Thursday, January 28, 2010

Resort on the river

Sometimes getting away is easier without hours in the car and this was one of those times! I needed to stay close to home to help with arrangements for my Dad's 'celebration of life' gathering, but both of us needed a break from the emotional week past. That's where Maroochy Palms came in.

Situated right on Bradman Avenue in Maroochydore, directly opposite the boat ramp, this is convienence in extreme. Not only could we wheel kayaks across the road, but the caravan park itself is one of those places you really don't need to leave. More like a resort than a campsite it includes crazy golf (with only a deposit for the clubs), kids movies at no charge, a jumping pillow, gym, fully enclosed playground, pool with a waterfall and a duck pond complete with baby ducks. All that for around $50 per night for a powered site for a small family.

Arrangements made and plenty of relaxing time later, Amber and I travelled slightly farther afield to one of our favourites: Thunderbird Park on the Gold Coast hinterland. www.thunderbird.com


This is a full on holiday destination of another sort. Rather than the usual resort type activities, it's an adventurers paradise with horse riding on well mannered horses, high ropes adventures and a thunder egg mine. (Grab your copy of Kids Welcome to Queensland to read more about that!).

We set up tent in a lovely quiet spot high on the hill and gathered fire wood so we could have the obligatory marshmallows, then walked to the swimming hole for a dip in the hot summer heat. Not generally a worry wart, I found myself tense watching kids leap from the rocks. Probably because I remember a kid dying that way in Airlie Beach after the rains had shifted rocks on the bottom...

My brother Nick and wife Lorna joined us there for a night which was lovely and gave Amber the chance to boast her courage on the high ropes course that morning! She did exceptionally well! Unfortunately the Adventure Parc has discontinued the Sensations Course which was great for little ones, but now she is tall enough for the high ropes, it wasn't missed.

Lorna and her girls took a lovely hour-long trek on horse back which stretched their abilities with constant ups and downs. They loved it!

Monday, January 25, 2010

Recap

Well, the hectic last couple of weeks are over and my Dad has been farewelled at a delightful "Celebration of Life". Now it's time to get back to sharing a few of my holiday stories...

As Amber and I zipped back home at lightning speed we passed so many of those attractions I had noted on my southbound journey and noticed a few extras too. At The Dish, Parkes, the atronomers had talked about a 'Virtual Solar System' which apparently has been set up along the Parkes to Moree road to scale. I had been disapointed to have missed it, but delighted to notice the huge signs on my way north with Amber. It made a lovely rest stop on our long drive and what a wonderful idea! Driving for hours between these small half-planets gives the kids a very good impression of the size of our solar system.

Now, lets backtrack some more...
Before our midnight dash north, Amber and I had spent one of the most sucessful days ever at Jenolan Caves in the Blue Mountains. This is a destination in its own right and you could easily make it a three or four day escape from Sydney. I was unaware how extensive the caves are, and how long they have been a tourist attraction... over 150 years!

Management of the caves is exeptional and the tours on offer are varied and extremely kid friendly. Amber and I joined a three-hour Young Explorers tour, designed for kids from 6-10 who don't have to be accompanied by an adult. Our guide was a Phd holding playtypus expert from the University of Sydney. She was animated and made the adventure exciting. First we donned miner's helmets and kids were given a clipboard with a basic line drawing of the cave route we were to take.

As we traversed between caves and learned about those who had discovered each one, the kids were encouraged to create a legend of features (like stalagtites, water, bones etc) and name the caves. What a wonderful idea this was! Our tour ended sitting on the cave floor playing the memory game by helmet-light. Each of the cards were pictures of the explorers and each time we got a pair right, Anne told us the history behind the picture.

Jenolan Caves also offers self-guided audio tours especially for kids, wonderful cave tours of bejewelled caverns and adventure caving tours especially for teens. It's a natural theme park and I would highly recommend it!!

Amber and I couldn't let the holidays slip by without one last hurrah... so we have just returned from a few days camping at two of our favourites: Maroochy River (yes, it's just down the road from our house) and Tamborine Mountain (a little further away!). More about these places in my next post.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

AWOL

It's obviously been a while since I last wrote, and those of you who are not family won't know why.

Last Tuesday night, after a wonderful day exploring Jenolan Caves, Amber jumped into bed and a turned on my computer to check emails and jot you a few lines. My first email said "Call your brothers urgently" which sent shivers down my spine.

My Dad had suffered a huge stroke the night before and wasn't expected to live long. Could I get there in time? It was quite a question. I had never driven more than about four hours on the trotand there were 13 ahead. I weighed up driving to Sydney airport and trying to get a flight (but then being without a car), or breaking camp right then in the dark and rain, and knocking off a few hours before she awoke.

The second option won out and I explained what I was doing to Amber before she flopped into the back seat. By 3am I had managed to get 350km under my belt and stopped to sleep until Amber woke at 5.30am. Then we drove, stopped, ate, drove, ran around a park, drove, ate, and drove some more until 4pm on Wednesday afternoon when we arrived at Nambour hospital. Amber was an absolute trooper. Without a complaining word all day she kept me in conversation or singing to Wicked (I now know the entire sound track). Fatigue was far from my mind and I think I was running on adrenalin with one goal - to get there in time to say goodbye. And we made it.

In fact, although we didn't know it, we had an entire week up our sleeves and that's why you haven't heard from me. It has been a week of high emotion as my brothers and I took turns sleeping on the hospital room floor to support my mother who had a pull-out bed.


My Dad, Arthur Pye, died at 1.30am yesterday (Monday January 11). His youngest son and his wife were at his side and we had achieved our goal of making sure he wasn't alone. He will be missed by many, especially me. Those of you who have my book "Kids Welcome to Queensland" will recognise him from within its pages and this is Amber and Dad a few years ago. He was an extraordinary man. Not perfect, but who wants perfect? He wasn't just my Dad. He was an adventurer, teacher, comedian, sportsman, and friend to many.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Head for the hills

Time to release the shackles of city life and swap for the smell of canvas. Yippee! We packed the car early this morning and tidied Peg's house then hooked up the navman (who we have called Jess so it suits the male or female voice!).

First stop Katoomba in the Blue Mountains and as we drove the rain came in again... I must say I am getting a little sick of the wet :( Amber's ear has been hurting since she got home, and apparently it was hurting for most of the time in the US too, so I was a bit worried. Since it's been public holidays or weekends since she arrived, today was the first day to do something about it and, as we drove into Katoomba I saw a medical centre. Finding parking was a little more tricky but we did eventually find space for both car and trailer and the doc managed to squeeze us between two patients.

Good news... no ear infection, but we got a script for anti biotics. The doc suggested continuing on with the ear drops we picked up at the pharmacy, and if it doesn't improve in a couple of days, go for the script because it might be in deep...

By the time we arrived at Scenic World it was about 11. We checked in a the office with marketing manager Rob Weaver who arranged an explorer ticket for us.Scenic World boasts three different modes of travel spanning the chasms and steep hills. The whispy clouds were starting to clear so we started with the Skyway - a horizontal cable car with a glass bottom which loops between two cliff faces and passes Katoomba Falls. It was magnificent... especially in the remaining clouds.

We took a walk at the other side to the Cascade pools where Amber decided to take up photography and hogged my camera. She looked very professional down on her haunches!

Back on the other side, we headed for the Rail Way which is the steepest rail in NSW (?) Have to check that one in the media pack! A couple of minutes long only, it was quite a ride down to the bottom of the hill and the site of the original Katoomba Coal Mine. A facinating walk through the rainforest took us along a trail of discarded equipment and mine entrances. Then it was back up on the Cable Way with Amber given preferencial treatment with the driver in the front!

Amber's remaining jet lag took over after all this excitment and she rested while I drove the hour and a half to Oberon where we were camping at the closest caravan park to Janolan Caves. It was 5pm when we arrived and our key was in an envelope on the front door waiting us. We pitched tent and broke out the Mastermind! Then got talking to the kids next door... Emma and Reily. When I asked Emma what school she went to she said "Buderim Mountain State School!" which was a shock!

After dinner of spag bog we joined these kids and more at the nearby skate park where Amber ran, rip-sticked and laughed for a hour or so as the sun went down. It's strange having dark come after 8.30 and our bed times are out of wack, but we both snuggled under blankets in the mountain air and were asleep soon after 9.30. Oh, it's good to be camping again!!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Amber's trip

Hi everyone. It is good to be back in Australia in the hot blazing sun, or the wet rainy weather! When I was in America we went to Lake Tahoe where it snowed and I went to snowboarding lessons. It was very fun and we stayed at a hotel. There was a hot pool but not that hot and a hot tub (and I really mean hot). Apart for being at Lake Tahoe we stayed at my cousin's place but not in their house. We stayed in the guest house at the bottom of the drive. Emily slept at the little house four times but Liam didn't want to. I slept at their house twice. We had lots of fun on Christmas Day. Emily had the most presents of everyone. She had about 35! Liam was next on the list with about 32 and third was me. Emily cried when I went to go to the airport. She really wanted to come and I felt very sorry for her.

My friend Kyara was in Sydney yesterday so we played with her at Olympic Park aquatic centre. My favourite was the whirl pool where there is a current which pushes you into a big current and you put your feet up and swirl around. Second favourite was the jumping castle in the water. You had to do through a test to get a wrist band so you could go on the castle. You had to go through four arches, climb up a ladder thing and slide down a really steep slide. There was a really big queue for the huge side. You don't go very fast but it is pretty long and you end up in another pool.

OMG about today what should i say first? WICKED was WICKED! So wicked! Good night everybody! See you when I get home to Queensland! Yeah! From Amber. (By the way this picture is Abby at San Francisco zoo after she was taken away by the monkeys).

Wicked day!

Guess what? It's raining again!!
Amber and I were planning to go on the Manly ferry this morning before going to the Theatre, but it was such a grey day we chilled at Peg's instead.

At noon we were on the train making our way to Central for the short walk to the Capitol Theatre for Wicked. Amber has never been to a major production and I was so excited to see her reaction. I wasn't disapointed. From the moment we stepped into the ornate lobby to the end of the play she was awe struck. The stage was elaborate, performances good and the story had enough of a familiarity that we could both follow along easily. Every now and again she grabbed me to make sure I didn't miss the light changes or the flashing dragon's eyes. I am so glad we went.

We were both pretty tired after the performance so after a short walk through China Town we headed home and chilled some more. Amber is still suffering a bit of jet lag and we are heading camping tomorrow so good to rest.

I hope the rain subsides... keep your fingers crossed!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Catching up with friends


Amber and I caught the train into Circular Quay this morning and walked round to the opera house. Amber was finding the heat a bit much and her ear was hurting but we booked ourselves onto the city cat to Olympic Park where we had planned to meet Marc, Simone and Kyara. It was a lovely half hour ride upstream!

When we arrived, however, we discovered the Olympic Park ferry dock is quite a way from the statium and other features and no shuttle bus seemed to be running. We started walking and half way through a 1.5 hour walk, the skies opened and we were pretty drenched by the time we arrived. Luckily we had made a game of learning Spanish on the way and we were both in reasonable spirits.

The Aquatic Centre was well worth the walk. Not just an Olympic pool, the huge building housed an aquatic playground complete with slides, inflatables, a rapid water circle and a huge bucket that dumped water on your heads in intervals. It was just what the kids needed (big and small) and we played in the water for a couple of hours.

Marc drove us home after that and we showed them Peg's then headed to the Sushi Train before dinner and then kissed them on the way to the airport to return to the Sunshine Coast.

What a lovely day it was catching up with our best friends. We are both thoroughly exhausted, but happy!

Friday, January 1, 2010

The best New Year present


This might be the only time I am in Sydney for New Year so I made my way with the rest of the state's population to Circular Quay then, on advice from the train ticket seller, walked round under the 'coat hanger' to the other side. She was spot on because there were far less people here and I found a possy on a jutting dock with unencumbered view and nice neighbours. Pat and Megan were from Penrith. She much older than he, and he originally from Hong Kong. An unlikely pair, they seemed to gel together really well and we shared lovely conversations for the couple of hours we waited for the early fireworks. And what a wonderful spectacle it was!

Aparently "this was nothing" and I should wait for the midnight version... which I did. I had loosely planned to meet best friends Marc, Simone and Kyara who are visiting family down here. It worked perfectly and I moved to the other side of the bridge (foregoing position for close friends) in time for the countdown and big bang.

Golden fire rained down on us as the bridge seemed to explode into never ending colour. Watching this on TV is nothing compared to being squeezed between sweaty bodies all looking skyward. I am so glad I made the effort, and even the couple of hours shuffling back to the train station caught up in a wave of humanity didnt diminish it's effect.

Four hours sleep later I was in my car, hooking up the Navman and making my way to the airport to pick up Amber. In my excitement I was an hour or so early, but it didnt matter... airports are for people watching. The highlight at international arrivals was when a middle aged muslim lady arrived pushing her trolley. A grown man, who presumably was her son, didnt let the barriers hold him back and he lept the bar to whisk the woman up in an enormous embrace. Sitting next to me an Asian woman turned and said "isn't it lovely to see the joy". How wonderful, I thought, that the moment had been so moving that an Asian woman saw fit to comment on the joy of a muslim to a white woman!

I was almost as excited when I saw Amber appear looking grown up again. After goodbyes with Jay and Monica we made our way outside and sat at a cafe for a while sharing and swapping stories. Amber showed me her trinkets and I told her of our changes in plans then we drove to Peg's house for a quiet day filled with regular hugs and unexpected kisses.

Plans began to develop: Tomorrow we will meet Marc, Simone and Kyara at the Sydney Olympic Park. The next day we have splurged and bought tickets to see the world renowned performance of Wicked! (We are both extremely excited about this one!). Then on Monday we drive to the Blue Mountains where we are camping for two nights and visiting Jenolan Caves. Its an enviable schedule and we are both pretty excited.

The best New Year's present of all? Amber is home! For the first time I have a partner in crime as I research NSW!