Monday, March 12, 2012

Hello from Downunder - Still here!


Long time no see!
We're still here. Having lots of fun and tickles.
It's been a hot Summer and Marley and Jasper needed a shave. For the first time in four years they caught fleas and I (Mum) was NOT happy!!! I tried to get on top of it very fast but used a product which nearly drove Dad out of the house. Poor Dad. I sprayed the dogs beds with some flea killer and it got on their fur and so when Dad cuddled them he broke out in horrible hives all over his body. It took us five days to work out what the allergic reaction was from. Finally I had the lounges steam cleaned, gave the dogs a bath with their old shampoo, rewashed all their bedding and Dad was okay again. Rotten fleas! They were very persistant.
So...HELLO from Downunder. How was your Summer/Winter?

 Marley and Jasper spent a week with Oma and Opa this Summer while our family went away.

We missed them but they were so HAPPY when we came back home.

Friends from Sydney were staying at Mooloolaba Beach on the Sunshine Coast and the family went to visit them there.

20 years ago it was just a quiet seaside town, it's grown a lot but is still a gorgeous place for a Summer vacation.

The apartments are only built to a certain height so it's kept Mooloolaba from turning into another Gold Coast with streets and streets of towering skyscrapers.

Looking towards the Mooloolaba Spit where the Mariner is and home to the most delicious fresh seafood on the Sunshine Coast. "Mooloolaba Fisheries On The Spit" was our favourite place to eat. Their calamari is the best we've ever eaten and to die for!

In January we drove to Hervey Bay, four hours north of Brisbane

The weather was hot and sunny for the entire week we were there. What a lovely contrast to the heavy floods that plagued Queenland at the same time in 2011.

Our accomodation was the the Breakfree Resort in Urangan, Hervey Bay.

Overlooking the boats at the Urangan Mariner

That's our accomodation behind those boats

Waking each morning to the sound of the tinkling sail boats was just delicious

Breakfree Resort as seen from the board walk outside our apartment

Sail boats at dusk!

Relaxing by the resort pool

We hired these 4-seater bicycles to ride along the Hervey Bay foreshore one afternoon. I was so proud of myself. After all the work outs at the gym I've been doing over the past 18 months I endured better than Dad and the kids. Woo Hoo!

Even with four of us pedaling it was still a hard slog to ride these bikes, they are so heavy.

The 1km pier at Hervey Bay

We spent one day and drove north to Bundaberg and out to the coast at Bargara Beach where we spent the afternoon swimming in this knee to neck deep lagoon. You wouldn't need a swimming pool if you lived here.


We also spent a day catching the ferry over to Fraser Island. See here for our previous post on Fraser Island:

 
It was a 45 minute ferry ride from Hervey Bay over to Fraser Island

 
We didn't take our car along this time but decided instead to just get a "Day Away" package.
It included:

 
Fishing gear and bait to fish off the pier...

 
....full use of all the facilities including the amazing sparkling pools at the King Fisher Bay Resort...

 
...a full restaurant lunch at the Sandbar Cafe...

 
....plenty of time to laze by the pool and relax....

 
...a look around at the Eco-Friendly King Fisher Bay Resort...

 
...canoeing... that was fun!

 
...swimming in the beach...

 
...and you could return home at either 5pm, 9pm or 11pm at night. So very good value for money. At First we thought we'd like to stay until the last ferry return at 11pm, but by 5pm we were so exhausted that we decided to head back to Hervey Bay.

 
...I don't know what to say about this one...just thought it looked interesting.

 
Up front in the captains cabin

 
A lovely day away to Fraser Island and a beautiful relaxing holiday in Hervey Bay. Definitely a place to come back to in the future.