More excitement!

We have been busy entertaining more visitors! Bryan's brother and sister, Steph and Justin, arrived on March 16th and were here until Tuesday the 25th. We were going, going, going at full-steam for most of their stay here in Australia. This slide show reviews the first 4 days that they were here.

Bryan took them hiking up on Mt. Coot-tha on the first afternoon they were here. Instead of just driving to the top to see the city from the lookout he made them hike to the top to see the view. We then prepared a typical Aussie BBQ for them in the evening. They learned how to clean and peel fresh prawns (just out of the ocean within the last 2-3 days.) We also made shrimp on the barbie for them to enjoy.

On our first full day we loaded up the cars and headed south. We stopped off in Boonah, QLD, so that everyone could have a turn riding in a Boonah Glider. A glider is a plane that doesn't have an engine. A tow plane pulls you up to 4-5,000 feet and then you (along with a certified pilot) glide back down over the next 20-30 minutes. Steph and Justin were able to enjoy this thrill before the weather got bad so Bryan and I had to reschedule for another day. At noon we then headed toward O'Reiley's so that Justin & Steph could see and experience a rainforest. We enjoyed feeding the birds (at least some of us did!) and also enjoyed hiking through the treetops walk on the suspension bridges. After leaving O'Reiley's we headed to Currumbin to stay at Sand Castles resort for the next three nights.

We enjoyed our apartment at Sand Castles. There was a beach right to the back of the resort that we walked on to go see Elephant rock and every morning we had TONS of lorikeets come to our balcony (wanting food) to wake us up. It was beautiful!

We then spent a day touring the beaches in the area. We first went to Coolangatta beach. We started at Point Danger, Snapper Rocks, and Rainbow Bay and hiked down the coast and spent awhile watching the many surfers in the area. We then moved up the Gold Coast to Surfer's Paradise. At Surfer's Paradise Justin, Steph, and Bryan got in the ocean and braved the waves and had fun drinking alot of salt water. Everyone also had fun playing in the sand with Evan . . . building sandcastles and playing soccer.

On our third day we traveled down to Byron Bay in New South Wales. Byron Bay is the eastern most point of Australia. We had a snorkeling trip scheduled and Steph and I were scheduled to snorkel first. We took a boat out to the Julian Rocks State Marine Park where we were able to snorkel for about an hour. The current was strong but we were able to see some great fish. We saw several leopard sharks that were about 5-6 feet long (they don't bite), two eagle rays, and lots of colorful fish. We spent a long time trying to spot the resident sea turtles and finally found one and it swam right up next to us - amazing!! Bryan and Justin then snorkeled after us in the same location.

While we were snorkeling Bryan, Justin, Evan, and Kaden took a long hike up the coast to the lookout points over Byron Bay and to the lighthouse. It was a long hike and pretty steep but there were wonderful views to see along the way. Steph and I were then able to do the hike while the boys all napped in the car after snorkeling.

Stay tuned for more vacation pictures of our time with Steph and Justin in our next post!

Queen Mary Falls

Last weekend we traveled with friends south of Brisbane into the Southern Downs region to Queen Mary Falls. We enjoyed the country scenery on a beautiful day, stopped to see several waterfalls along the way, ate a picnic lunch, and hiked to the base of Queen Mary Falls. After hiking back up to the top (2-3K total circuit) we rested while Evan tried again to feed the birds. It was a nice, relaxing day!

This past weekend both boys were sick so we didn't plan too much, plus Steph and Justin arrive next weekend and we know we'll be busy, busy, busy, so we took it light this weekend. We did go to Kangaroo Point near the city to watch the rock climbers and repellers and let Evan play at another park. I then participated in the Brisbane International Women's Day fun run on Sunday morning with a friend.

Australian Education: some more Aussie 'slanguage' for you . . .
Afternoon - "Arvo"
Sausages - "Bangers" (they eat alot of 'sausages' here)
The best - "Bees Knees"
Minor accident - "Bingle"
Go away! - "Bugger-off!"
Feeling ill - "crook"
Toilet - "Dunny"

Springbrook National Park

We traveled down to yet another rainforest and hiking area this last weekend. Several Americans were visiting from John Deere in Moline this week so they went with us on our hiking adventure. We had heard from several others that the Purling Brook Falls area of this park was amazing so we wanted to check it out. We were easily able to view Purling Brook Falls from above via a lookout but decided to take the trail down to the base of the waterfall as well. Little did we know that we were going to travel down 450 stairs (one way), through the rainforest valley to get to the falls. It is classified as a short, easy 4K (2.5 miles) walk but, again, with two small children is not an easy hike, especially with the many stairs up and down the valley! Once we reached the destination though it was amazing. Purling Brook Falls drop 110 metres (360 feet) to the base and the trail or walkway actually winds behind the falls so that you can stand behind them and feel the refreshing breeze and water. Depending on how the wind is blowing you can get pretty wet! Evan loved this part and didn't want to leave the falls when we started to hike back up.

You'll see in the slide show another creature we came upon while on our hike . . . a land mullet. It is the largest member of the skink lizard family and is a uniform glossy black to brown color. It's habitat is restricted to the coastal rainforests of southern Queensland and northern New South Wales. It can reach a length of 60cm/2feet. The unusual name comes from the pungent, fishy odour emitted when threatened. After reading more about this lizard we realized we didn't need to be scared of it at all, but it sure looked scary to us!

We travelled to several other lookouts within Springbrook, Canyon Lookout and The Best of All Lookout, and saw several other waterfalls from above. This park is just filled with waterfalls, beautiful scenery, and many, many more hikes for us to explore. I'm sure we will be back soon to discover more!