Beaches and Boats - 1770

Although we were slightly out of season for spending a day at the beach, we managed to put in our fair share of beach time while in 1770.  The water was just a little too cold (for us anyways, there were plenty of brave people swimming), but the weather was perfect for sitting in the sun with our feet in the sand. 

My mom kept saying how soft the sand was and how it looked like brown sugar.  I had never really noticed it myself before, but the beach sand in this part of Australia really does have that appearance. 

Walkway to the beach in Agnes Water

 

Mom admiring the amazingly sparkly water

These two have walked many a beach together

 

We spent one afternoon on a LARC tour.  This is one of those amphibious boats that can go wherever the heck you want it to.  Water?  Easy.  Sand or other land mass?  Why not.  At first I thought this pepto bismal pink vehicle was a little hokey, but it was actually a really fun tour.  It's perfect for a place like 1770 since there are so many sandbars during low tide.  Our tour guide got a kick out of driving full speed off of some of the really steep edges of the sand bars in order to try to splash us... or throw us off the boat. 

Sweet ride

Sparkly water with our boat tracks on the sandbar in the background

Interesting pattern and texture left on the sandbars during low tide

1770

Not the year, the beach town.  Yes, 1770 is the name of a beach town about an hour and a half away from Gladstone.  My parents and I spent three days in this lovely place as a relaxing first Australian adventure for the start of their visit. 

We stayed in the most adorable place ever- "The Beach Shacks."  Don't let the name fool you, these surely were not shacks.  Instead, this place consisted of about 6 or 7 separate apartment-style lofts that were built ascending the side of a hill.  Which meant that each one had a beach view.  Our "shack" was the very front one, so not only did our apartment have a beach view, we had the best view- completely unobstructed.  The best part of where we stayed was the awesome porch (or veranda, as Aussies call it) that we had.  It was the perfect place to read, relax on a rocking chair or hammock, or watch numerous breathtaking sunsets. 

After getting settled into our shack, we quickly made our way next door (literally about 30 steps) for lunch and drinks at the patio restaurant, "The Tree."  This is easily the best restaurant I've been to "near" where we live.  It's too bad that it is an hour and a half away.  I'm so restaurant deprived... but that's a story for another day.

 

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the area and hiking along a few viewpoints along the water.  1770 is considered the birthplace of Queensland since it was one of the first places where the explorer Captain Cook landed when he "discovered" (in the year 1770) what is now Queensland.  So a lot of the areas where we hiked and explored had historic monuments along the way. 

 

 

 

 

We ended the afternoon by exploring the beach right in front of where we were staying.  1770 is actually located on a bay, so our view and beachfront was a beautiful bay where heaps of boats were anchored.  The tide changes in this area are really drastic.  As you can see in the photos below, during low tide there are huge sand bars that make it look like the boats are beached. 

 

 

 

While walking along the beach, we noticed these strange "sand ball" designs.  They almost looked artistically designed.  As we were trying to figure out what created them, we saw a tiny crab (a soldier crab) appear.  In a matter of just a few seconds, he dug a very small hole, and as he did so he made perfectly rounded balls of sand with the sand he removed from his hole and deposited them around the hole he dug in a seemingly random placement.  It was really strange, but also really impressive.  Nature is pretty neat. 

 

 

More 1770 to come!

 

 

Laugh, Kookaburra, Laugh!

Australia is all over the place when it comes to its creatures and creepy crawlies.  They've got it all here... freakishly scary, adorably cuddly, and even deadly creatures.  So far, I've managed to limit my animal encounters to those of the huggable variety.  And I hope to keep it that way. 

 

However, I've recently added a new animal to my Aussie obsession list.  While not exactly huggable (although I probably would cuddle the crap out of them if I thought I wouldn't peck my eyes out...), these guys are my current faves.

 

Meet our neighborhood kookaburras! 

 

Tell me I'm not the only one that grew up singing the "kookaburra sits in the old gum tree..." song?  Isn't that random that American kids learn that song?  To be completely honest, I think for a long time I thought that song was about a made up bird.  But now I have these guys in real life in my own backyard! And I'm afraid I might be turning into a crazy bird lady because of it.  Oh, and also important to note- these birds really do LAUGH!  Their song/call absolutely sounds like a bunch of monkeys laughing (in my opinion).  In fact, they laugh their little kookaburra heads off every day- sunrise and sunset just outside our house.  You can't see them in this video, but you can hear them laughing.

 

 

There are anywhere from about two to six kookaburras that like to visit our porch ledge in the late afternoon.   

 

Imagine my excitement when I discovered that one of our neighbors feeds them each afternoon and invited me over to help one day.  They are carnivores FYI, and LOVE kangaroo meat. 

 

Said neighbor is out of town right now and has asked me to water her plants every few days.  So I've taken the liberty of taking over kookaburra feeding duties at her house as well.  Yep, that means I actually bought kangaroo meat.  Sorry 'roos!  They are so tame and will let you get within just a few inches of them.  It's so cool!  Definitely never thought I'd see a kookaburra in real life, much less feed them in my own backyard! 

 

 



This one was trying to impress me by fluffing up his feathers.  It totally worked.



Didn't get the best photo of it, but they have a really pretty blue stripe on their wings.


 


Staring contest.

 


This is a photo of what my finger looked like about 0.025 seconds before I got bit.  It was totally my fault... I was too focused on taking a photo that I forgot I had food in my hand.



G'Day Grants!

Finally getting started on recapping my parents' visit to Australia.  Here's a look at their first couple (very jet lagged) days here in Gladstone. 

As if the fourteen hour flight wasn't already long enough, my parents were unfortunate enough to have a flight delay that involved them having to land on some random island that I had never even heard of near (ish) the coast of Australia in order to refuel (kind of scary, right?).  Luckily, they were still able to arrive on the same day... just about 7 hours later than scheduled.  Needless to say they were exhausted, but we were so excited to have them here finally! 



Welcome basket & the embarrassing airport greeting sign I made :-)

The next morning, we went for brunch at Gladstone's own Gecko Valley Winery.  As you can tell from the photo below, this vineyard is still in major recovery mode after some pretty major bush fires two years ago.  But it's still a pretty spot nonetheless. 

 

 

The rest of the day, I played drill sergeant tour guide and tried to keep my parents moving and out and about in hopes of quickly getting over jet lag.  My motto was, "no naps allowed!"  I'm so mean :)  So off we went for the grand "tour de Gladstone."  This mostly included exciting things that I didn't take photos of like, driving past the school where I work, pointing out landmarks such as the ever exciting K-Mart, and driving down the one street that is "down town" Gladstone.  Oh small town life... So glamorous.  But we did make it to some of Gladstone's more scenic spots, such as The Auckland Lookout Point. I actually discovered this place pretty recently, and it has a great view of the harbour (look at me spelling things like an Aussie- sheesh), the marina, and a few lovely industrial eyesores that can't be overlooked. :-) 



Auckland Lookout Point

Auckland Lookout Point


 


Auckland Lookout Point

Next up was a quick stop at the Marina, which is actually one of my favorite parts of Gladstone.



Spinnaker Park at the Marina

We ended the day with a visit to Canoe Point so that my parents could get their first glimpse of the Australian Pacific Ocean!  We ended up being there at such a pretty time of day- the lighting was awesome.  And we got to see a pretty amazing sunset!  I don't think I'll ever get over what a strange feeling it is to watch the sunset over the ocean here and think about my day ending and a new day just beginning "back at home."  Usually this makes me feel kind of lonely thinking about my friends and family, literally on the other side of the world.  But this time it was such an awesome feeling to finally have some of the people I love most on my side of the world to experience it with me! 



Heading down to Canoe Point



 

 

My First Video: Sights & Sounds From Oz

It's been nearly two weeks now since my parents came to visit us in Australia.  They were here for two weeks, and I think we managed to squeeze in about as many authentic Australian experiences as possible!  I'm still working on blogging about all that we did, but until I can get those posts finished up, here's a little video that I put together of some of the highlights of their trip. 

I know this video is far from fancy, but I have to brag a little bit because I have never edited or arranged a video before.  But with a few hours and a free "Microsoft Movie Maker" download, I managed to teach myself a few tricks and create something that I'm actually pretty dang proud of :-)  Any video experts out there have any tricks or suggestions of other programs to use for next time?

Enjoy!

Blog Makeover!

I feel so fancy (and legit) with my new blog design! I've been wanting (and really needing) a blog makeover and upgrade for far too long. I kept putting it off and/or forgetting about it. However when I ran across Melyssa's travel/expat blog, The Nectar Collective, and saw that she was starting to offer blog designs, I knew that I wanted her to do mine- pronto! I'm so happy with the outcome, and I couldn't have asked for a better person to work with. Check out her brand new blog design page! And if you or anyone you know are in the market for a blog facelift, Melyssa is your girl!

And yes, I know I've been noticeably "missing" from this blog. But, I'm finally recovered and finished uploading photos from my parents' big Aussie adventure. Stay tuned for some recaps about their time here (on my fancy new blog) :-)