Lady Elliot Island and Noosa National Park

Have you ever been to a private island? One that's only big enough to land a small plane on? Where you can walk around it in 45 minutes flat, and need to watch for planes when you walk across the runway? Me neither! Until we visited Lady Elliot Island.

Lady Elliot Island

Lady Elliot Island is a small coral cay, located at the south end of the Great Barrier Reef. Our day trip to the island started dark and early (the sun wasn't even up yet!) because we needed to catch a plane from Hervey Bay, which is about a 2.5 hour drive from Noosa. And the plane left at 8:10 am. And we needed to be there 45 minutes before departure. So the alarm clocks were set for 4:30 am. The motorway between Noosa and Hervey Bay (the Bruce Highway) has seen it's fair share of accidents over the years, so the Queensland government has introduced a few unconventional methods of keeping drivers attentive and awake. They have roadside trivia! I love trivia! Although I think Linda was the only one in the car to get a correct answer (the state animal of Queensland is the koala), it was a neat way to engage drivers along the road.

Once we got to the airport, and were ready to board the plane, the pilot said "Oh it looks like a full plane today, does anyone want to ride up front with me?". I didn't even think he had to finish his sentence because Alan was already sitting in the co pilot seat at the front of the plane. True story.

Australia Zoo/Fraser Island

On our next weekend, we were able to get away for a few days to one of my favorite places around Brisbane: Noosa and the Sunshine Coast. Not only did we have the opportunity to explore Noosa and surrounds, including the world famous Eumundi Markets, but we also stopped in at the Australia Zoo on the drive up, and then took a few days trips to Fraser Island and Lady Elliot Island as well.

The deadly hose is allowed to roam free at the Australia Zoo.

First up, the Australia Zoo. The Australia Zoo is the home of Steve Irwin's biggest and baddest crocs. The Irwin family is well represented here, with a life size bronze statue of the four of them greeting you at the entrance. Both Bindi and Bob, Steve's children, have action figures, dolls, and a series of books named after them. It's pretty impressive. The zoo itself is a massive park and you can easily spend the day here, feeding kangaroos, getting up close and personal with koalas, and watching all the different animal shows and information sessions that the park offers.

Oddly cute little things

Crocs!

Tamborine Mountain/Byron Bay/Springbrook National Park

We were very fortunate to have some visitors over the past little while. Alex & Linda, Alan's parents came for a visit. They proved themselves to be intrepid travelers, staying awake until almost 10 pm on their first night in Oz, after arriving on the 7 am flight from LA. I'm fairly certain Alan and I didn't make it past 6 pm on our first few nights in Brisbane. It was so nice to have people staying in the "guest wing" of our apartment, in fact it felt very empty after they left for Sydney. Thank you so much for traveling the long distance to visit us, Alex and Linda! We had a wonderful time!

Our first weekend together took us out to see Tamborine Mountain, Byron Bay, and Springbrook National Park.

Tamborine Mountain is in the Gold Coast hinterlands, and is an artsy little town filled with galleries, shops (including a cuckoo clock shop), wineries, and restaurants. Alan and I were here a little while ago on a very rainy weekend, and the place was empty, which was probably a contributing factor to our cuckoo clock purchase. With Alex and Linda, we were fortunate to have a beautiful sunny day and Tamborine Mountain was transformed into a bustling hive of activity. We took a walk to a waterfall, wandered the shops, and had lunch with some lorikeets at the Polish Place restaurant (where the views are considerably better when it's not pouring rain and foggy).

Here are some pictures from Tamborine Mountain!

A little walk through the rainforest.

Good God, it's been a while!

So much has happened!

Brisbane almost flooded again.
We went to Hawaii, and met up with my mum and papa, and bro and sis-in-law, Chris and Lis!
We had a few visitors through Brisbane to see us. Cousins Sarah, Steve and Isabella. Uncle Peter. And the main attraction, Alex and Linda came to stay!

Just sorting through photos, and will be posting some over the next few days. Watch this space!