Blogs from Broadbeach, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

It has been some time since the last entry and we have been forgetting to take the camera, so the photos are scarce. After Yeppoon, we spent 2 days at Hervey Bay. We tried our luck again, fishing off the pier but no luck! The beaches were beautiful. Unfortunately the huge stinger warnings (including the fact that some are life threatening and the need to call emergency if stung) plus the bottles of vinegar at many coastal spots has made the water a little less inviting). We have seen some spectacular swimming spots. However, the reassurance at the caravan parks that all is generally okay at this time of year has not been enough for us to send the kids in. The only exception are beach areas specifically designed with stinger nets. There are many Queenslanders ... read more

Alex has wanted to see the ocean since we arrived, so we packed ourselves lots of layers and headed off to the beach. The local beach is less than 5 minutes away (even when driving slowly on the left side of the road). When we got there, we realized we were very overdressed. There was no wind and a cloudless sky. We quickly shed our layers, rolled up Alex's pants, slathered on the sunscreen and headed out onto the soft sandy beach. Alex loved it. We found sand pails and shovels in the garage so were ready to have fun. Alex spent a good deal of time digging in the sand, but really surprised both of us when he decided to venture toward the water. Slowly but surely he and Tom got closer and closer and ... read more

We had a little sleep in this morning and decided that today would be another beach day. We walked down to our beach. Dad and I hopped in the water right away. The waves this time were a bit different. It was deep near the shore and then went really shallow for a ways (sand bar) and thats where the big waves were hitting. These waves scared me a bit more then the others. I liked being in the deeper water where you could just float with the waves. Mom came out with us for a bit. We walked back to the hotel and I hopped straight into the pool. It's such a nice pool! We got all cleaned up and had a snack and relaxed for the afternoon before walking over to the mall across ... read more

We were up early to some sunshine and checked out of our apartment. We gave our rental car a quick wash and a vacuum. We headed out of Noosa and made a pit stop in Eumundi for their famous markets. It was a huge market and dad gave mom and I a deadline of one hour. So not cool! But mom and I headed off in search of some cool things. Mom ended up buying the most. She found a dress (that I really liked!) a hat made by a local lady, and a wood cutting board. I managed to find a great sunhat in hopes that our rainy days were over. Dad bought us ladies some really yummy popcorn. It's too bad we couldn't stay at the markets longer but we had to get through ... read more

So we set off with some trepidation to the marathon expo to pick our timing chip and race number after we had been rumbled for our attempts at saving a couple of dollars last week. As it turned out it passed without incident as the lady on question was at a media conference, she sent us a nice email saying we were forgiven as she loved our story and was looking forward to meeting us. wooo hooo we have a new friend in Queensland. Then we set off to explore the expo, Philips brother Andrew who knows about this stuff had recommended the Phiten stuff. it sounded like witch craft to me they claim it relieves fatigue by balancing the body's positive and negative ions and thus regulating the body's "bio-electric currents." what happened next is ... read more