V8 Super Grand Prix, Gold Coast, Australia, 2009

What a fantastic day out!!. Tradition has it that all the Glitzy Plastic Fantastic people in the Gucci Gully apartment blocks have V8 parties and all the girls get their tops off and shakem all about for the boyz!!! It was a great fun day out!!!

Here's a map of the circuit:
http://www.v8supercars.com.au/circuits/circuitmfcts.asp?vid=116&ind=M

Day out fishing at Jumpinpin

We decided to head out with a few mates to Jumpinpin to do some fishing - well they fished - we drank champagne and soaked up some sun!!

Click on the link below and you can see a map of where we went.

One great thing is Ship Shop

Its great - its a boat that comes to the beaches with everything you need. What's more - you can call them on the mobile and they'll come out to you with emergency supplies like Gin, Tonic, Ice and Slice!!

You may note the lack of people - yep - we had the entire place to ourselves - what bliss!!

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=104529245393332228671.000476303a6625921b2c6&ll=-27.951042,153.418579&spn=0.15376,0.308647&z=12

Last weekend out on the water

We decided to go out last weekend on the bay in the boat. Click on the link below and see the attached map - I figured out how to do a map and also put notes on - so open the attached link and it tells you all about our day (I hope!!!!)

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=104529245393332228671.000475c328831bd969410&ll=-27.871403,153.399868&spn=0.038468,0.077162&z=14

Rainforest walk last weekend

This is called Natural Bridge and is up in the mountains behind the house. It was a great day out - but VERY windy and a whole branch snapped off and nearly hit someone right next to us!!

Sunrise about 6am this morning - taken from our deck

Sunday Afternoon out with the Dogs

Here are a few snaps of today when we took the dogs down the beach for a walk - this beach is about 15 mins in the car from the house.

It got a bit cloudy and we were almost begging for it to rain as its so dry right now and all the grass is brown and the fronds are falling off the palm trees. Anyway - we got a small sprinkle which was nothing to speak of.

The dogs love the beach and on this beach for about 2 miles, you can let the dogs run - so they get to run about with scores of other dogs its just fantastic - we love it!!

The buildings in the distance are the ones that we see from our deck (see piccies above) and we live up in the hills behind them.

Brisbane Under Water!!!

Australia has been in drought for a number of years and in te southern states - they have had no meaningful rain for years - all the grass and trees are brown.

BUT we came out of drought suddenly last week with the biggest storm in years!!! The dams were all about 25% full and now they are at 80%!!!

Here are someof the pictures - the rain howled it down solidly for 3 full days - we're just drying out now.

A day out on the Brisbane River

Last week as it was a gorgeous day, we decided to take the boat down the Brisbane River - it was fantastic!!! The day didn't start too well as the boat nearly sank (we forgot to put the bungs in!!!) but after a very quick removal from the water and a long pump out with the bilge pump - we were ready to go!! Great day out and we had a ball. Obvioulsy we needed to stop off for some champers and lunch darlings!!!

Rainbow Beach and Fraser Island

We decided to head north for Easter and we dragged the boatall the way to Rainbow Beach - it was a really long drive and we camped at a fantastic camp site close to the water.

The first 2 days were great and we got out on the boat on those days but a huge storm set in and within an hour - there were rivers running through the campsite (and our tent!!!!)

We had no option but to abandon tent and luckily the campsite had a unit that they rented to us.

Next day we found out that the road had been washed away and we were stranded!!! Honestly - we have never seen so much rain in our lives before - it hurled it down fro about 9 hours!!! Anyway - in the end we got 2 days extra holiday until they fixed the road!!

The Water Tube

This is such fantastic fun!!! Its so exhilirating but you really need all your strength to hold on. We couldn't stay out too long because, as you can see, the weather was changing rapidly and it kicked off in the afternoon.


Only problem with this is that there are sharks in them there waters!!! If someone comes off, you really need to get them out of the water immediately although the engine on the boat should deter them from coming too close - didn't want to chance it though!!!














































































And then off to bed after another great day out on the water.

Camping on South Stradbroke Island

After Wendy and Fea settled in, we decided to go off on te boat for a long weekend - so off we headed to South Stradbroke Island. The campsite can only be accessed by boat which means there are not hoards of people and screaming kids. There were about 7 other tents and we had this little pitch all to ourselves. It was total tranquility and we all really chilled out which is what we needed to do. The downside was that all the mosquitos in the whole universe also went to the island for a ong weekend and feasted on the 4 of us - we needed to go back to the mainland to fill up on mozzie repellant!!!

Puppies

Yep- they're getting on now - they are now 5 months old and totally out of control. Ray has booked them into an 8 week puppy pre school course to see if we can calm them down and get them to do what we want - not what they want!!! It would be so good to be back in control again................

HAPPI NU YEER

Broadwater - Gold Coast

Today was scorching hot!!! This is the Broadwater on the Gold Coast. Its the playground of the rich Ozzies. only problem is that they have HUGE boats which create massive wakes - our boat didn't cope well at all - in fcat we were thrown around like a cork in a bath. we survived but were a bit shaken with the whole thing - the boat is obvioulsy built to hit waves like these head on but we thought the thing was going to snap in two!!!

This beach is on the ocean side of South Stradbroke island. The sand was like powder and pure white - whats more - it stretched for miles. Even better - we had every mile to ourselves - not another living soul here................






This campsite can only be reached via boat - there's nothing here except nature - we're planning a trip here later this year.

Makin Mellow Man

A beautiful day out on the boat - just relaxin you know................

We are on Pumistone Passage between Bribie Island and the Queensland Coastline - just fantastic

Ray's first flying experience

This was a birthday present from Neil but as we've been so busy - we haven't been able to do it until now.

This is actually a glider (sort of) and when they get to altitude, they switch the engine off and it glides up in the thermals - at that point Ray took the controls and flew for about half an hour - fantastic!!