Since last we "spoke".....

About nine hours after my last blog post we were on a flight to Sydney to catch our cruise ship for a 14 night cruise around New Zealand.  It was such a relaxing trip and New Zealand is a beautiful country. We all had plenty of time to decompress and we stayed 100% unplugged the entire time.

Ahhhh....not a stress in the world....until SCREECH -- BANG --WHACK!  We got home and returned to life as we left it. The dishwasher needed to be unloaded, the 2 weeks of laundry was begging to get washed, and...well you get the picture. 

The girls had one week of school left until end of the school year when we arrived back on December 7th. Normally we would have never taken the girls out of school for two weeks, but the teachers had to have all the final grades turned in the day before we left. As a result, they missed ten days of review and revision only to come back to parties, movies, and clean up days. 

Between school party treats and teacher gifts, birthdays and birthday parties, and Christmas shopping, I haven't taken more than a glance at our New Zealand photos until this week and why you haven't seen a post about our trip yet.  So, while we start to sift through the 1000+ photos from New Zealand, I will post about our last three weeks.

Anna's requested that we go to Dreamworld, the largest amusement park in Australia and similar to Six Flags, for her family birthday celebration.  I was a bit nervous since the last time I was on a rollercoaster was probably 1995.  Heck, getting on a swing puts my stomach in my mouth these days, but Anna was so excited and after all, it was her birthday. Anna had a plan and had picked out the four thrill rides she wanted to ride.  That plan lasted 30 seconds in the park when David led everyone over to the Buzz Saw, one ride that wasn't on her list. After much protest from Anna and myself, we all got on anyway. We survived and the girls thought it was "awesome!"  This discovery, lead us to the Giant Drop, which also wasn't on her list, but was loads of fun for everyone except the one of us afraid of heights.

 

The Buzz Saw with the Giant Drop behind it.

But for the love of the birthday girl, and the fact that the park was empty due to everyone Christmas shopping, I actually dropped from the sky twice and managed not to have a full-on panic attack.  We ended up riding all of the "Big Eight" thrill rides in the park.  It's a good thing the lines were short and we got them all in, because I'm 100% positive that it will never happen again for at least two of us in the group. The downfall of the day was riding this one, the Wipeout, after lunch.

Let's just say, some of us were wiped out for about an hour after that.  Thankfully we found this ride and stayed on for about 8 laps which aided in our recovery.

Who doesn't like the cool breeze through your hair on the Vintage Cars?  It was a successful birthday outing and I'm pretty sure Anna said it was her "BEST DAY EVER!" 

The next day was Anna's "Minute to Win It" birthday party.  She had eight friends over for a blur of tissues, ping-pong balls, balloons, dice, coins, etc.  It was a fast paced party and 2 hours went by quickly.

 

To help ring in the season, we had some good friends over for a Christmas fiesta of margaritas and fajitas.  Yes, tex-mex not normally on the Christmas menu, for us or our New Zealand and Australian friends, but what else do you do when Christmas falls in them middle of the summer?



My fabulous friends who are beautiful both inside and out!

Crowns and prizes from the Christmas crackers.

I surprised Anna and Ashleigh with tickets to the Nutcracker Ballet.  I haven't seen it since I was a little girl and it was the first time for the girls.  They thoroughly enjoyed it and I thought the Brisbane production was fantastic!

Christmas is hard for us northern hemisphere folk in Australia.  The summer heat does not put me in the Christmas state of mind. We even decorated the tree with Discovery Channel's shark week in the background.  I kept the Christmas music playing as much as possible to keep reminding of the season.

However, Christmas in Australia is very similar to the States in terms of mall décor, church services, Santa, parades, parties, department store window scenes, etc.

The Christmas tree in downtown Brisbane.  It's solar powered!

The one major difference is that the home decorations are minimal and simple and there are very few homes with lights and outdoor décor.  I do miss the evening drive through the neighborhood to look at all the lights, but I don't miss the hours of "putting Christmas away."

This little guy is also a novelty here. We are the only ones with a special little elf.

Christmas was a quiet day of Lego, Rainbow looming, and PS3 Move, with breaks for a dip in the pool. All in all, a very enjoyable day.

We hope you all had a very special and memorable Christmas!  It's time to wrap up 2013 and ring in the new year.  Here's to a happy and healthy 2014!  We'll be off to kick off the new years celebrations around the world in a few hours.  We look forward to the adventures that lie ahead and a return trip to the USA, whether its a move or visit, in the upcoming year!  CHEERS!

Straddie

I am finding it hard to believe that I started this blog 15 month ago!  The time has flown by too quickly and I can say that I am a bit disappointed that I only posted twelve times.  My average is at best lackluster since my original plan was to post at least once a week. I can rattle off a multitude of excuses, many of them very legit, but instead I am moving the blog up on my priority list and my new goal is to triple my average. Not only do I enjoy sharing our Aussie adventures with you, my friends and family, but I also know we will come to look back at this and appreciate that events and moments are documented when details start to fade.

Now that I committed to blogging more, I am also going to have to say that I will be offline for the next week or two.  I will start my official blog ramp up when I reconnect.  Looking forward to it!

In September we took a day trip to North Stradbroke Island, or Straddie as its known here.  It is one of the largest sand islands in the world and a 25 minute ferry ride from the coast. We jumped on a morning ferry and once there took a bus to the Point Lookout, which is at the Northern tip of the island.  The island is virtually unspoiled with limited accommodations and a minimal number of shops and cafes. That leaves the beauty of the area as the showcase and it is showcased well.

We started our day with the North Gorge walk.

 

The walk is beautiful with typical walking trails and a boardwalk.

The views of the rugged coastline and the multiple shades of turquoise water are pretty spectacular.

 

 

Its also one of the best places for land based whale watching.  Being that it was still whale season, we were able to see some out in the distance.  There were also many pods of dolphins swimming past.

However, we loved the wild kangaroos most of all.  The little ones had no fear and hopped very closely past us.

However mama roo was a different story.  She was keeping an eye on us as we were now in between her and her little ones.  When she decided to join her family, she travelled way out of her way to get around us.



This is now one of my favorite kangaroo photos. (and I have hundreds of them)

After a very leisurely lunch (not really by choice, but when on an island like this everything moves at a much, MUCH slower pace), we took to the coast and walked from beach to beach.  The water was gorgeous and the girls enjoyed finding the marine life as the tide went out.

 

Hello Mr. Crab

We never actually got into the water past our knees during this trip, which disappointed the girls. The thought of travelling home via bus/ferry/car full of sand and salt just wasn't appealing. Even without the swim, it was a beautiful day trip that I would highly recommend. 

 

 



A Whale of a Tale



I have never had much luck when it came to whale watching.  I had been twice before; both times during different trips to California.  The first time the only whale sighting happened to be on the opposite side of the boat that I was on.  The second time there were no sightings. Nada. Absolutely nothing but seal watching, or should I say smelling, on that trip. 

It just so happens that thousands of humpback whales travel up and down the Eastern coast of Australia as they migrate to and from Antarctica. 

Last September we went whale watching off of the Gold Coast with the family to celebrate our anniversary.  Jackpot! We finally saw a whale.  We followed one whale the entire time as it surfaced and dove, surfaced and dove, surfaced and dove....  you get the picture. We didn't see anything but it's back and tail, but it was far better than anything I had ever seen, so to me it was quite a successful trip.

David's work schedule allows him to get every other Friday off.  He tends to work many of those Fridays, but when he doesn't work we take advantage of going on day-dates to save us the $20 per hour babysitter fee. (yes, you read that correctly)  So last Friday we set off to whale watch again and try our luck at seeing the majestic humpbacks.

We jumped on the "Eye-Spy" out of Redcliffe and headed out.

The waters were nice and calm in the bay where we departed, but the swells were up to 2 meters (6.5 feet) when we got out to sea.  The crew was pretty adamant that we take some motion sickness medicine. I am certainly glad we did as the swells were so big it was very difficult to keep our footing. You will notice that the horizon will not be straight in most of the shots as the boat was never still.

The calm waters of the harbor.

After a 90min boat ride we arrived at the humpback whale highway and almost immediately we had multiple pods sighted. Here are the first whales we came across.  I got ready for the captain to start her pursuit so we could follow and watch the surface and dive, surface and dive.  



 

But guess what?  That never happened because they were more interested in us and instead of continuing on their path stayed and played for the next two hours!  For the first time we saw the whales faces and fins! Sometimes they would just slowly float to the surface....

 ...or sometimes they would play peek-a-boo.  I guess the correct term for lifting their massive heads out of the water to look around is called a "spy hop."  

All I know is it was my favorite thing to watch as this massive animal performed what looked like a synchronized swimming move. 

 

It is hard to grasp the size of these whales, especially when there is nothing nearby to compare them with.  Hopefully this will help.  I am taking this picture from the edge of the railing. 

Here is the same photo taken from behind me by one of the crew on the boat. That is quite a large tail!  Yes, that's me up front in the blue sweatshirt.  (I'm still pretty amazed that we took the exact same photo.)

Taken by Dessray - Brisbane Whale Watching

Many times the whales would swim straight at the boat only to dive under and pop up on the other side.

There was lots of tale waving and slapping too.

The only thing we didn't see was a breech, but since they were so active and playful we were only slightly disappointed.  This splash could have very well been one, but none of us saw it as we were all looking the other way.

All in all it was our most successful whale watching venture yet and a fantastic date at sea. 



Tangalooma

Its time to catch up on some blogging.  We are coming to the close of winter, but we certainly cannot complain about Brisbane weather.  We have had our fair share of chilly nights, but lately we see temps in the mid to upper 70s by mid-day.  Absolutely gorgeous!  We haven't run our heat all winter.  (Ok, that is really because it has been broken for 4 months, but that's another story.)  Anyway, we have had some fantastic adventures this winter, so I thought it was time to start sharing.

Right before our winter break, back in June, we went on a day trip to the Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort on Moreton Island with our good friends the Kfourys before they moved back to Houston.

Anna, Leah, Ashleigh, and Paul

Moreton Island is the 3rd largest sand island in the world and an hour boat ride from Brisbane. Unfortunately, it was an extremely windy day which put quite a chill in the air and rock in the boat.

The water is so beautiful and clear.  It is a good site to snorkel as there are 15 shipwrecks off the coast.
(you can see one of the dive sites on the left side of the picture above.)

When we came ashore we were greeted by the pelicans, seagulls, and pied cormorants.

We quickly signed up for the day's activities and grabbed a bite to eat.

Julie, the kiddos, David and  myself

To start off our afternoon, we took a desert and sand tobogganing tour.  We jumped on the 4-wheel drive bus and headed inland to a massive sand hill.

We were all given a "sled," or what I would call a piece of plywood, and a bar of wax to maximize our speed potential.  The kids were all given goggles to keep the sand out of their eyes. They say you can reach speeds up to 40km per hour (roughly 25mph) and I believe it.

Then it was time to make the trek up. Between the steepness of the hill, the instability of the sand, and the sand-whipping wind, it was not the easiest of climbs.

But then the thrill of the hill made it all worth while!  Down....

Anna

down....

Ashleigh

down...

David

down....

Janelle

down....

Gaby and Leah

and down we went!

Paul

As time went on and our legs grew weary of the climb, there weren't many of us willing and/or able to make the trek up.  However, there were a few of us determined to get in as many trips down the hill as possible.

This was probably my 4th trip up. The crowd is dwindling.

Activity number one was quite a success!  Even though we were covered in sand from head to foot, we all had a blast!

After our return we had just enough time for a quick break so the kids could burn off some energy (wait, shouldn't they be tired by now?), as well as....

a coffee break for the adults.

Then it was off to adventure number two, the quad bikes!  After our quick instructional video, we were loaded on to the bikes.  One more quick reminder on how to stop in an emergency and we were deemed worthy to drive.

The tour started off at the beach for a little practice game of follow the leader.

Then we headed up the dunes to the fun of climbing hills, winding turns,

and spectacular sunset viewing.  It was now time to park our bikes and get to our third and final activity before boarding the boat back to Brisbane.

 no photography tricks - the sky really looked like it was on fire

As the name suggests, Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort is known for it's wild bottlenose dolphin feeding. At sunset, up to eight dolphins swim up to shore to be hand fed fish by those staying at or visiting the resort. This was supposed to be the highlight of the day.  However, remember how I mentioned the brisk temperatures and high winds in the morning.  They were worse once the sun went down. The temperatures had to have been in the 40's but we were determined to feed the dolphins anyway.  We were walked up to the shoreline line and told to grab a fish out of the bucket.

waiting with our fish.

Then it was time to be led out to the dolphins.  If you were to head out to the Tangalooma website you would see children standing in very placid waist deep water one or two dolphins hanging out right in front of them gently eating fish from their hands.  Unfortunately, we had a slightly different experience.  First, please notice that the guides leading us into the water have on full drysuits and flotation devices.  We, on the other hand, are in rash guards and swim shorts/skirts.

The guide starting to lead us out to the dolphins.

Second, we all had to hold hands for dear life while the waves crashed over our heads and kept trying to throw us back towards the beach.  Not only could we not get close enough to the dolphins, but with all of the saltwater in our faces we couldn't even make out where they were.

trying to keep our footing....at this point Anna and I are back to back and Leah looks far from happy in Gaby's arms

About right after Ashleigh's water shoe got ripped from her foot and I had lost all feeling in my lower extremities is when I yelled something like "Girl's just take your fish and chuck it towards the dolphins! This is all kinds of miserable and it's time to get out!"  There were no complaints, the fish were tossed out to sea, and we were on our way out to change and get warm.  Although we look really happy, we were all pretty disappointed that the dolphin feed didn't happen like we had envisioned.

Thank you David for being the only smart one in the group and staying dry to take photos for everyone.

Here are the dolphins hanging back behind the rough surf.  However, one dolphin must have been hungry enough to venture toward land because Julie was the only one of the seven of us that actually fed one.

We all had a great time and have fond memories of our day at Tangalooma.  We certainly miss the Kfourys here in Brisbane, but look forward to crossing paths again in the future.