Mackay

On Friday 17/7 we headed from Tannum Sands to Mackay which is 470 ks. We went through Gladstone and Rockhampton. The drive was long and pretty boring and the landscape so dry. So many crops of sugar cane was unreal we stopped to take a photo as it's so high and just goes for miles and miles. It really stinks though was gross.

Here's a pic of our car against the sugarcane as you can see towers over the top so it's pretty high

We got to Mackay Friday afternoon and we are staying with Erin and Joel for a few days.

On Saturday we went to the football to watch Joel play for the Mackay Saints and they were short some players so they roped Shaun into playing a game of footy. He was very sore after he hasn't played for nearly ten months but he did pretty well. They lost though which was a shame. It seemed strange to go the footy in our shorts and t-shirts instead of being rugged up in coats and scarves with blankets for our knees!!

Both boys were very sore after the game so they had a jacuzzy when we got home. Summer got in as well and she loved it - another tanty when she had to get out.

Here's a pic of her

Today Erin and Joel took us to do some touristy things. We had a great day we headed down to the park first so Summer could have a play. She is right into the park at the moment and loves playing. It's hard to get her away. I usually have to bribe her food usually works!! her favourite things are the swing and the slide.

We then went to a pub called Eimeo which was up on top of a hill. We sat outside and had a drink and the view from up there was just amazing. Here's a few pics from there. We could easily have settled in there for the day but unfortunately no babysitter!!!

From there we went to Eullunga which is about 80kms from Mackay to check out the platypus and have one of the famous pies at the pub. We did see one platypus and it was tiny not like the big ones we have back home! and we saw a turtle to. Summer was very excited she was ohhing and ahhing and there were lots of people there laughing at her and exclaiming how lovely she was...

Still in Eullunga we went to the Eullunga Chalet for a drink (can you see a pattern forming here? lots of stopping for a drink!!) and the view from up there was just amazing. I was a bit nervous though with Summer as there were no real fences or boundaries and we all know she has no fear so we had to keep our eyes on her the whole time.

Here's a couple from up at the Eullunga Pub

The view

Joel standing on the platform they hanglide off

Front of the Chalet

The road back down

and the camels on the side of the road!!

We then stopped at the Pinnacle Pub for one of their famous pies the bloke makes them and they sell between 800 and 900 pies a week and have seven different kinds.

So we had a full day and got home around 7pm all exhausted but had a great day.

All our love to everyone back home xxx

Tannum Sands

We headed off from Hervey Bay with the idea of staying in Gladstone. On the way there we saw a little dot on the map which was right on the coast called Tannum Sands and Boyne Island so we decided to go there instead of Gladstone and see what it was like. On the road in I said to Shaun "gee I hope they have a supermarket or something because we need nappies" as we drove into town one of the first things we saw was a big coles supermarket and they had Woolworths to! - we thought it was going to be a little beachside town like Port Sorell or St. Helens we were wrong it was a huge beachside town bigger than Devonport I reckon!

We stayed in Tannum Sands for three days and easily could have stayed for longer. It has been our favourite place so far. It was right on the beach the weather was beautiful, had some great parks and shops and everyone was so friendly.

Summer went swimming in the pool at the caravan park which wasn't even heated!! I thought it was freezing but her and Shaun had a couple of swims and didn't think it was to bad. We couldn't get Summer out everytime we tried she threw a tanty even though by the end she was shivering and her lips turning blue she still didn't want to get out and screamed all the way back to our van!!

The weather was gorgeous was about 26/27 degrees. We spent a bit of time at the beach. Summer didn't really like the sand on her feet but didn't take her to long to get used to it. The first day we went down for a walk and she ended up saturated after wading in the water. We collected some shells and built some sandcastles which she thought was great fun.

They had a great track there that goes around the whole town so we took her for a bit of a ride on the mountain bike and she also loved playing at the park. Shaun and I had a go on the flying fox that was fun!!

Definately our favourite place so far lots of gorgeous houses there to! It's the only place so far where I have said I could live.

Here's a few pics from Tannum Sands

Hervey Bay

We left Aaron's on Monday 13th July and headed for Hervey Bay we had planned to spend three days in Hervey Bay but didn't account for NSW school holidays so could only get a site for one night at the caravan park. Hervey Bay was nice right on the beach but was really busy lots of little shops, cafes and so on. Summer liked the beach and we got a few good photos just on sunset.

Sovereign Island

We went to Sovereign Island for a drive yesterday. We went and had a look over there last time we were here which was three years ago.

There has been a few new houses go up. Lots of gorgeous houses hard to believe people can afford to live in such luxury. We drove around over there for over an hour picked out a few houses we would like to live in :) one that we liked was actually for sale it had five bedrooms, six bathrooms and six garages!! a pool, a wine cellar, and of course direct ocean access and was really cheap only 4.5 million!! there are still a few blocks of land available over there so I jumped on the net when we got home and they range in price from about 1.5 million to over 4 million just for a block of a land. then of course there are stipulations for building on the block makes you wonder what kind of jobs these people do to live like this.

We took a couple of photos enjoy :)


Shaun liked the glass in this one

being built is absolutely massive we think it must be apartments or something as it's so huge but there are no apartment blocks in the area so we aren't sure

the brickwork of this one was different - not finished yet looks a bit like a castle

We took a photo of this house last time we were up so three years ago and they were just building it we had to laugh that when we went back today they were just doing the outside so these people have been building for over three years.

Moving House & Coming Home

Aaron has moved this weekend. We've come down from up the mountain and are now about five minutes from Dreamworld in a fairly new area in a four bedroom brand new house. The house has a double garage and is rendred and has never been lived in before so they have moved up in the world now :) It's a really lovely place is pretty big has a decent backyard and is in a really nice spot and much better than having to go up and down that mountain every day (for the boys to get to and from work)

There are three blokes living here plus Shaun and Summer and I for just a little bit longer. We had planned to head off next week towards Townsville way but will wait another week now.

Unfortunately my nan died on Thursday night :( we weren't expecting it so we are shocked. She was 90 though so she did live a long life, so Aaron and I are heading home tomorrow for a couple of days so we can go to the funeral. It will be nice to see my family again just not the best circumstances. Unfortunately this is the second death we have had in our families since we left on our trip.

Seaworld

We took Summer to Seaworld last Friday. It was a pretty overcast day and not real warm which was good because it meant there weren't very many people around. We had a great day and Summer loved all the animals and really enjoyed the shows to. She loved the Sesame Street show we were in the front row there she was up dancing and the Dolphin show she loved that to she was clapping and saying wow was really cute. We took the pram but hardly used it she just wanted to walk so our poodle backpack/leash came in very handy. They had some rides in the Sesame Street area that she really enjoyed her favourite was the carasouel which we had to go on twice!!

We took heaps of photos from the day so i'll post just a few for you all to see :)

Shaun's new job

Shaun has been working with Aaron for three weeks now down at the Marina working on the boats they do repair maintenance and the fit outs for new boats. Shaun took me down there last weekend to have a look at some of the boats. WOW there were some massive boats down there some people must have plenty of money!! There are also some gorgeous houses down there most two or three stories right on the water and they have their boats moored at their front door. Plenty of money about over here that's for sure.

Aaron standing next to one the motors on the boat to show you how big it is. Aaron is over six foot tall and it's bigger than him!

This is the Pacific Pearl. Shaun worked on this one and it just went back in the water last week it's worth 1.3 million!

This is the boat they are working on at the moment

This boat is called Dreamtime and weighs 150 tonne and is one of the biggest boats down there. It's massive it looks even bigger in real life