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We had a fabulous campsite on the lake in Maroochydore, right across the road from the South Maroochy River. It was a lovely place to stay, however we did have to visit Bunnings for an electric heater for nighttime....down to 3 degrees (which feels considerably colder in a camper trailer!). We were lucky enough to be here in time for the Eumundi markets on Wednesday, much to Grant and the boys' disappointment. My cousin Leesa was staying in Noosa for the weekend, so I tagged along for some girl market time, while Grant and the boys explored some of the Noosa coast and surrounds. I THOROUGHLY enjoyed the markets, and managed to restrain my spending to a moderate level!
We also enjoyed the cafés, shops, sunshine and relaxed atmosphere of Mooloolaba and the "best fish and chips in QLD" at Mooloolaba Beach.
On Thursday, we had to pack up and head to Brisbane in time for an appointment with a Doctor to have Fin's cast taken off his arm. With plenty of time to spare, we had a good drive through Brisbane City, although it did prove difficult at times to manoeuvre the 4x4 with roof luggage, and the
camper trailer through the city centre! All good though, and plenty of funny memories!
Sushi Train for lunch, and then to the doctor, who happened to be the club doctor for the Brisbane Lions, so Fin was pretty chuffed with that! Not as chuffed as having the cast removed though - it was a long 4 weeks for him.
After seeing the doctor, we caught the barge over to North Stradbroke Island. We set up camp in a beautiful campground right on the water, with prime views of the sunset. Unfortunately, in my efforts to help quickly set up the awning on the camper, I managed to break the zip....as you can imagine, this caused considerable tension in the Hansen camp, and is still the subject of some jokes (at my expense!). Fortunately, the forecast is for fine weather here on in, so the outlook seems to be ok.
The next day we found a fun 4x4 sand track which led us to Flinders beach. We drove the length of the beach through some quite soft sand, and finished off the day with the boys playing "marks up" on the beach and chasing waves in the setting
sun. As the boys were settling down for bed in their swags, we saw a dolphin and her calf frolicking next to the rocks. They were so close we literally could have reached out and touched them. They stayed and played for ages....it was as though they were putting on a show especially for us. How incredible to experience these amazing creatures in the wild.
On Saturday we had a leisurely morning, packing up (which is a quicker process without the awning!), and then we had a drive through to the resort side of the island. As we waited for our coffees and milk shakes we were treated to some fantastic and unexpected whale watching. There must have been hundreds of whales playing off shore, and it was really lovely watching them.
We arrived at the caravan park in the Gold Coast on Saturday afternoon with time for a quick food shop and swim in the pool. I bumped into a friend from Adelaide in the caravan park, which was funny and good to catch up.
On Sunday we headed to Movie World for the day. There were tears, laughs, high blood pressure, screams, and plenty of
second thoughts. Fin surprised himself by taking on a couple of extreme rides, and living to tell the tale. Griff surprised himself by accidentally going on some extreme rides (hence the tears) and Ryley had lots of fun doing exactly what he had planned to do. Grant overcame some fears (mainly because he didn't want to be outdone by his 12 yo son!), and I came away with a very horse throat. The boys all certainly rate the day in the top 5 of the trip so far!
Monday was a "job" day, but we managed to squeeze in a lovely lunch in the sun at Surfer's Paradise. Fin had to have his arm x-rayed to make sure the fracture was properly healed, and the boys were ecstatic to catch a close up glimpse of Gary Ablett Jnr coming out of the same x-Ray clinic. They had been looking out for him the whole time we were in the Gold Coast, and how amazing to actually see him! I told Fin he should've compared sporting injuries with Gazz, but he disagreed!
Tuesday was "Wet 'n' Wild" day, with the weather sunny and 20 degrees. We all had a
ball, but some of the rides were truly terrifying! Why do I do this to myself? The boys all had heaps of fun too....great that they're that little bit older than our last visit, so they could make the most of the rides.
Wednesday morning we packed up and drove south to Byron Bay. I intend to rediscover my inner hippy, and attempt to hippy-ise the boys a little. Wish me luck!
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