get to the Information centre early (advertised 7am opening time, real opening time was 9 am). Anyway we got some more information on board and kept heading north. Our goal was seventeen  seventy for a bit of history then onto Gladstone.
On the way we we found the little town of Gin Gin (thanks to Lewis once again needing a pit stop, the kid drinks so much water when we drive!).

At Gin Gin we discovered Gina our turtle hatchling, she was so cute I had to buy her (ooops with Brett's money).
Here she is showing her home town on the map

And here I am eating some crab sandwich, also from Gin Gin.

All in allGin Gin proved to be a nice little spot.

We continued north and eventually arrived at Seeventeen Seventy (1770) where Captain James Cook first landed in Queensland, I'm not 100% sure what I had planned to find there but it wasn't the bustling campground that we found. We did stop and have some lunch but then headed up to the look out areas which were very pretty

Having lunch

Kids at the beach at Endeavour Park

marking the spot where Captain Cook landed

A little walk

More scenery

And then we headed off to Gladstone, we had high hopes for Gladstone and were excited to use our Accor card. The room is fabulous so much space, a divided wall so the kids have their own room, somehow we missed the fact there was no pool. 

We had a buffet dinner onsite tonight (have  to say it was very average ) and I'm still too full.

We have a big day planned for tomorrow so fingers crossed we will discover some of the local delights! This afternoon we found a park but it was very windy, the kids enjoyed it anyway.

Day 7 off to Maryborough

Staying at Kangaroo point (again) was great, we knew our way around really well and could
comfortably walk to Southbank, the city and even the supermarket. However, the accomodation clearly had not been improved since our last trip three or so years ago. Upon arrival we had been given an 'upgrade' which turned out to be the same sort of room as we had last time but we had the added benefit of a constantly running bathroom sink tap, no light in the hall, a seat of our outdoor setting that could not be sat upon, dishwasher that didn't work, hair dryer that glowed blue with heat and smelt like it was about to explode and the DVD player that ate Lewis's brand new Christmas DVD (fortunately that was able to be retrieved). All significant problems (I know not really but a bit inconvenient and a slight damper on the stay). So we were ready to leave today.

We had planned to head to Mooloolaba to the Sea Life aquarium, we even had our Merlin passes which was a bonus so we could get preferential entry (than goodness as it seemed that every man and his dog seemed to be going there).
Here are some photos in the aquarium

I love sea dragons, they are so cool 😎 

Look at this big fish Mum!

Checking out the fish from the dome

And Aimee too

How cool are these upside down jelly fish?

The traffic was quite heavy today, this travelling north at Christmas time comes with a cost! We were actually really quite lucky as not long after we had headed through there ended up being a 20 

 delay on the Bruce Highway.

We stopped at Gympie for a roadside lunch break

Then it was onwards to Maryborough. We had visited here briefly as we came through from Fraser Island but today (even though everything was pretty much shut as it was a public holiday) we began to see some of the magic of the town. 

Maryborough is the home town of P L Travers the author of Mary Poppins and the town has made a huge effort to share this history and the general history of the town. We had a lovely walk around Queens Park and saw a range of the beautiful old buildings, I think it would be fantastic to do a tour and really have a look around some of the important historic sites.

We did grab a couple of fun photos

Life size Mary Poppins statue

We came upon this photo op by chance just as it started to rain

We read some interesting information about Queens Park and how people would get dressed in their finery to go to the park and it was not hard to imagine this with the beautiful rotunda for the band and all!

And after a big day of travel (& a 3 km run for mummy in silly Queensland heat!) we have reached the end of our day. Clearly a big day for these two.

Day 6 Boxing Day and last day in BrisVegas

Mostly a day of rest and relaxation today.

We had planned to pop over to the shops early so the kids could spend some o heir Christmas vouchers but decided to head blacktop Streets beach at Southbank early instead. That was a great decision as it was relatively qiuet and the kids had a ball just playing around before the heat of the day. We had a bit of a morning tea break, more playing this time on the playground.

We headed back to our room, had lunch played some board games then set out for the city. Lewiscwas really the only successful shopper acquiring two new books.

This photo taken of our two walking through the Botanic gardens was taken just after the year had been walking along arms wrapped around each other deep in play.

This one is just a pic of us having a quick break by the pond before heading back to our room.

We've had a great time in BrisVegas but are looking forward to our next destination. Celebrating Christmas in a new location was fun and Elsie the Elf has certainly made her presence known here in Brissie!

New adventures begin tomorrow 

Day 5 -and so this is Christmas 🎄

Merry Christmas

After a 2.30 false start with Lewis, the kids came bursting in to our room at 6am? Only to be turned away as it was still only 5am Queensland time. Bless them they waited patiently and then the Christmas fun began!

Santa had visited and Elsie was still with us, I'm not too sure what her plans are I'm sure if we were at home she would hide herself away but I think she is keen to see what happens on our holiday.

We were all spoiled with presents and then sat down to our quietest Christmas morning ever with both kids heads firmly placed into their books from Santa 🎅🏻

Excitement!

Aimee was overcome with excitement 

Thanks Santa, you picked a winner!

And more happiness

We decided to go for a wander down to a South bank for a picnic morning tea, as we headed out we noticed a sprinkle of rain but set off anyway, it got heavier and heavier making us quite wet. We eventually cut our losses and headed home, wet!

Not too much rain as yet!

A bit overcast!

Unclear skies

We had a delicious lunch of Yamba prawns and Moreton bay bugs with cheese, meats and fresh fruits, it was a beautiful lunch.

Thanks for the yummy bubbles Dellie!

Family 💕

Check out those prawns and bugs

More Christmas crack ups

Crack ups!

The weather cleared up and we headed back out for a swim at South bank beach, the kids had a ball.

Dinner was a revisit of the cheese plate from lunch, again yummy.

Aimee went to bed in her new unicorn eye mask, pretty cute