Hippies, babies and plans for a commune in Nthn NSW (Dec 2012)

To be completed (soon!)

To Whian Whian (near Mullumbimby) - camping with hippies
Drive through gorgeous northern nsw mountains. Bill planned his commune.
Visited Bec and Nick and met baby Benjamin.

All class on the Gold Coast

Throwing all cynicism and class to the wind, we braced ourselves for 3 days of theme-park madness. After a year of rustic living, open spaces, peace and serenity, we were ready to go bananas! So we packed a bag of healthy snacks (ok not toooo bananas...) and headed for our first day at Movieworld (Hollywood on the Gold Coast!!). And we had the best day ever. Bill again displayed his incredible lack of fear by going on almost every single super scary ride there. Zara showed that she is truly her father's daughter by going on every scary ride she was allowed on. And Sash reminded us that he is still only 4 and finds the snail-paced merry-go-round quite thrilling indeed. Me, well I loved the Spooky-coaster with Zara, the stunt cars with the kids, the roller-coaster with everyone, the 4D movie experience, and the gluttonous bottomless buffet lunch... But most of all I loved how excited Sash was by the people dressed up as movie characters and how he lined up so many times to meet them that they all knew him by the end of the day. He wasn't interested in having his photo taken with them - he just wanted to hug and kiss them with pure adoration all over his beautiful face. He even kissed Tweety-Bird's feet...

We had planned to hit the water-slides at Wet N Wild the next day but the light rain was a bit off-putting (standing in endless queues in wet bathers), so we headed to Sea World instead. Again, a great day. We ooohed and ahhhhhed along with the crowd at the performing dolphins and seals - but felt slightly uncomfortable with the whole concept at the same time. Education verses exploitation and all that... Giant moving dinosaurs were cool though. And the Dora show. And Sash got to meet Spongebob and Squarepants and a whole heap of other characters who he did not recognise but loved all the same...

And yes, the next day we actually returned to where our hearts were - Movieland! You see, Bill had run out of time and had missed out on one of the scary rides. And the rest of us didn't need much encouragement to go back...

Gotta love the Gold Coast!

Old friends, an Xmas frenxy and dizzying heights in Brisvegas

Still shaking off the salt water and dreaming of incredible underwater scenes, we hightailed it to Brisbane - stopping for a forgettable night in Gladstone en route. Sash was pretty keen to check out the Giant Pineapple (being of the age where giant things appeal) but when we pulled in after a brief de-tour, everything was shutting for the day. A young attendant took pity on us and let us climb the pineapple and check out the history of pineapple production in Australia. We also took the obligatory photo of the family waving from the top of the pineapple, just below the stalk...

Upon leaving, I did a very unusual thing for me - I checked my facebook account. Much to my delight I happened to notice that a very dear old friend from Melbourne, Anna O, had posted that she was in Brisbane with another lovely friend, Thu! Turns out that they were just in town for the weekend and it just happened to be the very weekend we were passing through on our whirlwind tour of the east coast... I was thrilled at the chance to see two of my fave peeps from Melbourne so I rang Anna and we arranged to meet up the very next day in the heart of Brisbane.

We checked in at a caravan park near the water (for final fishing attempts by BT) and made plans for our brief time in Brisbane. Early the next morning we took off into town and headed straight to Myers to meet Santa and ride the santa-land train. Not surprisingly it was insanely crowded and took forever, but the kids enjoyed every second so it was totally worth it. The year in a tent must have addled our brains a bit because we actually purchased a copy of a really weird photo of the kids with Santa where they held their hands out and then someone photoshopped some reindeer eating out of their hands. Weird...

Following our Christmas frenzy, we met up with Anna and Thu for a lovely long lunch of catching up and laughs. It was truly wonderful to see them and a timely reminder that there are people in Melbourne who we were longing to see - and that our homecoming wasn't something to dread!

After fond farewells and promises to catch up soon in Melbourne, Anna and Thu headed to the airport and we headed for Brisbane's big wheel. It was huge and provided an amazing view over Brisbane. We ended our day in town with a peculiar dinner at a funky and outrageously expensive Korean restaurant. We were totally exhausted when we caught the train home - but excited about the next leg of our journey which would take us to the Gold Coast theme parks!!!

Bad food and great snorkelling at Reefworld

Back in Tully we told ourselves that we had made the right decision to sink yet more $$ into our landcruiser instead of taking to it with sledgehammers. But despite handing over great wads of cash we felt okay about our decision to fix what we already have rather than chucking it into landfill and buying more, more, more. Also a bit of respect for the number of kms it has taken us around this vast, sandy, rocky country...

Anyway we were back on the road and heading for the Great Barrier Reef. We all felt excited at reaching yet another great Australian landmark and although we were nervous of the crowds of East-coast tourists, we were excited to have a chance to explore such an amazing natural feature of our glorious country. Due to limited time we had booked a trip to Reefworld - a crazy all-in-one place built right on the reef from which you can snorkel, dive, go on a glass bottom boat, eat lunch, have a massage etc etc. We were really only interested in snorkeling but felt it was a good idea to have back-up activities considering Sash's inconsistent levels of enthusiasm for water-based adventure.

After a night at a caravan park in Airlie Beach we arose early and jumped a fancy boat to Reefworld. I spent most of the journey enjoying the fresh air of the outside deck while the others sat inside and eyed off the snacks from the bar. When I finally made my way inside I found them making friends with a group of fellow-passengers-  one of whom turned out to be my former Melbourne Uni workmate, friend and Hong Kong travel companian, Yee Fui. Great to see her and have yet another randomly encounter with people we know in odd spots in Australia. Yee Fui and her friends were spending the day on one of the islands so almost as soon as we had recovered from the shock of finding eachother on a boat in Queensland we had to say goodbye.

Shortly afterwards we arrived at Reefworld and despite the complete ensuing chaos we were soon wetsuited, flippered, masked etc and plunging into the warm water. Sash, our hero, decided that snorkelling was fun and had a great time spotting fish and coral - until his mask started feeling uncomfortable and he asked to go back on deck. Zara, our fish, happily snorkelled around for ages. As many snorkelers discover, the coral isn't very impressively coloured so close to the surface due to the sunlight - you really have to dive much further down to view the sorts of colours they use on the advertising brochures. However, the fish are amazing and the shapes and textures of the coral are amazing to see. We had a great time - which was good because the buffet lunch was revolting - almost inedible! We consoled ourselves by slipping down the waterslide into the ocean, going on the glass bottom boat tour and having another snorkel.

The journey back to Airlie Beach was a hoot. The staff were clearly relaxed and some of the younger ones befriended Zara and Sasha and taught them circus tricks in the bar area. Hours of fun!

Highlights - definitely the blue blue ocean, amazing snorkeling and lovely staff
Lowlights - most definitely the lunch (what were they thinking?) and the loss of my ring (a precious inheritance from my mum which is now nestled amongst amazing corals on the ocean floor).  

The Dream continues... before getting stuck in the most humid town in Aus!

We said farewell to our tropical hideaway and stuffed one final homemade icecream into our gobs, before accompanying Dave, Liz, Ada and Henry for a picnic, walk and swim at the beautiful Mossman Gorge. Interesting to see that the Gorge area is managed by its traditional owners - apparently no partnership with local government and all staff were local people. Very slick operation - and a lovely place to spend the hours before our dear friends scooted off to Cairns to catch their (delayed!) plane back to Melbs.

We consoled ourselves with sushi train in Cairns where we stayed just one night before heading to Mission Beach where Bill was keen to try for some squid. We decided to detour slightly to check out a much touted tourist attraction called Paronella Park. We had seen some very glossy and intriguing brochures about Paronella Park but couldn't work out what it actually was or what we would be able to do and see there. The brochure just kept stating that 'the dream continues...' in romantic script. If this was a clever bit of marketing it worked!

Anyway, turns out Paronella Park is a big property and castle built by a Spanish dude called Jose. He arrived in Aus, made plenty of money and decided to build a castle - as you do... He opened 'his dream' to the public in the 1930s and had movies, dances, swimming and a cafe for people to enjoy. After the Paronella family left half the castle was burnt down and the rest left to rack and ruin. Then the current owners bought it for a song and have spent a lot of time and energy rebuilding and opening it up as a tourist attraction. They trade on the 'Big Dream' aspect - you know, follow your dreams blah blah. Other tourists rave on about this magic place but unfortunately we got a guide who was more interested in getting the tour finished than answering questions or lingering anywhere. We were literally jogging after him as he gave us the briefest explanations over his shoulder. So after the tour we still didn't really get what the place was, so we wandered around for a while trying to work it out, then gave up and left. But I imagine with the right guide it would be easy to be caught up in the strange, eerie magic of this unusual place... As we left, the kids were given a little yellow bag with 'the dream continues' printed on the front and a piece of rock (from the castle) inside... Righto...

We drove onto Mission Beach which didn't blow us away, and at which Bill had no fishing success. So we spoke long and hard with the friendly and very helpful guy at the Visitors Info Centre and planned our attack of Queensland's tropical islands and beaches... Only problem was that as we drove South our wonderful and reliable (NOT) car started being weird again before conveniently conking out on the small but very busy bridge into Tully (the most humid town in Australia). Luckily the locals were all friendly and helpful and soon had us off the bridge and towed to the local RACQ mechanic before we could blink. We were informed that the car needed all sorts of vital work and that we would  be in Tully for at least 5-6 days, so we settled uncomfortably into a local caravan park that was packed to the rafters with young people who live for a season in Tully and make a pittance picking bananas in the sweltering heat all day and then make a lot of noise and a big mess in the camp kitchen at night. Fun! As we sat sweating outside our trailer we made an easy decision to get outta there ASAP while the car was being fixed. And so the next day we headed off to beautiful Magnetic Island for 3 nights in a basic self-contained unit at the beach - where we swam in the pool and the ocean, hired a car to explore the island, went on a bushwalk to see WW2 ruins and koalas and rode inflatable tubes behind speed boats - for kicks! It was a wonderful, relaxing couple of days.

Enjoying the bug invasion with beautiful friends in the Daintree

Unlike us, most non-retired people do not spend their lives on endless holidays. So when friends and family decide to spend their precious annual leave coming to visit us, we are thrilled and grateful. Although we have met some fabulous (and not so fabulous) folk during our travels, the pleasure of spending time with old friends and family is inexpressible. You just know that they are not going to launch into an unexpected diatribe against Aboriginal people, dole bludgers or women with hairy underarms. They renew our sometimes shaken faith in the nature of Australian people. There is no small talk - just great conversations and easy silences. For all these reasons and more we were thrilled when a car pulled up at a rambling tropical house in Cow Bay and out tumbled Dave, Liz, Ada and Henry.

What followed was a wonderful week of catching up, chocolate-fuelled impossible early 80s trivial pursuit, beach visits, rockhole swimming, cubby building, book reading, hammock cuddling, rainforest zip-lining, great barrier reef snorkeling, local icecream guzzeling, cassowary spotting (not very successful - just one who was dashing over the road) and plenty of relaxing and chatting.

The house we rented for the week was called 'seascapes' and was just perfect. The views were amazing - the ocean and the rainforest on all sides. Everything was open - all  doors and windows were not designed to shut out the rainforest and all its inhabitants. Especially at night time when every big bug, moth and hairy spider entered to spend the night with us in the house. Fine if one is comfortable with bugs but possibly a little icky for anyone with a fear of creepy crawlies. Seascapes was also a house in which the kids could really hoon around in and we weren't worried about breakages and damages (only one lamp down in a whole week!).

It was lovely to get to know baby Henry who is very sweet and who not surprisingly quickly held Zara's heart in his little hands! Also great to see that the friendship of Ada and Sash hasn't suffered from their long separation.

A glorious week with glorious friends in a glorious location!

Cairns catch ups, cavorting hippies and fast friendships

Blissing out on post-eclipse ecstasy we happily packed up our gear, said goodbye to the biker dude and headed to Cairns. The road wound scenically and precariously down from the mountains to the coast. We were excited to be meeting up with Bill’s aunt and uncle, Prue and Graham, who had travelled up to Cairns from Melbourne to view the total eclipse. They had cleverly found a café in the middle of a great playground called Muddies, which greatly enhanced the likelihood of the adults actually having a conversation. But of course, the kids were so thrilled to see Prue and Graham that they just wanted to be sitting on their laps or having them push the swings the whole time! We all really enjoyed seeing them and catching up on some news from home. The kids were a bit sad to say goodbye after lunch but cheered up a bit when we told them they would see Prue and Graham again in a few weeks at Christmas in Melbourne!

The other consoling factor was the imminent arrival of a bunch of wonderful friends from Melbourne - Liz, Dave, Ada and baby Henry. We were all hanging out to see them and to spend a week together in a rainforest getaway. But we had a few days yet to wait and so made our way North, over the Daintree River on a barge and then up to beautiful Cape Tribulation – where the rainforest comes all the way down to perfect beaches and where gangs of red-eyed hippies cavort naked on the beach, twirl fire-sticks and earnestly discuss the perils of the world. We spent the first night in a safari tent due to the crowds of lingering eclipse watchers, then moved into a beach-side campsite the next morning. 

The beach was just beautiful but the possibility of lurking box jellyfish and crocs was a bit off-putting. Mind you the naked hippies didn’t seem remotely fazed and the friendly staff told us they swam each morning with only a blue-bottle sting every now and again… In the end, we did duck in every now again taking care to enter the water carefully and spending very little time in. But there were hammocks and rope swings to play on, palm trees to shimmy up and endless coconuts to throw so our days were busy! 

A friendly family from Melbourne were camping next to us and it didn’t take long for the kids to find each other. Their kids were really lovely – polite, fun and friendly. And if all 13 year boys could be like their son Kaiko – I reckon the world would be a less surly place. He spent hours giving Zara piggy-backs (we could see first love gleaming in her big brown eyes!) and wrestling and playing chess with Sash. Before they left, they took Zara and Sash on a rainforest walk, leaving us to blog and read. We were sad to see them go. However, the kids hardly skipped a beat and soon joined up with some more kids from Melbourne – Merri (named after Merri Creek) and Banjo. Merri and Zara had a fast and furious friendship – going from strangers to inseparable in just a few minutes. We set up the little tent for the girls to whisper in all night, whilst Banjo and Sash slept in our trailer – talking about chess and Tintin for about 5 minutes before passing out. As usual we felt like we we said goodbye immediately after we said hello - but that's the way of this traveling life... let's hope we can stay in touch with some of the cool people we have met along the way...