Steph's Travelogue

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Day 10: 4-Wheel Drive fun!!

Where to begin?!!? What an amazing day!! We went on a 4-wheel Drive tour out to Mount Tamborine all day – what a blast! We stopped first to wander thru a wildlife area – saw a koala up in the tree!! Even saw wild kangaroos out in the field!! Soooo cool!! Headed off into the mountains on a super bumpy road – kids flew a bit in the back of our ‘party’ bus! Learned a new song – “Give me a home among the gumtrees.” Kids are experts – even learned the actions! Stopped for tea and scones and headed off into the rainforest. Hiked down Tamborine National Park to Curtis Falls. Was cool to drive thru the Eucalyptus woods and see kangaroos out in the wild! Wow! Stopped for a delicious BBQ lunch, where the kids learned how to throw boomerangs and crack whips. Eddie did an amazing job with the whip! Back into our party bus we went and off for a rainforest tree top walk and fed the birds! Girls did some screaming as they landed all over us…am still picking out birdseed from my hair! One last stop at the overlook and back to Surfer’s we went. Quick cleaning off of bird seed…and bird poop… and off to Hard Rock Café for dinner we went! Couldn’t get us all together L so kids went one direction and adults went another. Some had never been, so we had to do it! Sorry Bob! Stopped down at the beach to check it out and back to the hotel we went. We are having such an amazing time – so hard to believe we’ve been here a week…and that we have just one more week to go!! Where has the time gone?!? Looking back it’s so cool to see what we’ve done…and looking ahead to the itinerary makes me excited to watch their faces experience more fun! For instance, tomorrow, we’re going to a wildlife sanctuary to hold koalas & feed kangaroos. Then the kids are going surfing while we visit Byron Bay. Good stuff! We’ll be in Sydney on Saturday – two big days on the coach…ugh. But it’s all good!!

Until tomorrow…

~steph :)

(pics to follow...running out of internet time..)

Koala in the wild...we disturbed his slumber...

Joey out in the wild...

Tea Time!

Curtis Falls

BBQ lunch

Olivia working on her boomerang form...

Cristina trying to master the whip...

Eddie was the whip master

Kathryn looking stylish while practicing her whip skills

Courtney paying listening intently to directions

Mike & Molly on our tree top walk

Adam, Debbie & I on the tree top walk

Bird feeding time!

After a run-in with a rooster, Olivia is a little skittish around the parakeets.

LOVING the day!!

Yeah Team Iowa!

Our entire bus: Team Iowa, Team Texas, and Team Puerto Rico

Dinner at the Hard Rock

Adam joining in on our jumping fun!

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Day 9: Surfer's Paradise

We sadly said good-bye to Fraser Island this morning, boarded our Ferry & headed back to mainland Australia. We got back on our bus and headed back south. First stop was Underwater World Aquarium where we saw all sorts of marine life & even watched a seal show! Grabbed a quick lunch and back on the coach we went, continuing south. Our destination of tonight is Surfer’s Paradise, and we arrived just in time to see the sun set. Surfer’s is a big concrete jungle/Vegas feeling. We walked around a bit tonight, and hit some shops. Not much to report today as we spent most of it on the coach. Weather is absolutely gorgeous here – mid 70s… a bit chilly in the morning and after the sun goes down at night. Our Tour Director, Adam, has challenged us all with an on-going trivia game. One round was played in New Zealand. So far we’ve done another round here and just got another set of questions this afternoon. Kids are in 2^nd place, adults in 3^rd – Go Iowa!!!

Tomorrow we’re off for an Australian adventure today… possibly learning how to throw boomerangs!

G’day from Surfers!

~steph J

Good-bye Fraser!

Hello Surfer's Paradise!

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Day 8: Fraser Island

Today we spent a whole day exploring Fraser Island. Typically we are offered, as an optional, a half-day 4-wheel drive tour of the island, but we chose to upgrade to the full-day and are SOOOO happy we did. Fraser Island, being the world’s largest sand island, doesn’t have real roads – they’re all sand…and not real smooth. Thank goodness for seatbelts, let’s just say that! We headed to the eastern side of the island to 75 mile beach and sped north to Eli Creek. The waves from the Pacific were just crashing on the beach as people fished and also drove their 4-wheel drive vehicles. We then headed up to The Pinacles to see the multi-colored sand dunes. Our last stop before lunch was the big shipwreck. Soooo cool to see that boat just lying on the beach. After lunch we headed to Central Station where they organized their logging industry. We took a nice hike thru the woods and then made our last stop at Lake Makenzie. When we were here 7 yrs ago, there was a nice, sandy beach and the bluest water I have ever seen. Well, Mother Nature took away the beach – literally the stairs fall into the lake. The water has ‘magical powers’ and turns your skin so soft…and when combined with the sand makes a great jewelry cleaner. We got back to the resort in time for sunset. Had yummy pizza for dinner and then did a bonfire. Those Aussies do need to work on their bonfires skills as they gave us skewers to roast our marshmallows – they weren’t long enough, so told the kids to watch their eyebrows. Went dingo hunting along the beach but found none. Luckily we saw 3 of them earlier in the day. Did you know dingos love pineapple?!?! Yep, me either. Tomorrow we head back to the main land and start our trek south. We’ll be hitting Surfer’s Paradise next and arrive in Sydney on Saturday.

Lovin’ every minute of it…

~steph J

Eli Creek

Jumpin' for Joy on Fraser

Our EF pose :)

Kids with Guide Adam at Lake Mackenzie

just another day in paradise...

Monday, June 17, 2013

Day 7: Noosa & Fraser

Today we sadly left our resort paradise of the Twin Waters Novotel and headed north. Our first stop was Noosa for some beach & relaxing time - gorgeous!! The blue water, the waves crashing...amazing...

After a few hours of beach paradise, we kept heading north to Fraser, our home for the next 2 nights. Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island. It's 75 miles long and 20 miles wide. We had to take a ferry across to our resort, where we took a shuttle up to the resort. All our rooms are nestled in the woods, along a lake, and we made it out of meeting in time to see the gorgeous sunset. After delicious pizza & pasta dinner, we did a night walk with Ranger James. We saw a bat & some cane toads as well as the Southern Cross. Such a beautiful place!!

Tomorrow we're doing a full-day tour of the Island - can hardly wait!

~steph :)

(picture loading feature not working...coming soon!)

Good morning, Paradise!

Lovin' Noosa!

Me & My Girls! :)

Surfin'

Collecting shells...love the reflection shot!

My monkeys in the trees!

Ferry to Fraser

Sunset on Fraser

LOVIN' Fraser Island!

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Day 6: Jumpin' the Ditch!

Day 6 - and we say Adios to New Zealand and G'day to Australia!

On our way to the airport today we stopped in Mata Mata for a Hobbiton visit. It's quite rainy today in NZ, so umbrellas were a must. We spent about 4 hrs on the bus, sadly said good-bye to our great driver, Keith, and hopped on a plane across the ditch to Brisbane, Australia. The sunset as we landed was gorgeous! After clearing the questions at customs, we hopped on the bus with our new driver, Troy, and headed north an hour to our overnight hotel. It's a gorgeous place along a lake...or so I'm told since it gets dark here quite early. The sun comes up about 7 am and goes down 5:30ish, so we must be efficient with our day light.

Tomorrow we're heading up to Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island, where we will spend 2 nights, as well as do a 4wheel excursion around the island. Super excited as it's one of my most favorite places in Australia.

Sorry no pics today as the Wi-Fi is suuuuper expensive at this hotel, so I'm using the lobby computers and can't load pics. Hope to have some at the next place.

G'Day!
~steph :)

Lord of the Rings stop

Cedric checking out the hobbit house

Eddie making friends

We were here!

Our coach driver, Keith, was great!!

Chillin' in the Auckland airport before we jump the ditch to Australia.

On our way to Oz!

All the luggage made it - woot woot!!

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Day 5: Adventure & Adrenaline Rush

Another amazing day here in New Zealand!! Luckily no boats on fire today - woo hoo!! We got up bright & early to re-do our Duck Boat tour, but since the operator was out of fire extinguishers, he canceled, so we wandered thru the Botanical Gardens & found a playground to play on. :) Never too old for playgrounds! We then walked to the Jade showroom for a demonstration and shopping.

We had a busy agenda today - no wasting daylight for us!! First up was the Agrodome and a sheep shearing show. Most of the kids got up on stage during volunteer time & we listened as they described all the different types of sheep and actually watched them shear a sheep.

The fun continued across the street at AgroAdentures where the kdis went Swooping, Shweeb, Jet Boating and Free Falling for 2+ hours. Next on our Adrenaline rush day was the Skyline Gondola up to go Luging!! A favorite of mine! From there we went straight to the Ogo where they all jumped in their plastic hamster balls filled with warm water and meandered down a hill. Loads of fun!

Our last NZ experience of the day was a stop at Rainbow Springs to see real live Kiwis -- the birds, that is. Super cool to see their long beaks!

Starving and on an adrenaline high, we went back to the hotel and headed for dinner where we ended up at The Shed, a pub with the big Rugby match - The All Blacks vs. France. Met the locals who were trying to guess where we were from...Canada...Argentina...US (but we were too quiet so this wan't their first choice. lol).

And to top off our day - we celebrated Cristina's 18th birthday with cake and a whole lounge of Kiwis singing along...and trying to steal our cake!

Overall an amazing day!! We will be sad to say good-bye to NZ and jump across the ditch to Australia tomorrow, but more adventures await! Enjoy the pics below!! We love the comments!
~steph :)