Xmas and birthdays in a heat wave

The Mungins are now into the last 5 weeks before the kids break up for Summer hols and Christmas. How wierd does that sound? after spending 40 years in a hemisphere with a cold christmas, I am struggling to get my head around any alternative. I thought the supermarket had lost it the other day when I turned up to do the shopping and they were playing piped Xmas music. It suddenly dawned on me why. Who can blame me for forgetting Noel when there are next to no decorations anywhere to be seen and only the odd box of crackers on the ends of aisles, easily missed in the search for more mundane things like a box of cheerios!If you long for glitter free christmases lacking in consumerism then an Oz xmas is for you. I will wait and see if things change!

Ciara had yet another bowling party to celebrate a birthday;this time her ninth, where she wiped the floor with her Aussie schoolmates. May have to see if they do bowling as an after school club!!

My birthday was spent having lunch in a lovely veggie restaraunt overlooking the sea with a couple of friends. Grant remembered my birthday this year and suprised me : a book on punctuation! All joking aside, its been a good read so far as you can see from the use of the colon!Just have to find an excuse to use a semicolon now!

The heatwave continues with a draining 34-36 today. Didn't bother to actually check what it finally reached as I was too busy recovering from cycling 5 km in it! Apparently Adelaide is 43 at moment and it's only Spring! The swimming pool has certainly come into its own and the kids have been very popular with all the neighbours children, funny that!

Kayaking up the Khyber

Felt the need to add my own insights into the sea kayak adventure undertaken by us ladies whilst the gents sipped beer on their luxury craft, as I felt this section had been grossly under represented especially for comedy value!

Still am uncertain how I persuaded my sister that kayaking with 2 reasonably young kids in double sea kayaks in the Pacific ocean would be a good idea. I think she had very little time to consider the magnitude of the feat she was about to undertake until she turned up at Shute Harbour that early Tue morning. As the nutty New Zealander, who was to be our guide, proceeded to run through safety proceedings: paddle technique, steering advice and a rough itinerary which involved paddling to Hamilton Island; a journey which had taken 45 minutes on a catamaran doing 20 knots the day before, my sisters face turned a shade of green. I also began to have misgivings as he explained the importance of paddling in unison with your partner; remembering the last time we had taken Ciara out in a canoe when she had screamed at Grant on three separate occasions in the space of ten minutes,"I've lost my oars daddy " and that was on a calm canal in Scotland!
" Do you think it would be possible for the little one to just sit up front and watch ?"I asked desperately.
"Oh yes if you think you are capable of rowing a double kayak by yourself " came the reply.
"MMmm" I nervously whispered .

Thus armed with waterproof skirts worn above the nipple line, a bottle of water, life jackets and a quick prayer to anyone who was listening we set off.

It soon became apparent that Sam and me would be bringing up the rear as the various couple sped away in some kind of crazy race along with the instructor. We barely managed to keep them in our line of sights especially as I was keeping my eyes on the cruise ship heading out of the small harbour mouth, at speed and on a collision course with me! Well that's how it seemed from my angle.

After a good 30 minutes paddling we finally caught up with the rest of the group who'd been sunning themselves in a mangrove at the edge of the harbour mouth.
"OK that was your quick rest!" The kiwi shouted, "and now onwards."
"What about us?" I was heard to scream as they once again took off in some sort of recreation of the Americas cup .
"Just remember to keep paddling and don't stop or the tidal current will sweep you back and oh it gets a bit choppy out at this point."

A bit choppy, a bit choppy, it appeared more like a series of 10ft tsunamis as I fought the savage waters ahead: dehydrating, feeling queasy, lactic acid accumulating in my arms at the rate of knots and my lovely daughter in the prow shouting,
"I'm getting wet, can't I row now!"

I seemed to have overtaken Sam at this point and understood why once I'd cleared the worst of the turbulent waters when I looked back and caught her sunning herself whilst Caitlin wrestled the waves stoically: a point she hotly denies!
One hour later and we reached some sort of rocky island . I was the last to arrive watched by all and sundry who were tucking into the fruit and nuts and resting on the beach.
"What happened to Hamo?" I asked ( well you can see I was picking up the local lingo)
"I was only joking about that" laughed the kiwi as I heaved a huge sigh of relief.
I now had a large blister on my left hand and and an empty pit where my stomach should be and no bloody sea turtles- not one. However the swim just off the island made up for all the effort as I donned yet another ridiculous looking stinger suit and swam gently in the beautiful warm turquoise waters surrounded by fantastic views of the Whitsunday Islands.
This moment of idyllic tranquility was shred to pieces as our now much hated leader shouted from shore
" OK back to the boats for another paddle"

I have to say the tiredness overcame Sam and me on the journey home as we descended into fits of giggles playing bumper boats. Also watching Caitlin get the better of Sam and refusing to paddle properly at times had me in stitches. Still we arrived back in one piece although my arms have yet to recover!

The last push

We're now on to Tuesday, Melbourne Cup day, and our last day in the Whitsundays.

Sharon and the girls have booked an all morning Sea Kayak tour, which I looked on at enviously, but Phil wanted to go big game fishing and I sacrificed my personal interests to keep him company.

We arrived at the jetty at 7:45am, and oursleves and 3 Germans get on the boat. As it turned out big game fishing was in the the confines of the bay and we caught sod all.

I'm not really into fishing but some of the views in the bay were very nice, with the sun beating down on cerulean seas. There were some moment of humour (well my own internal humour anyway) when we'd caught nothing for hours and everyone was beginning to look inwards. There we were bobbing on the sea, silent in our own thougts, beginning to feel a litte like some kind of 50's movie with everyone slowly dying on the open Ocean.

Breaking the bubble, we were back at the Quay in time for lunch, and met a tired and a slightly burnt group of ex kayakers.

We had one last chance to eat out before departing, and stumbled into the madness of Melbourne Cup Day. Here we were 1,500 miles north of Melbourne, but had a town full of people in full race regalia, sitting in restaurants, serving champagne on "Cup Day".

We then drove south for Mackay Airport, eventually arriving in Melbourne at about 11pm. Our final Melbourne Cup interaction was the ludicrous 45 minutes wating for a bus to the long stay car park at Melbourne Aiport. It seemed a disproportionate number of drivers had 'phoned in ill on this day.

We eventually got home at 1am, very tired but having had a great compressed visit to a tropical paradise.

If anyone wants the trip pictures here they are: http://www.flickr.com/photos/36445314@N08/sets/72157622621199139/

Indulgent Hamilton

Having done 3 Islands in one day we decided to spend our last full day on the Cannes/Monte Carlo of Queensland - Hamilton.

We arrived in the morning - spending $600 to get there (the argument was it avoided the bogans), booked a golf cab/buggy thing to get around and went over to "Resort". This is on Catseye beach, an iconic tropical beach and part of the 2-3 main hotels here. Its also "free" to us, having paid to get here, and we settled in for the day. My interest in staring at tropical paradise beaches all day was beginining to wane, but it was gobsmackinlgy beautiful.

Sharon and I hired a Kayak and went out to where the Sea Turtles fed. We managed to see three of these guys, but trapped on the surface, on a small boat, we saw little more. Fighting to keep oursleves in line with the waves we made our way back to shore.

After a lunch of good wine and great prawns, we left Phil and Sam to the beach and went round the Island on our buggy. There were some great vantage points, some huge houses, and an inability to get into the gated hotel community of Qualia http://www.qualia.com.au/, one of the worlds newest must go to places. My AMEX Black Card was obviously never going to open the gates.

A few hours later we took the boat back to Airlie Beach, tired and ready for our last day.

Whitehaven Beach

Whitehaven is classed as one of the best 10 best beaches in the world. There are some confusing and contradictory criteria for a good beach, and rightly some Scottish Beaches are nudging the top 10. I have to say though that Whitehaven has some justification.

We sailed the long way round Hamilton (the wind was really driving the sea by this time) and the short route/narrow channel wasn't recommended.

I'm not really into sitting on beaches doing nothing, but this was pared back minimalism. We pulled into the main bay with 5-6 other big tourist boats intent on the same purpose.

The beach itself has no facilities: no bars, no restaurants, no tourist information centre - nature at its best. Equally there was nothing to do but sit and admire some of the purist silica sand in the world. I have to say despite being an adrenaline junky/do something kind of guy, this held my attention for the 2-3 hours we spent there.

The girls went swimming, we lathered on sunscreen liberally, we saw turtles (which by now is becoming blase (I can't believe I'm saying that)), we wandered down the beach from the "crowds" of 1-200 people, then got back on the boat to home.

Despite Whitehaven, at the end of the day, as a group, we decide to spend the next day (Monday) on Hamilton.

Whitsundays - Hamilton

We got a hint of the real Hamilton in the 1-2 hours we had here.

Boat starts heading towards the harbour and suddenly a small jet flys by and lands on the very small runway jutting out into the sea. As the boat pulls into the marina we pass one multi million dollar boat after another until we arrive at the jetty.

4 of us were coated in salt encrusted sea water after the earlier Jetski trip. Intsead of the, probably planned, trip round the shops, we jumped on a bus, arrived at "Resort", jumped in the pool and ran back to the marina and got on the boat to Whitehaven.

It was a madcap tour around a millionairre's paradise, but gave some of us an appetite for more.

The Whitsunday Blitz - Daydream - NOT!!

Unsure of where to go in the Whitsundays we had booked a 3 Island excursion: couple of hours on Daydream, 2 hours on Hamilton, and a few hours on Whitehaven beach - all with a big Cat whizzing us from one t'other. The 2 hours each on the first two turned out to be closer to an hour each and it all became a bit mad.

Daydream was badly named, and has become a very tired and worn out little Island. The main restaurant/bar complex here was also pretty cheap and tacky.

Redemption was found in hiring a pair of Jetskis for 30 mins. Phil and Sam had one and Ciara and I the other. Caitlin is going through a worried age at the moment and immediately saw 14 ways to die when she saw the Jetskis.

I'd never been on one of these before but they turned out to be great fun. Bashing along at 50mph, or 35 mph when facing into the rather windy and heavy seas, with solid waves of spray hitting your eyes giving zero visibility was great fun - no honest.

Phil and Sam, partly through natural disposition, and partly not having an 8 year old on the back were really going for it and one scene with there 'ski at about 40 degrees and about 6 feet in the air was pretty impressive.

5 mins later though and it became they're undoing. I'm looking around and there is an empty 'ski bucking in the heavy seas. We're told to keep 100m clear from each other but I wander over by which time Sammy is back on board. Unfortuantely Phil had the key for the engine on the little stretchy cord thing and is bobbing away into the distance.

In the end the boat comes out from the quay and we're all back in and make a rush for the departing Cat. Next stop Hamilton.

Frantic Trip

Sammy and Phil have vanished to warmer climes in Noosa, and Sharon had previously agreed we would meet them at the end of their holiday for a 4 day trip further North. This was utilising the Melbourne Cup public holiday to give us a 4 day weekend.

5am Saturday morning we're up, off to Melbourne airport, get on a 2 hour flight to Brisbane, meet Phil and Sam at the aiport, get on a 1.5 hour flight to Mackay, get the hire car and drive 2 hours North to Airlie Beach. Phew!! We were there by about 2pm. Phil was still coming to terms with the scale of this country and originally looking at the map thought he would drive from Noosa to Airlie - but that was 1,000km!

Airlie itself was a little like Cairns and clearly was a bit of a backpacker town. We were taken a little aback by this as we thought as the gateway to the Whitsundays it would be a little more upmarket.

We found the hotel, had a good run at the hill and booked in. The hill comment comes from the fact that the hotel is very new, and has been built into a steep hillside behind Airlie, looking over the bay. I'd swear the car was going to tilt over backwards as we climbed a couple of hills. Although the road continues on up the hill above the hotel, the development has stopped. It turned out no firetrucks could make it up the hill and planning permission was pulled.

The hotel suite was great and normally more than we could afford. However we got a discount as it was a new build, presumably to cover any snagging problems. The only problems we had were the crane, and half built hotel and marina down the by the beach.

We went into Airlie and planned the manic next 3 days.