Crikey! We’re in Queensland already…

Turns out a Bank Holiday Monday is the same the world over - this was the scene as we drove into Queensland on the Queen's Birthday Weekend (er, hello, WE don't celebrate the Queen's birthday - what happened to that day off??!)
Bank Holiday Weather:

Two of Australia’s most prolific industries are mining and farming, so we thought we’d better take the girls to a farmstay to balance out the massive machines we’d seem out west. They’re too young for a Jillaroo-type experience so we went to a little place in the hills behind Brisbane which was perfect for them – up at 8am feeding all the animals, collecting eggs, milking cows and then riding horses and quad bikes around the place too.

Farm chores:

We had a great cabin with a wood burning stove to light beating the evening chill and an oven for pizza and lasagne! Interrupting the distant views of the Brisbane skyline and the Sunshine Coast, the horses would wander past the door of our cabin looking for the carrots the owners had thoughtfully placed in the fridge and there was the most adorable Jersey cow pottering about with her 3 day old calf:

From there we were pretty close to Australia Zoo – home of The Crocodile Hunter, the late Steve Irwin. From the age of 2 our beautiful baby girl, she of the blue eyes and blond bubble curls sat mesmerised by ‘Stevie’ during his escapades on Sunday afternoon TV and has been a reptile crusader ever since. One of her favourite games is ‘croc capture’ where she pounces on you unawares, flattens you to the floor and shouts ‘TOP JAW ROPE ON, BLINDFOLD ON!’ So it was with trepidation that we took her to Australia Zoo – would it live up to expectations?? No worries (as they are fond of saying here) she thought it was fab, LOVED the demos in the Crocoseum and carefully studied all the snakes to check if they were venomous or not. It’s a cool place and there’s a lot of Stevie memorabilia there too which is an amazing tribute.

Feeding time in the Crocoseum, Australia Zoo:

From the Sunshine Coast we stopped in Brisbane for the day to wander around down by the waterfront and through the Botanic Gardens for a play, before heading back to the Gold Coast to see a pommie friend of ours who moved to Oz 12 years ago and hasn’t looked back since! Dani and her Aussie partner, James, live in Southport on the northern end of the Gold Coast in a great split level house and have two dogs and a cat which the girls instantly fell in love with, insisting they be involved in all feeding, walking etc. It was great being in someone’s home again and although we haven’t seen Dan since 1996 it didn’t seem like it as she hasn’t changed a bit! The first day we were there we just hung out, did some laundry and then headed down to Surfers Paradise for lunch and a dig on the beach.

Although it is hardly publicised outside the local area, this is whale watch time on the Gold Coast – most humpback whale watchers on the East Aussie Coast head to Hervey Bay and Fraser Island further north where they turn up in July, but the gentle giants actually come close to the coast all the way from Sydney to Cairns hanging out in the warmer waters off Australia to mate and calve – so the following day we got on a boat! Dani found a coupon on the back of her till receipt which made it a great bargain, and it was sooo cool – we saw lots of different whales but mostly hung out with a very active pair who were breaching, tail slapping, fin slapping and watching us right in front of the boat! One of the things on Fin’s RTW list was whale watching, we thought it would be in cold wet Kaikoura, New Zealand, but sunny and warm in Oz sure sounds better! Also the whales in Kaikoura are mostly sperm whales, fascinating to learn about, but not nearly as playful as the beautiful humpbacks:

Plus we got to see the Surfers Paradise skyline from the water:

The Gold Coast is ‘theme park city’ and James works for the Warner Village group and was very kind to get us some amazing discounts on tickets to SeaWorld, so the six of us went which made it a great day out for us too, having adults to hang out with! We pulled up all the details of the various parks for the girls to choose which one they wanted to go to, thinking they would prefer one with rides etc, but they looked at the SeaWorld one and said ‘wow, they’ve got dolphins and dugongs and sharks – COOL.’ Excuse me, but didn’t you see them just a month ago in the wild??? We all had a fab time although Chris and James nearly required medical treatment while riding around on the cable car.

Chris and James: (Hands off ladies, that 80's throwback is my husband! Dani said ‘Did Chris have those glasses 12 years ago too?)

So our last day we just hung out with the guys, went out for lunch, did some packing and the girls played endlessly with the dogs (delighted) and Socks the cat (less delighted) - thank you so much Dani and James for giving up your precious time off – we loved staying with you.

Brooke and Morgan – blog stars!!

The following day we were out the door at 8.30am heading for the airport and our flight to Auckland and were seen out of Oz by an amazingly friendly immigration officer who ‘tattooed’ the girls’ hands as well as their passports!

See ya
All love CRFS xxxx