Caloundra

Beach weather has arrived in Brisbane! I think all of us are a little excited. Warm weather and great beaches are just two of the things you think of when you hear Australia. Thanks to the time of year we moved, we have had limited time at the MANY beaches north and south within 30 minutes to 2 hours from our house.

This past Saturday we ventured an hour North to the town of Caloundra. Caloundra is the southern most community on the Sunshine Coast. We got a kick out of some of the names of the beaches...Bulcock Beach...Dicky Beach... Despite names of the beaches, a great day in the water was had by all.

A view of Bulcock Beach.

A view of the northern tip of Bribie Island from Bulcock Beach.

My handsome Kangaroo Jack!

After a morning swim, we stopped for a little lunch at a fish and chips restaurant with ice cream for dessert. As you can see, Ashtyn was a fan of her rainbow ice cream!

Kenyon, takes after her mommy and went straight for the chocolate!

Building sandcastles on the beach.

Sports Illustrated Swim Suit Model 2023?? I hope not, but I do like the pose :)

Running on the beach.

Can't quite outrun the water.

Happy Girl!

My 2 little fishes!

After a day at the beach, we made a pit stop for James at BCF (Boating Camping Fishing). It is the closest thing we could find that resembled an Academy. Why were we searching for this store? Thanksgiving is fast approaching, and even though there is no Thanksgiving celebration in Australia...we are celebrating anyway! This entails frying a turkey. Frying a turkey means buying a large pot and a propane burner. Lucky us...these items were located at BCF! While daddy was shopping, Ashtyn located a chair and made herself at home.

2 tired girls on the way home from our day in Caloundra. They could not be disturbed from their Barbie movie to take a photo for mommy.

Stay tuned...I think I am making it a mission to hit every beach in a 2 hour radius both north and south of our house. I have a feeling there will be more beach pictures to come.

BULA!!!!!

James and I were able to celebrate our 8th anniversary with a trip to Malolo Island, Fiji. Heaven on earth comes to mind when I think of the scenery we were able to see while we were there. Think of the pictures you have seen on post cards, calendars and movies...and yes, Fiji actually does look just like all of those. The main island of Denareu is very commercialized. That is where you can find the Hard Rock Cafe, and all the major Hotel chains. We stayed one night on Denareu and then made our way out to Malolo Island via boat transfer. We stayed five nights on Malolo at the LikuLiku Lagoon Resort. LikuLiku on has 45 bures (Fijian word for wood and straw hut), so at full capacity the resort only holds 90 people. LikuLiku (means Calm Lagoons or waters) was an ancient safe harbor for the canoes during times of tribal warfare. The members of the Yara Village lived at the site of our resort until around 1940, when they relocated to a different side of the island in order for the British army to protect them from the Japanese. We did a village tour to the Yara Village, took a tour, met some of the local villagers and took part in a Kava Ceremony. Kava is a drink made out of the kava root. The roots are pounded into a powder and mixed with water to form a drink that has mild sedative properties. The Fijians will often drink the kava drink during times of story telling and socializing. The drink has been known to bring a relaxing or numbing affect to its consumers. Both of our tongues went numb after just one drink. The drink itself reminded me of drinking muddy water. No taste and kind of pasty.

James and I did a little of everything on our trip. We kayaked and snorkeled daily. Snorkeling was as easy as walking out our bure, putting on our snorkel gear and walking right into the water. We hiked around our island along the trails, we did runs on the beach, we did a snorkel around Castaway Island, (Tom Hank's movie was named for this island. He actually filmed the movie on a island named Modriki, which we could see from our resort.) we went fishing (catching only 1 fish...a barracuda), we also took plenty of time to rest, relax, layout by the pool and the ocean and have massages. One of the MANY highlights was meeting Natalie Cook. She is an Australian Olympic Beach Volleyball player. She won the gold in the Sydney Games (2000). She is in training right now for the 2012 Olympics. She was in Fiji, training the employees at our resort for a Fiji wide Volleyball tournament. She was extremely nice and played a very fun game of beach volleyball with us against the Fijians. We called in Fiji vs. The World...and the Fijians won. It was such a wonderful trip. James and I fell in love with the location, the island, the views, and the people. If we ever disappear...you know where we headed!

This was on our bed when we first walked into our Bure.

These were our personal beach chairs, on our little section of beach, right outside our bure.

The view from our outdoor daybed. We did some drinking and reading from this daybed. Very peaceful.

Thanks to the remote control for our camera...we got a self portrait with our beach behind us. We were getting ready for dinner one night.

A view of the pool that looked out onto the ocean. Can't tell where the pool stops and the ocean begins.

Gin and Tonic's on the outdoor daybed.

The sunrise on the morning of our fishing trip.

James and his barracuda. We donated his catch to our captain. Evidently the Fijian's eat barracuda. Our captain was happy to have it.

Our new friends! Kate and Sherwood (Arizona), Natalie Cook, James, me, and Sarah Maxwell. Sarah is an Olympic beach volleyball player from Canada.

Getting ready for a hiney kicking!!!

Eel! We saw this guy hanging out taking an evening hunt. We were on our way to have some pre dinner drinks and saw him in the water.

One of the beautiful sunsets seen while having drinks before dinner.

On the trail!! Taken while we were hiking around the island. What you climb up, you must also climb down.

View of our pool while we were kayaking around the lagoon.

Looking down on our resort from our hike.

7:00PM nightly tiki torch lighting.

We took over 500 pictures on our trip. I am in the process of putting a digital photo album together. We will bring the album with us when we come home in December. I am still having dreams of our little vacation in paradise...until next time!