Noosa Wash Out

While B&P were here visiting, we planned what was to be our first overnight (5 nights total) trip here in Australia.  We were so excited to be able to share such a special first with another first - our first visitors.  After much deliberation and research, we decided to keep it simple (sound familiar?) and book a holiday house in Noosa.

Noosa is this UH-mazing little beach town two hours north of Brisbane on The Sunshine Coast. It is hugely popular with families, surfers and everyone in between.  There is a large wildlife preserve that ends at a point, which protects the Noosa beach from wind and big waves.  Surfers take on the point, but the calmer waters of main beach are perfect for boogie boarding and little kiddos who don't care for the rougher water.  We were thrilled that we'd get to experience such a great place for 5 days with the help of grandparents in tow, and were hoping that they would fall in love with the paradise that is Australia's East Coast.

Remember what I said in my last post about the first two weeks?  Well, this 5-day period was no better.  In fact, it was worse.  This was pretty much our view:

We got in to Noosa on Friday, late afternoon and it started raining that evening; right about the time that we walked down to see the beach.  It did NOT stop raining almost the entire time we were there!  As a matter of fact, it got to be so bad that the weather made the news with gale force winds, small land slides and over 260ml of rain in less than 24 hours (that's over 10 inches!). I should tell you that the entire time we were there ended up only being two days because of the weather.  The real estate company who leased us the house, Richardson & Wrench, were great and let us take a rain check on our last 3 days.




















heading out for our beach walk on our first evening

To back up a little, at first we were just bummed that the weather turned out to be so bad.  But the first night we tried to make the best of it, playing a game of scrabble and enjoying our time together.  The next morning, Bunny and I woke up early and headed out, bad weather and all to go check out the Eumundi Markets.  These markets are famous as being Queensland's largest open air market, which attracts thousands of vendors and visitors each Saturday.  They also host a smaller version on Wednesdays.  And even though the crowd was small this weekend, we had a great time shopping and looking at all the unique artisans.




















mom at the markets

playing the didgeridoo 

the incredible bonsai guy, so much fun to talk to.




















heading into one of the art galleries

By Saturday night we were getting antsy that the weather was not letting up at all and the house seemed to be shaking with the strong wind.  A friend sent me a message checking on us, and that's when we found out that Noosa's weather was making national headlines.  We got on the phone first thing the next morning and ended up checking out and heading home.  It was somewhat of a relief when we got back to Brisbane and the weather was still rotten.  We were beginning to think that we had been singled out!

It was such a disappointment to have our big vacation rained out, but somewhat of a condolence to know that it was a 50 year weather event!  We're just sorry that B&P didn't get the relaxing and fun week that we had planned.  One of the highlights of our short trip was finding a giant carpet python up in a tree near the house.  I'm not a snake lover, not at all, but it was still cool to see one in the wild (especially since it was so far away). Not sure you can pick it out in the photo below, but I thought I'd include it anyway.



caden goofing around, ready to snorkel I reckon




















trying to make the best of a sad situation...a few family photos before we head out.

























































So long for now Noosa!  We'll be back in December with some friends to finish out the rest of our stay...fingers crossed that we don't see a single drop of rain. I think somehow we deserve a cloud-free weekend!

Bunny & Paw Visit - Part 1

At the end of September, my parents, also known as "Bunny and Paw" by the kids, came over to Oz for their first visit.  It was such a welcome break from the day-to-day life, and we were all thrilled to see them arrive after that 24 hour trip...it's a doozie folks.

A two-week visit would have been a treat, but we were in for four whole weeks with our precious family, so their visit will be spread into multiple posts.

we made a sign for them to see at the airport that the kids colored themselves.  Of course Caden didn't want to hold it by himself...too embarrassed.  And, don't ask me why I'm standing like that...I know I look goofy.

So glad Mr. Kookaburra decided to make a showing that first afternoon and introduce himself to our visitors.

There's not much to say about the first two weeks other than it rained.  It's something when sunny Queensland gets the most rain they've had in something like 50 years.  I'm happy for the state, but it sure did put a damper on our plans!

Our first trip out was to Burleigh Heads. A quaint little beach town just a bit farther south than Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast.  It wasn't the blue-sky picturesque day that we were hoping for, but no rain = opportunity.

looking for shells

making sandcastles

proud of her find

hangin' with Paw

our crew...minus Bunny, behind the lens.

the rocks at Burleigh looked almost black on this part-cloudy day...that's Surfer's in the far distance...doesn't show up as well on screen as it does in the real photo, but it makes for an amazing backdrop!

we had fun looking in the tide pools for fish and shells - they are full of treasures like these.

the girls had fun feeding the gulls.

feed them and they will come

then we took a bush walk

here's our noisy little parade.

one of the many creepy-crawleys.

On the south side of Burleigh was one of the quietest and calmest beaches I have seen since we've been here.  It looked like a great place to play with small children or just float around in the water.  I'm pretty sure it's on the list of places to go back and see again.

The following week, we took B&P to the Australia Zoo.  It was our second trip, but it was just as much fun as the first!  This time it was school holidays and we went to see Bindi the Jungle Girl perform and her mom, Terrie Irwin, feed the crocs with little Bob-bob.  It still gets me that Steve isn't there doing what he loved so much.  I can only imagine Australia's sense of loss when his life was taken. 

Bindi and the Jungle Girls

Terrie Irwin, Bindi and Bob-bob waiting to feed the crocs

look at the size of that thing!  He's about to do the death roll.

posing with Steve...crikey!

feeding the elephants

Caden got to meet one of his favorite characters - Ben 10

one of the cute and cuddlies at the zoo

one of the many walls that pays tribute to Steve's amazing life and career.

little devil

cool roo

marin wasn't sure she wanted to get much closer to the koala.

caden wanted to take his photo with this gigantic statue...

monkey see monkey do...

and Bunny & Paw too

That's one more successful trip to the Australia Zoo under our belts.  I sincerely hope that next year they run the same special we got in on this year.  If you visited in the month of August you got a pass for the rest of the year.  That's a great deal considering the price is something like $60 per adult! That said, the zoo seems to spend it's profits wisely and put them into the things that they promote like conservation and wildlife research.

Later in the week, Bunny tried her hand at driving on the wrong side of the road.  Luckily, our car is still in one piece after our trip to the grocery.

And to wrap up, a few photos with our favorite Texas grandparents on the back patio...we spend so much time in this area of our house.  It really is an extension of our living space.  These photos don't show it, but one of my favorite memories from this whole trip was waking up to a house full of loved ones, who (lucky me) were already up and moving around in the morning, usually relaxing and drinking coffee to the sounds of the birds waking the world up.  We also spent a lot of time there in the evenings where Bunny would sit with an audience of 3 to watch the bats fly by during twilight. There are amazing colonies of gigantic fruit bats who live in the Brisbane area, which I will post more about soon.  But back to the grandparent lovin...

We love visitors! Big smiles!