Blogs from Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 22

Hey, Just a quick update and photos of the house we are renting in Newport. Its a new development next to a man-made seawater lake on the Redcliffe peninsula, 5 minutes from the beach. Best wishes to everyone. Calv... read more

Another bit of a hike up the road from Longreach to not far shy of Camooweal. Not a lot to report. The Rigby three met up with a mate not far North and then we lost contact with each other for most of the rest of the day! All was well though as we all had said we’d like a beer at the Walkabout Creek Hotel (see Crocodile Dundee). Funnily enough we all ended arriving within 20 minutes of each other so no harm was done. The camping offered there was in a gravel car park so we set off in late afternoon to find any spot we could. Which we did, on the side of the road, around 150m from the highway. Yay!... read more

Today was our first rest day that involved no driving. Whoot!!! I had big plans of taking the kids to see the Qantas Museum and/or the Stockman’s Hall of Fame but they were so horribly overpriced that I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Instead we went to a fantastic show about Harry Redford, a cattle rustler from the old days. It was bloody funny with the two lads acting it out being good on their feet and very happy to give it to the Kiwis, Tasmanians and Victorians on the audience. The pollies copped it a fair bit as well. As a lead-up to the show there was a local bush poet (Patrick Casey from Stonehenge, QLD) reading from his latest collection. He was the best part of 85-90 and a real character. Tony bought ... read more

From Tuesday to Friday I participated as an Official in the Oceania Athletics Championships which were held at "The Red Track" in beautiful Townsville. This is a picturesque track with Castle Hill towering in the background. These are the first Oceania Champs to be held which, under new IAAF rules, give points towards qualifying for the World Champs and so Australia and New Zealand sent full teams and thus this was the largest Champs ever held with over 700 athletes competing from every country in the Pacific. During the four days I officiated at more than a dozen events including Shot Putt, Discus, Triple Jump and Long Jump. My favourites, though, were the three High Jumps where I was a bar judge twice and a recorder the other time. Excellent competitions and very good heights were ... read more

Travelling from one place to another with children in tow can be a daunting task. Even the most well-behaved child can be quite a handful during a trip. This can usually be attributed to the change in environment, moving from a place that they know to an unfamiliar area can be disruptive to their routine. However, children do not have to make the idea of travelling sound too hard, you just have to plan ahead in order to take care of any contingency that may arise. When travelling, the safety of your toddler is of utmost importance and listed below are a few tips for ensuring that your child is perfectly safe while on a journey Be prepared While travelling, your child will most likely come in contact with dirty objects or surfaces that are full ... read more