Reefside Villas & The Lagoon

February 26:

We awaken to ANOTHER rainy day….this is starting to get old. Paulie and Blair go off to get us coffee since it is impossible to actually turn around in our small cabin. We decide to take our fate into our own hands and utilize the $10 worth of internet we have purchased so we can investigate our options for places to stay.  I locate a nice 3 Bedroom apartment just up the road for less than what we are paying for our cabin….so, Paulie, Blair and I hit the road early to go check it out and make sure there is an available unit for us.  Indeed, we find the Place (Reefside Villas) and we secure a place for the next several nights, but check-in is only at 2:00.  We race back to the cabin to wake the kids, get packed eat breakfast and hopefully do a little school work all in the space of the next hour-Whew!!!  Somehow we manage and drive off in the rain into town, find a parking space and generally stare at each other in the car as we all try to mentally prepare for how to spend the next four hours on a rainy day.  The kids don’t have any trouble jetting in and out of shops along the main drag; I find a beading store and am engaged for a while; Blair seeks out some information on how he can get from where we are to Cairns; Paulie ambles along and finally gets himself an ice cream cone.  That kills about 45 minutes and then we discover the Lagoon – a swimming pool with a partial covering and a small strip of sand ring around the fringes.  Despite the fact that it is raining…..we all get into our bathing suits and jump in.  If we are going to be wet, we reckon, we might as well be really wet.  We enjoy our swim for a while and then decide to seek out a place for lunch.  Blair has eyeballed a place offering $10 steak meals and we all recall with a grumble of our tummies how great our steak dinner was in Sydney.  We are off.  We settle into a small tavern and are pleased to be in a dry spot.  We order and are shortly presented with a great meal that hits the spot. Afterwards, we are off to check-into our new digs.  We are pleased with our find!  The driveway into our accommodation is reminiscent of a small Italian village, winding up some very steep hills in the rain and trying to wedge our car into an extremely small covered parking area.  We get unpacked and adjusted to the realization that we can cook and sleep in different rooms.  Annie is now in need of some retail therapy, so she, Blair and I return to town to look at a few items as well as book and swing by a grocery store on the way home.  We prepare a lovely dinner and enjoy some television before calling it a day.

Airlie Beach here we come..

February 25:

We awaken after a wonderful night’s sleep (personally speaking) and get ready to hit the books and the road.  We have decided to check out the local beach scene before deciding whether or not to head north.  We aren’t thrilled with the beach here….nothing seems to compare to Byron Bay….so it looks like we hit the road.  Another grey day is in store, so we may as well make some tracks toward Airlie Beach.  The kids help us in our decision and they are in for another 5 hours in the car.  Before departing Yepoon Beach, we stop by a couple of stores to seek out bracelet knotting materials to no avail.  We get underway and only stop at a grocery store to stock up on fruits and snack stuff for the long ride to Airlie Beach.  We drive and drive and drive some more and finally stop to stretch our legs and get ice cream or coffee or chips or something else that we can stuff into our mouths. Back underway, we finally arrive at Airlie Beach around 6:30 at night and pull into the information center……oh no….they are closed, but we see a girl still inside and we make our way in and request any assistance she can offer on a place to stay that night.  She makes a flurry of calls on our behalf….”How’s $320 a night?” she asks…..”Oh, that’s a little out of our budget” we reply.  “What is your budget?” she inquires a bit hesitantly.  “Well, we would like to find something for around $150 a night” we offer meekly.  “That is not going to be possible for a party of 6 people” she announces.  Hmmm.  Not ones to accept that there is nothing cheaper, we press her to continue trying to find something.  Finally, she calls a Holiday Park down the road that says they have a cabin that will accommodate 6 people for a little over our budget.  We agree to drive and check it out.  When we arrive, they are about to close the office and we have all of three minutes to decide….Since it is pouring down rain, we forgo checking it out and  agree to take it for the night.  We drive through the park and arrive at our cabin and are barely able to get our car up the very steep and very narrow driveway.  We arrive to find a “Cozy” structure with a double bed and a bunk bed in the kitchen and a separate bedroom with a double bed…..nothing like cooking dinner and napping all at the same time.  Conveniently, the TV was mounted near the ceiling so that we were able to cook a spaghetti dinner without impeding the visibility of the throng of people under the covers.  Blair and I and the boys go out to the local IGA before closing time to purchase groceries for dinner and breakfast in the morning.  We manage to have a really nice dinner and watch a movie before hitting the hay.

Leaving Hervey Bay

February 24:

Today we leave Hervey Bay amid the rain and grey skies and make the decision to drive north to a quirky town called The Town of 1770, named for the year that the roving and enterprising captain James Cook first landed on mainland Australia.  He set foot on a town that was named Round Hill, except the townspeople decided upon the Bicentennial to rename it to commemorate that auspicious event and decided upon the remarkably creative name “The Town of 1770”. We start the morning off right with a hearty breakfast for all, clean up the apartment and head out. We drive for an endless amount of time, with intermittent rainstorms along the way finally stopping for lunch at the town of Bundaberg.  We park and look for a good place to eat and all decide that Indian sounds good, however, the restaurant is closed.  After a careful search, we locate an Italian restaurant that is within our budget and our family enjoys a lovely sit-down meal with waiters and all.  Blair has opted to forgo our lunch location in favor of Dominoes pizza he saw up the road.  After lunch, we amble through town and in and out of a “Sally” store and finally back to the car for a short drive to Dominoes and then open road for more driving. After several hours, we finally reach our destination….and as luck would have it, there are no rooms at the inn.  Turns out that “The Town of 1770” is hosting a Blues/Jazz Fest that starts the very night we have pulled into town.  Yeah!!!  We check with the local information kiosk who is unable to locate a sufficient accommodation for us….SO….we decide to drive further north to advance us toward our ultimate destination of Airlie Beach.  We check the town of Calliope, mostly because I like the reference to the Greek goddess, but that is not a good option either, we pass by any number of interesting looking names, but finally decide on Rockhampton as it is the largest city and we reckon most likely to have accommodation for 6 people.  We check a couple of places before settling on a dorm style room that has us all snuggly within a very small space…no sitting area…just beds and a bathroom.  C’est la vie.  We are starving at this point and go for the easiest possible meal of KFC…too bad they have the calorie count right beside the menu board….3575 for the 4 piece box.  Annie and I are able to resist and forgo the greasy meal.  We return to the hotel and off to bed shortly.

Leaving Byron Bay

Thursday Feb 23, 2013

Today is moving day and not the day to lollygag around.  Everyone, but Hudson, is up by 6:30am.  We have a little coffee and finish the last minute packing.   At a little past 7 the train leaves the station and Hudson barely makes it.  Today is a yucky day with dark clouds and a steady rain, a great day for traveling we all agree.  

At this early hour we encounter several back-ups of morning traffic on our way to Brisbane.  We have to return the car by 10am to avoid a penalty charge and stroll into the airport at 10:15 to discover that somewhere along the way we entered a different time zone and it is only 9:15am in Brisbane….we could have slept an hour later Sharon and I communicate with eye contact.  We tried and tried to just extend the car rental on-line to avoid this scenario, but were unable to do so.  We had attempted to just keep the same car under the same conditions, but were told it would cost approx. $400 more to extend the current rental, so we had to turn in the car and re-rent a similar car from Brisbane forward.  Anticipating a successful exchange we decide to leave the bags in the car.  At the car rental it becomes a formality to turn the car in and fill out some paperwork for the same car with a different return date and city….what a waste of time!!!  Back on the road we decide to bypass Brisbane and boogie­­­ on toward the next destination.  About an hour out of Brisbane we decide to pull over for lunch and Sharon sees a sign for the Ginger Factory. What another waste of time!!!  We get out, enter a building, taste a couple of ginger samples, refuse to take a $50 45 minute tour about ginger production, take a piss and decide not to eat at their overly inflated pricy and limited options café.  The kids do enjoy the free sample of chocolate that is provided and decide to spend their daily allowance on chocolate…so it wasn’t a total waste of time for the kids. 

Back on the road we are still hungry and getting a little giggly and giddy with our comments about the wonderful ginger factory.  We see a sign for Noosa Head Beach and decide we like the name and will eat there.  We discover it is 20km off the beaten path, but we are committed.  It appears to be an up-scale boating town with many residential boat slips, and as we cruise along the main drag someone spots our favorite….”food court.”  We enjoy a lunch of kebobs, Thai food and a healthy chicken wrap for Sharon. The weather is still yucky and rainy as we come into Hervey Bay.  We are all, OK the grownups, somewhat silent as we cruise into town toward the water front.  This does not appear to be the type of town we envisioned or thought it might be.  The beach is non-existent with rocky retaining walls and the sandbar appears to have mold on it as if the water has not passed over it in quite some time.  We had planned to spend a couple of days here but decide 1 night will probably be enough.  After making a couple of stops of inquiry we decide to head to the place we found on-line.  We negotiate a lower price than quoted on-line and decide to take it for 1 night.  We do find a somewhat decent place for dinner of fish & chips, calamari & chips, grilled fish and some kebobs to tide us over.  It has been a long day so we retire to the apt and our research says that the weather is supposed to be yucky for the rest of the week along the whole east coast. We decide to call it a night and explore our options in the morning.

The Eastern Most Point of Australia

Wed Feb 22, 2012

Today we awake to a beautiful soon to be sunny day.  We learned in our visit with Grandy yesterday that the hint of snow was rumored a couple of days ago in Raleigh and the schools were closed in anticipation of the storm that never came.  So after a minimal amount of study we have our own snow day and Byron Bay School is adjourned early.

Today we have decided to head back into town to get Sam’s skate board and possibly rent a surf board for Hudson and then hang out at the main beach in town. I decide to meet them at the beach and head out in search of t-shirts. I quickly canvass all the areas we didn’t hit yesterday and have scoped out the best deals in town.  Most t-shirts cost $30-$50, but I have found some winners for $10-$15.  We get our wires crossed a little but finally hook up at the beach about 1 ½ hour later.  There is not a cloud in the sky and the sun is brutal today.  The beach in town is obviously more crowded and the waves are smaller and not as plentiful.  The water is less than waist deep about 100 yards out and the smallish waves are still fun for body surfing.  It is another popular beach with the young folk and the scenery is quite pleasant to enjoy and appreciate.  I grabbed some lunch prior to meeting up with the others, so during the day other members venture off at various times to grab a little nourishment. 

After 3-4 hours in the blistering sun we decide to call it a day.  I mention to Paulie and Sharon a little fish market I ran across a couple of blocks from the main square and suggest we consider some seafood for dinner.  We decide to pick up a couple of kilos of extremely large shrimp and Paulie has just the right recipe in mind.  Upon packing into the car for the ride home, we (OK the grown-ups) decide to ride up to and check out the light house we observed from our private beach the last couple of days.  Upon arrival we come across some hang gliders for hire who try to talk us into taking a flight.  We had observed them flying around the lighthouse from the beach earlier in the day, but decide the “wonderful deal” they are offering late in the day is still WAY outside anyone’s budget.  We proceed up to the lighthouse and are now at the eastern most point on the continent of Australia.  We enjoy breath taking views from above of not only our “private” beach in the distance to the right, but also the coastline of the main beach to the left extending into the distance as far as the eyes can see.  Most, OK the grownups, agree that the hike up is worth the effort.  We pile into the car and head back to the condo.  Along the way Paulie decides to get dropped off at the tattoo parlor and Sharon announces she really wants a ring she saw earlier. 

Back at the hut, Hudson and Sam busy themselves while I take a shower.  I have decided to hike back to “our private beach” to snap some photos to share upon my return to reality.  As we are heading out Paulie, Sharon and Annie return.  Paulie has decided to add a crucial finishing touch to his tattoo, but also wants to snap some photos as well.  We head out with Sam and Hudson in tow back to the beach.  We arrive as the sun is setting in the distance and take numerous photos of the landscape from all directions.

Back at the condo we enjoy a wonderful dinner of braised shrimp, rice with a cream sauce and carrot salad. This is our last night in Byron Bay so after dinner we continue a little research about our next destination, Hervey Bay north of Brisbane.  We have to turn the car in at 10am in Brisbane a couple of hours north so we have to get an early start and Hudson and I are the last to bed around 11ish.