Fraser Island

Will you believe me when I say that we took two pictures on Fraser Island before the camera battery died? I guess that cord is good for more than uploading photos - it's also necessary for charging the camera. Crap.

BUT! Go right ahead and type Fraser Island into Google Images, and you'll see what we saw today, and pretty close to the pictures we would have posted. I considered jacking some pictures to post here as "stock photos" but, well, reconsidered.

EDITED TO ADD: I was wrong! There were a few more than I thought, and I'm posting them below.

Our day started out with the bus picking us up from our caravan park at 7:20am. No problem, we're early risers around here. Nate was thrilled to see that it was a double decker bus, so up to the top we went. There were a few stops after us, picking up more people along the way, and then we were at the vehicle barge to take us to Fraser Island.

The ferry ride lasted about 35-40 minutes (according to the announcement). You can see Fraser from the mainland, but you're seeing the wild side, not the beach side, so it's hard to believe that under all of those trees is sand. We got off the ferry and onto our big 4WD bus for 40 people, and it was full. We were the only family with kids so we got to sit right up front, Eli and Maya safely strapped into their carseats, to avoid the worst of the bumpiness.

The "street" sign read "Speed limit 30 on tracks, 80 on beaches". You don't see that every day. The track was pure sand. Our driver/guide/commentator (Brad) said that the rain we have had over the last few days makes it much easier to drive on sand since it compacts down. Well there's one plus anyway. It also encourages little bugs that like to suck blood, but I swear I'll try to avoid the topic for the rest of this post :o)

Our first stop was Central Station. Not a thriving train station as its name might have you believe, but an old ranger station. We went for a walk on the boardwalk admiring some amazing trees and plants, and there was little Wanggoolba Creek on our left. Brad explained that this creek is a sacred spot to the local Aboriginal women - because it is crystal clear and maintains a steady temperature of 18 degrees, it is where they traditionally give birth (or I dare say WAS where they traditionally gave birth, now that there are steady streams of tourists to break up the peaceful solitude).

Next stop, the amazing Lake Mackenzie. Wow. Please Google it and check out the pictures. Here, I'll make is easier for you. It really does look like that, except that today was very overcast. The sand is white, the shallow water is that tropical light blue, and the deeper part is sapphire. The water is absolutely crystal clear. It is warm and clean and wonderful. Nothing feeds it except rain water, and nothing goes out either. We had a swim there for about an hour, and it was awesome. Nate said, "I'm having such a great day! Thanks for bringing us here!"

Here are some photos:





Fraser is famous for its wild dingoes. The only two pictures we took before the camera battery died were of some dingo safety signs. One illustration on the safety sign was of some parents frolicking in the water while a small child played alone on the beach with some sand toys, silently being stalked by a pack of dingoes. Brad said that recently a 7 year old boy was "taken" by dingoes because his parents hadn't been watching him. I felt a bit sick about that for awhile. Sobering stuff. We learned that if you find yourself in a confrontation with a dingo, you should maintain eye contact with the dingo, fold your arms across your chest, and slowly back away. Never turn and run. Never wave your arms and yell or do anything else that might excite the dingo.





We did see one dingo today. Brad said he hoped to find one feeding at the tip (where the rubbish from the resort goes) or on the beach, but there were none to be found. We chanced upon one (don't panic Mom, it was from a distance!) as we walked to the bathrooms to put our swimmers on before hitting Lake Mackenzie. It was in a parking area and there were people all around. It only had eyes for one thing though - the bag of rubbish that someone had left behind their car (despite all of the warnings not to leave food or rubbish about for this very reason). But a man got to the bag first and put it on top of the car, and the dingo took off. I must say, we were very vigilant at the beach.

After Lake Mackenzie we got back into the bumpy bus for a drive to Eurong Resort for lunch. Buffet! Too bad the food sucked. No fruit, no veggies aside from the iceburg lettuce, tomato, cucumber and grated carrot salad. Pasta bake, pasta salad, weird curried potato salad, scarily pale looking Asian beef something, cold chicken, stodgy white bread rolls, unrecognisable cold cuts. It was all very below average. Nate got himself a bunch of pasta salad (which was actually the tastiest thing) and ate half before saying he was still hungry but didn't want anymore of that. I extolled the benefits of a buffet, and he took a new plate to suss out his next move. He examined everything carefully and came back with a large mound of grated carrot. It was a bit like that. The upside is that I usually overeat at a buffet, but not when the food is crap.

From lunch we headed up the east coast of Fraser via 75 Mile Beach, which also happens to be the main highway. Brad told us about what's happening in the ocean - stingrays and bluebottles in the shallows, a few varieties of sharks a bit deeper, and a treacherous tide that wants to carry you right out to sea.

We went right up to the Coloured Sands, aka The Pinnacles and got out for our photo op. Well, those of us with working cameras did anyway - the rest of us got out for a closer look. Google it, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Next, down to the Maheno shipwreck. In 1935, the ex-luxury liner had been sold for scrap and was being towed when an out of season cyclone broke the rope and it ran aground. It's really incredible. I've seen bits of sunken ships, like a mast sticking out of the water at Byron Bay, but never a whole ship on the shore, partially buried in the sand. It is all rusted out now, but you can imagine how impressive it would have been 70 years ago.

Just another few minutes' jaunt in the bumpy bus to Eli Creek! We had about 40 minutes there to frolick in some more crystal clear water. The guy at our caravan park that sold us the tour told me that the water that flows into the creek takes 4 years to pass through the sand, all the while absorbing the abundant minerals and being filtered to perfection. If there weren't so many people traipsing through it every day, it would be beautiful to drink. It was a lovely traipse as well. Eli was crazy for it. We stripped him down to his undies because he pointed at the water and shrieked, "Water! Jump!" and off he went, happily doing just that. Maya and I walked along the creek on the boardwalk and then walked back down in the creek. Gorgeous.

And back again into the bumpy bus, back towards the ferry to take us back. It was at about this time that Brad asked if there was anyone French on the bus (it was in context, trust me), and Eli exclaimed into the silence, "Meeee!" It was very funny.

We all had a really wonderful time. It was a nice change, letting someone else do the planning and researching and driving. I had never been on an organised tour before and I kind of loved it. If I ever come to Fraser Island again, it will be in a 4WD camper, I'll bring all of the supplies I need, and I'll stay for 4 or 5 days and check it all out slowly. I'll fish in that treacherous ocean, hunt for pipis on the shore, and bring lots of toxic mozzie spray. Oh come on, you really didn't think I'd make it through the whole post without saying "mozzie" did you?

Budget woes

15 February, 2010

We're having trouble staying within our budget. We were amazed to find ourselves overbudget last week, after spending three nights at my friend's place and another two nights free camping. There were a few things purchased, like Nick's cheap crocs, some new textas, a replacement camera case and camera cord (which we will hopefully get soon so that I can start posting pictures again!) and a birthday present for a friend, but all of that was less than $60. I just have no idea how we did it. Even examining our expenditures shed no light on the subject - we spent less on food than the two weeks before. I just don't know. I do know that we'll need to be more careful though, or we're going to blow through our savings before we leave Queensland, and that would SUCK.

The beach at Noosa was gorgeous. Walking up from the ocean to where the fam was at in the sand, with the palm trees and blue sky and incredible houses/hotels hidden in the tropical trees on the hill, mountain in the background, it was unreal. I'm going to have to plan some seriously tropical holidays after we move back to Portland, because the Oregon coast is just not going to cut it. It is beautiful, world class, but the water is just plain cold.

After lunch we decided to head to Hervey Bay. We didn't realise how far it was, but we're looking at over 150 kilometres today. That's cool. Maya had a nap, and Eli is still snoozing away. We're hoping to find a Fraser Island tour that won't break the bank. Nick says he would like to go but doesn't think it will be "worth the money". I don't know what money could be better spent on personally. Maybe I'll just take Nate and Maya, and Nick and Eli (who might not appreciate an in-and-out of the vehicle kind of tour) can just hang by a pool somewhere. Or maybe this will be my lone day trip to replace Cape York. We'll see.

I've been reading about Fraser Island and it is getting increasingly interesting. Lonely Planet warns of the dangers of the sea around the island, saying "if the undertow doesn't get you, the sharks will!" Awesome. There is no shortage of beautiful fresh water lakes to swim in if we are so inclined, which I'm sure we will be.

As we drove inland from Noosa, back to the highway, the temperature climbed to 35 (that's 95 for you Yanks). Then we hit a storm and it dropped down to 26 within 2 minutes. Rain cleared (or we drove through it to the other side), temperature back up. Now we're back in the rain, this time with some lovely thunder accompaniment, and we're cool. So funny, this Queensland weather business. The humidity isn't humorous though, not at all. No sirree.

My goal today is to find some citronella oil and tea tree oil and to put together our own mosquito repellant. And that's all I'm going to say about mosquitoes today.

We parked at my lovely friend's lovely place near the Glasshouse Mountains for a few days. It was lovely to have a home base, and we even borrowed her car a few times to go to out rather than moving the whole motorhome up and back down the very steep driveway. The first time, coming in, was a bit dodgy - at one point the motorhome was leaning alarmingly to one side, so much so that I stood well away while helping to direct Nick in so that it wouldn't fall on me if it did indeed fall. It didn't.

Our kids played with her kids and had a ball. They had one school day while we were there, so our presence was a bit disruptive (knowing there are kids playing at your house with your toys while you aren't there - although we made a point of announcing that we would be out and unavailable for the day while they were at school). Once we got over the hump though, it was really great to be there. My friend is 20 weeks pregnant with twins, which is so exciting. Maybe the plane ticket fairy will deliver me a ticket to fly back to visit her and help out at the end of June or beginning of July when those babies join us on this side. That would be excellent. I looooooooooove babies, and a double dose would be so good for my soul. Oh yeah, and it would be good to be able to help as well, to make this not completely about me. I'm a tad self-absorbed if we're being honest.

I'm pretty sure I had the best cup of coffee I have ever had in my life at The Upfront Club in Maleny. Worth noting, so there you go.

After a wonderful birthday party at the beach at Caloundra yesterday, and after a swim in the deliciously warm ocean, we camped on a back road. For some reason our toilet was so stinky that Nick had to remove the toilet cassette overnight and of course emptying it was our first priority this morning. We woke up at 6:30 to cars all around us, which we thought was odd as we were near a scout hall and cricket club. Driving away, we saw that there was a farmers market on just down the road. Aha.

Also worth noting: We have now lost three pairs of shoes. Among other bits and pieces. Lost shoes #1: Eli's crocs. Well, croc-like shoes, but the cheap version. We noticed at our next stop after McLean that he no longer had shoes in the motorhome, and recalled them sitting on the table where we had had lunch. Lost shoes #2: My black Haviana thongs. This wasn't a great tragedy, because I'm pretty sure mine had been inadvertently switched with someone else's while we were staying with our friends in Sydney, before we left. There were always so many pairs of black Havianas there, and I noticed one day that mine seemed to be more worn than they had been, and a bit too big. So I wanted new ones anyway, and accidentally leaving them on the beach at Byron and not being able to find them when I went back for them was an excuse for new ones that fit. Lost shoes #3: Nick's new (less than a week old) crocs that he bought to replace the ones with holes in the bottom. He left them (and one of our water bottles, bummer) at the park where the birthday party was yesterday. They were gone this morning.

I was hit hard with some sort of sickness last night. Sore throat like swallowing razor blades, I couldn't sleep because every time I swallowed, which you do way more than you think you do, I was shocked painfully awake. A bit of a fever. I woke up rough, and we decided to drive up to Noosa and find a place where we could just hang out and I could rest and sleep and get better so that tomorrow I can be back to normal.

We got to Noosa early, before 8, and were amazed at how busy the town and beaches already were. The beach was packed! All of the carparks were full. We had a nice drive around and noted the natural similarity to Byron Bay. Gorgeous. But I needed sleep, so we found our home for the night. Other than realising that I was indeed being repeatedly bitten by a mosquito and hunting it down, I had a nice sleep. Eli napped with me a bit later on.

We are getting to a really exciting place for me. I have been looking forward to Noosa, and I'm looking forward to checking out the town and beaches tomorrow. We're getting very close to Fraser Island which is a place I have wanted to see since before my first trip to Australia when I was absorbed in pictures and stories of the land down under. The largest sand island in the world, home to the purest dingoes, only accessible with a 4WD. I learned yesterday that there is an Eli Creek there, so we'll have to check it out. I'm not sure what our best bet is for getting there. I'm thinking that a tour would be a better bet than hiring a 4WD since neither of us have any sand driving experience, and having a commentary would be interesting for the kids rather than being in just another beautiful place.

The reef isn't far off either. Wow, the Great Barrier Reef. I want to do a tour thing on a semi-submersible where the bottom of the boat is underwater and you look out at the reef through a glass wall, rather than a glass-bottomed boat. Nick was reading about one tour that spends 5 hours at the reef and includes snorkeling gear and a buffet lunch (never hurts). Not cheap, but this is once in a lifetime stuff after all.

My number one draw is to Cape York, the northernmost tip of Australia. It is impressively far from where the paved road ends, and there are lots of options for getting up there. You can hire a 4WD which we wouldn't do with kids - actually we probably wouldn't do it without kids either as some of those river crossings are scary enough without the possibility of crocodiles. There are week long tours that drive you up and either fly or boat you back down, but the kids would be miserable sitting in an off-roading vehicle for 4 hours a day. Nick suggested that, since I'm the one who really wants to get up to Cape York, maybe I should just do it on my own and do a one-day tour. This flies you up at a low altitude (billing itself as the "longest scenic flight in the world"), gives you some time at Cape York, and flies you back down higher up and quicker. Sounds perfect. Well, as perfect as we're gonna get travelling with kids. I think perfect would be doing a longer tour and getting up to Thursday Island as well. So Nick looked into that option a bit today, and I was supremely disappointed to learn that such a one day tour would set us back around $1100 for one person. Eek. Can't justify it. I'll keep looking and see if I can find anything else, but I'm thinking I'm going to have to count out Cape York. Bummer.

Slump

11 February, 2010

We had some serious rain last week. Well really, the whole time we were at the Gold Coast up through a couple of days ago, it rained every day. I love rain, usually. It is so fresh and cleansing. I love the smell. I love the grey, especially with a backdrop of green. It's beautiful. What can I say, I'm a native Oregonian. Here's the "but" you could probably sense was coming. When you don't have access to a clothes dryer, life gets a little bit tricky in torrential rain. We either have a leaky window or it was left open a bit (I hope the latter) and had heavy rainfall of the flash flood variety. Said window is located in what we euphamistically refer to as "upstairs" - the bed above the cabin. It got wet. I didn't realise the full extent of the wetness for a couple of days which was long enough for the smell to set in on the bottom of the mattress. Ugh. With the rain, we were at a bit of a loss as to what to do about it. Alas, we were blessed with a dry day and were able to put the mattress outside in the full Australian sun (which is quite different from the full Oregon sun if you don't know - this is the type that bleaches your whites as they dry on the line). I used my favourite eucalyptus oil spray for its natural disinfectant properties and which I will use at any opportunity because it smells so good I could almost drink it, and that, paired with the equally detoxifying sun treatment, cured our foamy mattress of its waterlog. Yay.

Another "but". During those days of having damp clothes draped throughout our motorhome, we also began to encounter more mosquitoes. It's one of those tropical things, and we are moving more and more north towards the tropics. We were at a caravan park's camp kitchen eating dinner, and dusk snuck up on us. You'd think I'd be more on the ball with the whole dusk thing since I have been attacked by mosquitoes, mostly at dusk, since I was a little kid. I somehow only manage to notice when I'm being eaten alive. Plus I'm lazy. It's just so depressing, and annoying, and too much like hard work. To be safe I have to dress myself (and Maya) in long-sleeved and long-legged clothes and spray all of our exposed areas with mosquito repellant. Every single evening come dusk, no matter what we're in the middle of, unless we're safely tucked away inside. Even then though, the stray mozzie (or four) manages to find a way in, so we have to go on a hunt to mercilessly slaughter them, every night. Tonight I wore a cardigan even though I was far too warm for one, and discovered a mosquito biting me on the arm, through the sleeve, in the closed up motorhome. Sigh. Double sigh. I'm really thankful that this is a malaria-free country.

So what's my point with all of this mosquito rambling? I'm not sure really, except that it has brought up conversations about possibly changing our course and avoiding far north Queensland for a few months. It's unfortunate, because FNQ is the top of my list of things to see in Australia. Poor Nick is over me whinging about mosquitoes, and possibly all of you are too. My plan is to buy a big bottle of citronella oil and make my own mosquito spray to replace the lovely Miessence one I just ran out of, which I will wear like perfume. It will be my signature scent. I'll try to cope. I want to see a cassowary in the wild.

Rain + mosquitoes = homesickness. Not for our former home necessarily, although our clothes line was under the pergola for all-weather drying, and that pergola was an excellent place to enjoy a cup of coffee while the rain poured down all around. Just A home really. A functioning home, no matter what's happening outside. A bit of space. A bedroom that's always ready to sleep in and doesn't require a nightly moving of stuff from the bed to the front seat to make room. Ooooh, I am realising I shouldn't be writing all of this unless I want to dwell in the homesickness which I really don't. I want to see FNQ. Honestly though, I'm suspecting we aren't going to make it a whole lot farther than that. Well Uluru, we have to make it to Uluru. And shit, I told the kids that they would be able to swim with the dolphins at Monkey Mia. And I have long wanted to travel around Tasmania. Oh and Valley of the Giants in southwest WA is another thing I have told the kids about and looked forward to seeing again. Hmmm. Maybe we just need to adjust our pace a bit so we are doing more and seeing more and not stopping for more than a night or two at most in any one place.

Hospitality

It's been an easier transition than I thought :o)

When we left our resort, we headed back to our friends' place. The kids were thrilled to get back to play with their new friends, and we were looking forward to hanging out, checking out the eco village, baking some gluten free/ sugar free carrot cake cupcakes to share, sticking around for a Nick-made dinner, and having a sleepover (in our motorhome out the front). It was wonderful. We felt so welcome and thoroughly enjoyed the kids enjoying themselves (so much Lego! and colour coded! like a dream!!), and after they were asleep we actually hung out awake! With other adults! Drinking wine! And talking about non-kid things! Ahhhh. Refreshing. This morning I enjoyed a cartoonishly large cup of delicious coffee - my stomach was a bit annoyed but the rest of me was in heaven. Thanks so much guys. We had a great time.

We are now in Brisbane. First stop was Chinatown so that we could have a planning session over yum cha. Yum. There is a lot of cool stuff to do around here with kids, and if the rain eases up a bit (there has been so much rain in the last couple of days that there has been flash flooding in the area) we'll have lots of nice outdoor stuff to check out. There's a sciencey place that looks really fun, so that's probably where we'll head in the morning.

On our way to a caravan park this afternoon, we passed an amazing looking playground and turned around to check it out. It is huge and covered, so when the rain came again it was no problem at all! Very nice stop. We also found that there are plenty of spots around here to park for the night, so that will save us the almost $50 we were going to spend on accommodation. Nice. And I sold two cookbooks this week! If you don't count the theme park tickets which were 75% of our week's budget on their own (I'm not sure why you wouldn't count them, but just stick with me here for the sake of discussion), we came in well under budget for this week. We just have a bit of frugal living to do to make up for the other few weeks over budget and we'll be golden.

Oh, I also wanted to acknowledge the dude at the playground that turned my afternoon around. He was pushing his little 2 year oldish boy on the swing, and Eli was hanging out next to them, enjoying their enjoyment. He had already been on the swing for awhile and indeed could spend the better part of the day on the swing, and I sat watching him, thinking I couldn't be bothered to go over and put him in the swing and then stand there pushing him. When this other little boy was done, his dad helped him out of the swing and walked my way. He asked if Eli was my little boy and I said yes. He said kindly, "He wants to go on the swing." I said, "Yeah I know, he always wants to go on the swing. He was already on it for ages". He nodded, smiled politely, and walked away. And it hit me like a slap in the face - Oh my God, I'm that parent. I could be doing something really easy and making Eli and I both really happy in the process, and instead I'm just sitting here grumpily, resenting the fact that he wants to go on the swing again and needs my help to do it. Wow. He's two years old! What an amazingly silly thing. Dude, you'll be happy to know that I did get up and push Eli on the swing, and we both completely enjoyed it. And dude, thanks. You made my day.

Crap, we've gone and spoiled ourselves.

6 February, 2010

We have been at Treasure Island Holiday Park for something like 10 days now. Wow. In that time, we have had a lovely clean camp kitchen, a lovely clean toilet block with wonderful showers, complete with steady water pressure. We have enjoyed the Kids Club, go karts, mini golf, and amazing swimming pool. We have also enjoyed steady access to a power supply which means air conditioning whenever we feel we need it. Two of us have slept in the tent every night, so we have all had ample sleeping room.

So we're driving away today, and I already miss the daily shower, flushing toilet, extra fridge space, and double sink for washing dishes. Goodbye, water slide. Goodbye family room with bathtub. And goodbye air conditioning.

A couple of weeks ago, I was thinking about what I miss and what I thought I would but don't. I think I need to remind myself of those things so it won't be so hard to leave.

Things I thought I would miss (but don't):

-- Multiple daily showers. Not easy to admit in this land of water restrictions, but I used to find it hard to regulate my body temperature without a shower. 40 degrees? Cold shower. 10 degrees? Hot shower. End of a long sweaty day, feeling grumpy and icky? Cold shower. Too long in the pool and feeling cold and chloriney? Hot shower. I have always been a showerer, but I have surprised myself on this trip with how dirty I have been able to tolerate being.

-- Sleeping alooooone. I love my sleep. After sharing my precious sleep with my three babies over the last few years, I quit in July and started sleeping alone. All alone. I was sure that I would find it very hard to once again share a bed, but it has been lovely. We move around, so sometimes I sleep with Nate, sometimes Maya, and most rarely Eli (because if I'm there he just wants to breastfeed all morning, but if he's with Nick he sleeps). I'm loving waking up to their sweet sleeping faces. Occasionally I get kicked in the back or rolled over on, and sometimes their restless sleep can render me sleepless, but the other night Nate exclaimed in his sleep a laughing "Wow!" and that kind of thing makes it all worth it.

-- Pristine cleanliness. I'm amazed how much dirtiness I can tolerate. Not washing the bedding as often as I would like, walking on a sandy floor and sleeping in a sandy bed - they aren't my favourite things in the world, but they are completely tolerable. Huh.

It's all a good reminder.

And we're still here...

We decided to splurge and buy theme park multi pass thingys - unlimited entry to two parks until the end of June. We aren't going to be hanging around until the end of June, but we figured we could stick around for a week and go to Seaworld and Movieworld a couple of times each and make them worth it.

We started out with Movieworld. It is very American - even the ride announcements (you know, "Please keep your hands inside the carriage at all times" and all that) are done in American accents. It's a Hollywoodish place, so it makes sense. There are loads of rides at Movieworld which are almost all too scary for our kids, but there is plenty of other stuff to do as well - shows (Shrek 4D, a stunt car one, a Batman one, etc), interesting shops like the Harry Potter shop which is cute and Nate really likes as he's fully into Harry Potter at the moment, and a whole kiddie rides section with ultra tame rides for all ages. Eli particularly likes the little train that does a few laps around its enclosure. Very cute.



Here we are with Shrek:



Nate and Maya in the Wild West:



An exhilirated Nate after the ride started:



And more:





Seaworld is really great. I understand why dolphins are such a cliche - it's because they're awesome. It is mind-blowing what they are capable of, and how trainable they are. We saw people surfing on dolphins, dolphins swimming with only their tails in the water and the rest of their bodies straight up in the air, spectacular flips and dives, and lots of flipper waving. There is a dolphin nursery where you can see the babies and mums and learn how similar dolphins are to humans - 9-10 month gestation, 2-5 years of suckling (yes doubters, a minimum of 2 years is recommended for human babies, and the world average is 5 years).

Here's some fancy dolphin action:





I really enjoyed the bull shark exhibit. I had no idea that there were so many sharks inhabiting the canals of the Gold Coast, very interesting. For every 4 humans killed by sharks, there are 1 million sharks killed by humans. Huh. This no-nonsense exhibit teaches that the vast majority of shark attacks are not only cases of mistaken identity, but they are also very rarely fatal. Suggestions for fending off an attacking shark include gouging its eyes, punching it in the face, blowing bubbles, and shouting at it. Only in Australia.

There are rides at Seaworld as well, arguably better than those at Movieworld. Here are some pictures:







A particularly cute picture from lunch:



We went to a Bert and Ernie Island Adventure show and Nate and Maya were lucky enough to be invited onstage by Elmo and Cookie Monster:



We just have a few more things we want to do at the Gold Coast, including another visit with a lovely friend who moved up here from Sydney. She was among the first people I met here when I sought out like-minded parents, and generously lent us a stroller for schlepping around the theme parks. Her partner makes a mean mango daiquiri. I'm going to take advantage of her amazing, huge kitchen to make a batch of gluten free carrot cake cupcakes! Yum.

We also hope to make it back to Seaworld on Sunday to hang out at the water park there, weather permitting. It is massive. There is an incredibly alluring water slide that I'm looking forward to. Hopefully by then we will have found the cord that allows us to upload photos! At least we still have the camera.

Then we'll be off... Brisbane? Or Mt Tambourine? Not sure yet.