Blogs from North Stradbroke Island, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

Some choose to spend the Queensland public Ekka holiday at the show grounds and others choose to travel over to Straddie and experience the golden sands and deserted beaches instead. Guess what we decided to do? We were fortunate enough to have a complimentary two night stay at our favourite residential accommodation at Home Beach so left work early and caught the 5pm ferry and enjoyed watching the sunset over Moreton Bay as we travelled the 45 minute crossing and went into instant relax mode. We had recently changed our car and bought a Toyota Landcruiser 4WD so that we could experience off road driving and explore more of the Australian outback on future holidays. So with a permit to drive on the beach and a tide timetable we planned to explore Main and Flinders Beach ... read more

In the winter of 2008, more than 10000 Southern Humpback whales were spotted off the headland at Point Lookout. Their numbers are slowly but steadily increasing with each season, and this is testament to our adjusted thinking and understanding regarding these magnificent creatures. Recent reports indicate that in the 2009 season their number had increased to around 12000, and the 2010 season promises to draw that number closer to 14000. The humpbacks haven't always had such a carefree time in our recent past because up until the early sixties there was a whaling station very nearby that almost brought them to the brink of extinction in these waters. In 1962, at the end of a ten year killing spree, the whaling station at Tangalooma on Moreton Island ceased to operate. The reason was simple, their Norwegian ... read more

Updates from the last two weeks: Ive been working for about 2 weeks now, I like it, the people at my work are really nice. But the restaraunt is fancy so i have these stricked giuldlines to follow and it seems like I keep messing them up, but im slowly learning. Me and jason were lucky enough to get invited to go out to the christmas party, which was all inclusive...including drinks, which then leads to me drinking to much wine haha We ended up leaving without saying bye to anyone lol i dont think anyone really noticed. We went to the realllllly good indian resteraunt and im not sure if it was so good because it was good or because i was drunk lol BUT i really enjoyed myself. Then for a day we went ... read more

G'day from another awesome week in Australia! This past week has been a busy one, but definately fun, especially towards the end! As we all know St. Patricks Day was this past Tuesday the 17th and of course we want to go out and celebrate. The day is not big here in Aussieland, but is still celebrated somewhat. So we got into our green gear and went out to a bar called 'Down Under Bar', clever name right? It was absolutely packed and literally couldn't move! It was definitely a fun night, but will not compare to St. Patricks Day celebrations back in Dublin, Ireland two years ago. This past Thursday the 19th, I went on a field trip for the day to Brisbane Forest Park. This trip was with my BIOL2001 class or Australia's Terrestrial ... read more

There is a camp spot on the eastern coast of Straddie we nicknamed ‘Camp Pandanus’ as it has two massive Pandanus trees shielding the spot from both Northerlies and the prevailing South easterly wind that blows there like the Sou’wester does on the West coast. We have camped on Straddy haf a dozen times and Camp Pandanus was always taken, given the shelter it has and it is one of the few spots perched on the first dune back from the beach giving it ocean views. Well, we had it marked on our GPS (thanks Chris we finally used it =)) and low and behold it was free!!! Yippeeee Yahooo welcome to Straddie! We have set up our full camp and have been here for almost two weeks just swimming, walking, a couple of surfs and ... read more