Pearl Diving & Camel riding in Broome, October 2008

This was the day we visited the Pearl Diving Museum in Broome WA. Saturday October 25, 2008.

Great Keppel Island

It's a day off so I spent a little time editing up a video from September 17, 2008 - on long service leave.

The devil's marbles

Now that we are into the Northern Territory we want to slow down and introduce a new pattern of life. A new sleeping spot every day and a short trip in between (with the obvious exceptions of Alice Springs, Uluru and Darwin). So we set ourselves a goal of 130 kilometers to Wycliff Well (a roadhouse/caravan not on many of the maps or the NAVMAN).

On the left hand side about 90kms south of Tennant Creek on the side of the road we saw enormous boulders of granite. Many of them spheres. The white explorers who installed the telegraph line that opened up this section of Australia dubbed these rocks 'the devils marbles.' Big Marble shaped rocks in a devilishly hot place. We stopped and all climbed to the top of one out crop and the boys ran up to the top of another.

There was a school bus of year 10 kids from Melbourne who exploded out of a bus just as we arrived - played AFL at the foot of the devil's marbles and then just as quickly vanished.

We stopped for lunch.

Aliens at Wycliff Well

It was only another 40 kilometers to Wycliff Well. We had a talk in the car on the way about UFO's and Aliens.

Personally I am skeptical but agnostic about intelligent life on other planets. But if there does turn out to be intelligent life then that will open up another huge mission feel of opportunity to tell other sentinal beings how their sins were forgiven by the actions of the creator of the universe coming as human flesh to redeem the creation 2000 years ago.

Anyway the caravan park owner at Wycliff Wells is clearly a signficant entrepreneur. He has a place at the end of the earth that he has created a grand narrative for. The narrative is. Australia's top place for UFO sightings and the Northern Territory's top place for exhotic beer. Even the tourist brochures suggeset that the two things are linked. People come here. By beers they have never tasted before and when drunk see amazing things.

All the walls of the caravan park have been painted with alien life forms and images form other planets. The toilets are dubbed 'Femaliens', 'Maliens' and bizzarely 'Unisex.'

While checking in the lady told us to come to the back entrance of the office/shopping/resteraunt area at night to buy a meal because the would be serving locals out the front and that way they could serve us priority. (I didn't realise at the time that what she meant was there would be a group of aboriginies hanging around the front later at night potentially/probably drunk and buying beer and it would be better to be round the back).

It was quite strange for us to be arriving so early in the day but we all felt tired so had a swim - in a freezing pool. The pool was under a cover and icy. (I don't really get this why when the climate is so hot the water is so cold, but it's been a repeated pattern at a number of caravan parks).

Big Pineapple

Here's a report on our visit to Queensland's 'Big Pineapple' last Sunday September 13.

A day at Mount Isa

After a quite afternoon yesterday with lots of play at the Caravan Park pool after the kids were in bed Cathie and I snuck out to McDonalds. But get this Mount Isa Maccas is closed on Sunday nights - now that's not as good as Stanmore Maccas:)

So instead we headed up to the lookout.

Mount Isa at night is spectacular. But there is nothing to do.

Here's the distance map at the top of the lookout.

First thing this morning we headed back up to the lookout with the kids to show them what it is like.

Then I took the car to be serviced. We've been a little suspicious that it isn't cooling as it should. And we don't want to find out that we are right somewhere between Mount Isa and Alice Springs. So we are playing 'better to be safe than sorry.' I met a really nice German guy called Bert who has run the car yard for 40 years. One of his offsiders had a look at the car and is going to do something. Bert dropped me back in town and we walked from the shopping center to the Outback Hospital.

While I was at the car place Cathie bought Hannah the third book in the a series about a guy called Eragon. After Harry Potter I think this is her current favourite series. After three hours Hannah is up to about page 180.

In WW2 Darwin Hospital was bombed and their was concern that the Japanese might go for Mount Isa next (as much of Australia's lead (ie bullet) production was done here. They decided to build a backup underground hospital. It was built with volunteer labor from the mines over 12 weeks. As the Japanese never bombed Mount Isa the underground hospital was never used - except as a night sleeping area for the nurses. But Cathie likes visiting medical things so we checked it out - Australia's only citizen built underground hospital.

We were totally hot by the time we walked back to 'Outback at Isa' and didn't feel like another Australiana Museam. So we didn't pay to go in to that. We're now back at the Caravan Park, Cathie is having a sleep. The kids are in the pool and I am writing this update.

In terms of budgeting. We had set a nightly max of $50 for the caravan park. Petrol is pricey out here. Entry for a family to a museam/exhibit seems to cost $40-50.

We're having a very nice time.

Our Goals

Cathie and I had a talk yesterday about what our goals were as a
family and as parents for this trip.

I said that I think my top three are:

1. That we grow together as a family to love and trust God together
more.
2. That Cathie and I become more one together through this
concentrated time away from distractions.
3. That we grow together as a family and our family identity grows.

I am also hoping for
4. A major childhood memory for the kids (much like for me the trip to
Australia and our family trip to Perth and back) were major childhood
memories and
5. That our kids might learn something.
6. I have realised that deep down I really would like to go all the
way around the country - just because it's there.

It's because of the fourth and fifth goals that I have asked the kids
to record their experiences and I have worked to video the experience.
I appreciate so much my father using a super eight movie camera to
film our childhood. And virtually the only bits that I remember are
the bits that he videoed and that we watched over and over on family
evenings.

And I guess I am wanting to do the something similar for our kids
(Which is why I have wanted to record the experience and have them
record it as well).

Mount Isa Caravan Parks

pt

We decided to drive all the way to Mount Isa because we wanted to go to church this morning and we didn't think Cloncurry had a church. So here we are at 'The Isa.' The photo above is of the park we stayed in last night. We have since switched to the Big 4 park down the road.

Airconditioner

When we bought the campervan the thing that decided Cathie on the getabout was that it had the option of an airconditioner. And she worked extra days at work to pay for the airconditioner. And she really deserves to be praised for this. Last night we left the airconditioner on all night. Luxury.

Caravan Parks

We are starting to have views on which sort of caravan parks are most suited. I like caravan parks. I like staying in them at Christmas TIme because it brings me into contact with a subculture of Australian society that is such a long way from Annandale and the media.

The caravan parks permanent residents are often from the lower end of the socio-economic specturm. Although in Mount Isa that's not necessarily the case. Here the mines bring people in for short term contracts from everywhere all the time and there isn't enough accomodation in the Isa and so lots of people stay in Caravan Parks.

We are now in the Big 4 one in Mount Isa (there are associations of carvan parks - Top Tourist is the top one, Big 4 the next level down and there's another one family something).

We ended up in fairly low star accomodation in two of our longer term parks so far (the Gold Coast and Brisbane) and because I thought we might stay in the Isa a couple of days we changed parks this morning from the one we went to late last night to the Big Four one.

The deciding factor - Big Four have a working internet connection. A bonus they turned out to be two dollars cheaper $39 not $41.

On the road to Mount Isa

Longreach

Cathie put some photos into be developed meaning we couldn't leave Longreach till ten am when the were due to be picked up. But we managed to leave even later because the jeep keys were all packed away in my bag inside the sealed campervan. We wound up the campervan and headed off.

We weren't sure when we were going to stop. Our original plan was Mount Isa but the late leaving had disrupted this.

Exhaustion

We finished our listening to a talk from Philippians 3 on exhaustion. This has been a really good discussion/study and we have thought through about pressing on towards heaven well as a family.

Winton

We arrived at Winton at 1pm. We went to the Waltzing Matilda museum at Winton and had a coffee at the Coolabar Cafe but didn't go in because we didn't feel like a third Australiana museam in two days.

We would have liked to visit the dinosaur exhibit but were a little late (blame the photos and the keys) it closed at 1pm. So we tortured the kids: sitting in the park in Winton in 38 degree heat looking at the local kids frolic in the pool.

Hannah's friend Joanna gave her a chinese bracelet and her friend Eva gave her a necklace. As we left Winton there was panic because neither could be found. We drove back and found the chinese bracelet on the road and the necklace in the car.

Leaving Winton there was a petrol station on the right with a very powerful advertising line: 'Last petrol for 180kms.'

On the drive to Kynuna the kids watched Joseph and the Technicoloured Dreamcoat.

Kynuna

At Kynuna there's really only a pub - the Blue Heeler hotel. It's distinguishing feature was that every single square centimeter of the pubs internal walls is covered with graffiti.

But before we got to the pub - guess what we saw - brolgas. You know the 'out on the plain the brolgas are dancing.' There was a flock/herd of them. What do you call a group of brolgas? Cathie was so excited!

We pulled up at the petrol station. They said 'Don't use that pump mate. You won't be able to use that one for about another four hours - until it cools down.' I didn't know what would have happened if I had used the pump - but I certainly wasn't going to try it.

Yesterday at the pool at Longreach Caravan Park we met a retired couple who played with us a game of piggy in the middle. They sat outside the pool and threw the ball to me in the pool - with the kids attempting to intercept.

In the Blue Heeler hotel - there they were again. They are traveling Australia slowly. They originally were ten pound poms then had to go back to the UK in 1969 because of sick relatives. Now they are back exploring the country that they had originally intended to spend their adult lives. They are doing the journey much more slowly than us and have their next appointment in February 2009 in Tasmania. They stayed the night at the Blue Heeler while we kept driving.

The only serious sign we saw at the Blue Heeler was the sign warning of killer mosquitos. Cathie has now explained the technical terms but if they bite you they can give you arthritis for nine months or brain damage for ever.

At the Blue Heeler we were told that we had missed the turn off to Banjo Patterson's billabong - the one he was visiting when he had the idea for and wrote Waltzing Matilda. It was a 16 km back trip to the turn off then 8km down the road to the Billabong. Did I want to backtrack 44 kms to see a waterhole that they told me was virtually dry? But it was such a key thing in Australia's psychi. And I don't think I will be back this way ahead of retirement.

As we were driving away I was reflecting on the fact that every time I sing Waltzing Matilda in the future I guess I will regret not doing that 44 kilometer backtrack. But it was 39 degrees.

Aboriginies at Walkabout Creek

Next stop was Walkabout Creek Hotel. We didn't buy a drink at the Blue Heeler. But we did stop for a diet coke each at the Walkabout Creek. It's the pub at the center of the movie Crocodile Dundee.

Our kids haven't seen this movie but we will get it for them now since here we are in Crocodile Dundee territory.

A group of aboriginies walked into the bar while were were there. They are a singing group from near Blackwater heading up to near Cairns to perform. I took their photo. One of them introduced himself as Cathie Freeman's cousin and I was able to extend condolences to him over the death of her brother Norman last week.

Cloncurry

As we headed to Cloncurry we listened again to the Willamson songs about Longreach, Charters Towers, Mount Isa and Alice Springs. As we drove along the road we saw thousands of what he called 'Cathedrals built by ants.'

Cloncurry's claim to fame is that it is the site of Australia's hottest recordest temperature - 53.1 degrees. (I thought this was Whitecliffs NSW but I certainly wasn't going to be the one to break the bad news to the girl behind the counter at the Caltex). It was 31 degrees at 8pm. And she said it's nothing like the temperature it gets.

We would have liked to have stopped at Cloncurry but had decided we wanted to go to church tomorrow and it didn't look like there were any churches in Cloncurry.

We had a hamburger each in the cool of the roadhouse and kept driving.

To Mount Isa

Hannah tried to sleep. Abraham, Solomon, Cathie and I kept a sharp eye open for Kangaroos and Cattle. We saw lots of cattle right by the road, but none actually on the road.

We had to stop once when there was an enormous clanking from the campervan. What had gone wrong? Flat tyre? Something worse? It turned out that one of the campervan's corner stabliser legs had wriggled loose and unwound, hit the tarmac at 90km/hour and twisted round.

Oh well I'll have to go and meet another welder and ask him to fix this one as well.

Mount Isa

We pulled in about ten pm. Set up quickly and went to bed.

Longreach: The place where QANTAS started

It makes a stunning impression. As you drive into Longreach, parked right by the highway is a Qantas 747.



To mark the 82 Birthday of the airline Qantas gave a 747 (apparently they are worth $250million dollars) to Longreach. But the airport is half the length of the landing strip required to land a 747. So they emptied the plane and flew in with minimum crew on board and no back up fuel and landed on this tiny strip in the middle of outback Queensland.

Qantas
We did a bit of Family Bible time in the morning and then headed out to the Qantas museam at the airport. I really hadn't spent any time learning about the history of Qantas before but it is facinating - and it was great to stand inside the hanger where the airline was born.

Two guys who flew together in WW1 came back to Australia and were given the job of maping out some airstrips in central Queensland. They got the idea of starting an airline to serve the bush areas of Queensland and the Northern Territory.

In the background the orginal hanger/office where Qantas began.

I saw their initial pricing schedule. It was based on charter flights with one passenger per flight. And an early ex war pilot was fired after he waited till his two passengers fell asleep then did a loop the loop (like they did in the war).


When you stop and read the history and appreciate those people who bled for the founding of the airline it's kind of sad to see the mess that Qantas is in at the moment with it likely to be taken over or merged with a larger airline.

Stockman's Hall of Fame
When I worked at 2UE (1985-1989) for around 12 months of that time I was the network's rural editor. This meant that I edited and presented three news bulletins each weekday to a national audience on around 50 country radio stations.

During that time I learned everything there was to know about agricultural politics and it was a fascinating time of my life, heading up the country news right at the high point of rural crisis.

In our news reports I covered the whole process of the building of the Stockman's Hall of Fame. Although I had stopped working in rural in 1988 when the Queen came to open it I was very interested in the whole building of the complex - a tribute to the Australian stockman and our outback heritage.

And I resolved that one day I would like to go and see it.

So when we were planning this trip the one place that I was interested in going to see in Queensland was the Stockman's Hall of Fame.

There were five levels to the complex looking at different aspects of the history of bush life in Australia. But the only difference that I could work out when one compared this exhibit to a number of other country heritage museums was that this one had lots of individual profile pieces of various Australian bush characters.

All in all although it was a pleasant and interesting afternoon it didn't measure up to 20 years of eager anticipation.

Back at the caravan park
Hot and dusty and the kids and I had a great time playing piggy in the middle in the pool. Cathie went to the shops to get film developed.

After dinner when the kids were asleep in the camper Cathie and I went into town for a drink at the pub. We were the only customers on a quite Friday night. Although we have spent almost all our time together for the last three weeks - we hadn't really had a deep (just us) conversation for 48 hours - we had been at Qantas museam in AM then Stockman's museam in PM and kids the rest of the time - and just needed to talk.

T-shirt
But I did buy a T-shirt in Longreach:

New York
London
Parish
Longreach

All in all it's a dusty town a long way from nowhere. A lady told Cathie that it's a good place for little kids and old people because the pace of life is slower.

From Great Keppel Bay to Longreach

Great Keppel Bay to Longreach

Moving from Great Keppel Bay to inland to Longreach means that the caravan parks have got cheaper and the petrol has got more expensive. Today was probably our longest day of driving so far. We probably should have stopped at Emerald but decided to do 700+ kilometers all the way to Longreach. We drew up a rough timetable for our trip before we left Sydney and we planned to be exiting Queensland on Monday. We were held up a little on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane and this means we are running a little behind time so we did the long drive. I think it is the first time I have spent more than $200 on petrol in day.




Great Keppel Bay
When we bought the camper trailer it came with a bonus portable fridge that we have been using as a freezer. The only downside of this fridge/freezer is that it takes up a lot of space in the camper trailer. So on a few nights we have left it in the car, plugged in by the 240v. Ambitiously I decided to see how it would go on the car battery last night. And it did fine. The freezer was minus 17 degrees when I checked it at 8am and the jeep started perfectly. But by the time we were ready to set out at 9:15 the battery was flat and we had to ask a fellow camper to help jump start us. (I think he rightly thought I was a bit silly!)

John Williamson and the Apostle Paul
I did a bit of work cataloging some of the John Williamson songs over breakfast. As we headed out of Rockhampton we listened to 'Longreach is praying for rain' and another one about Mount Isa. I have decided to try and listen to his songs that relate to the place we are visiting that day.

Then we started to listen to a talk on Philippians 3:12-4:12 where Paul spoke about his struggle for godliness and that he hadn't attained this and held himself us an example of someone who was working in the power of God's spirit to be more godly but didn't expect this work to be completed until he got to heaven.

Blackwater
We kept stopping the mp3 to count coal cars on the trains. At one point we saw guys working on the train track. There were six coal trains held up by the track work. Each train had an average of 100 coal wagons on. Easily the longest trains I have seen.

The hamlet of Blackwater seemed to be the place where the coal was being loaded. And we presumed that was why it was called Blackwater - because the coal made the water black. But really we had no idea.



Emerald
We stopped at Emerald where the biggest Van Gough painting in the world is. The tourist information lady was amoung the most helpful we have met so far. Emerald also had a mosaic history of civilisation in Emerald starting with Genesis 1:1, moving to the Aboriginal dream time, then white settlement.

But probably most memorable for our kids was that there was a very large lizard in the women's toilets.

Superman movie
We set up the laptop for the kids to watch Superman in the backseat. This movie seemed to go forever.

Jericho on the Jordon Creek
We stopped at Jericho. The sign in the center of the little town said that there was a lake called Gallilee nearby, and a creek called Jordon Creek, so it only seemed fitting to name the little town Jericho. The main park had a public exhibit telling the story of the Biblical Jericho.


Barcaldine
We would have liked to have stopped here. Barcaldine was the birthplace of the Australian Labor Party. Workers united into a union during the initial flurry of coal mining in the area. There looked like some very interesting museams on the history of the Labor movement in Australia. But given that it was 5:30pm when we drove through, they had closed everything and we just kept on driving.


Capricorn Highway
The highway from Rockhampton to Longreach is called the Capricorn Highway. It's named Capricorn because it runs due west on the tropic of Capricorn. (Points for anyone in the comments field who can tell me why the tropic of Capricorn is called tropic of Capricorn?) The plain is extremely flat. And driving due west looking directly into the sunset for 90 minutes was very difficult.

We were thirty kilometers from Longreach and pulled into Ilfracone for a toilet stop (and because at last we had mobile reception we could ring ahead and book the caravan park. I was sitting in neutral outside the toilets when the car overheated. In it's defence we had driven for seven hours at high speed with a trailer and then put the car in to neutral
without turning off the air conditioner (Sorry Peter!). We waited for 15 minutes to cool down before heading to Longreach.

Longreach
As we drove into town we saw the signs for the Qantas history museam and the Stockman's Hall of fame, so it should be an interesting day tomorrow.

We arrived just after dark and as I sit on the bench in the park jotting down these notes I am struck by how different the park is to the coastal parks - biggest difference - no grass - all dusk. John Williamson was right. Longreach is praying for rain. But there is one similarity with the majority of the coastal parks. You don't park the campervan on the concrete! :)

A great day at Great Keppel Island

Cathie right from the start of planning this trip has wanted to give the kids an experience of the Great Barrier Reef. In fact the three things we wrote down to do in Queensland were the Gold Coast fun parks (kids request), The Stockman's Hall of Fame at Longreach (Dominic's request) and Great Barrier Reef (Cathie's request).

She really is a tropical island kind of girl. A significant period of her life was as a med student spending a term in Western Samoa. I missed the cues when we were engaged and failed to take her on a honeymoon to a tropical island, making up for it on a tenth wedding anniversary trip to Daydream Island. So today was her third tropical island experience and she loved it.

We bought a day coral trip family ticket and headed down this morning to the jetty in time for a 9:15 departure. We had to race back to the caravan park at 8:50am because I had left my wallet in the caravan.

We sat on the top deck in the captain's cabin and Abraham got to play driver. When we arrived at Great Keppel we had an hour to explore the island before our scheduled coral cruise.

The cruise was headed up by a guy called Adrian, nicknamed 'Trout' because he used to be a trout fisherman. He was good fun, pretended he was new to a job, explained that he had been left a trail of breadcrumbs on the ocean to find his way back on his previous training trip. He said if we saw him jump overboard we should too, but not via the back as we would get caught in the propeller.

However his novice status was a sham. He had been around Great Kepell Island for ten years at least and new exactly what he was talking about. Working previously as head of outdoor entertainment for the now defunct Great Kepell Island resort.

He took us over the coral - the weather was brilliant - and we could see the bottom very clearly - it was I think he said the best weather for coral viewing that he had seen in six years. Certainly it was much better viewing than our 10th wedding anniversary trip to Daydream Island.

(I have given the kids an assignment of writing an educational report on the content of Adrian's presentation so we shall see how they go on their blogs - perhaps you could comment on this. I have realised I need to up the expectations of their reporting content).

On the way back Adrian told us the story of the collapse of the Island economy during 2008. This was an astonishing soap opera as we heard about Tower shutting down the Day Dream Island resort earlier this year. The publicity about the shutting down of the resort meant that many people thought the whole island had shut.

And effectively it has in that the number of tourists has plummeted from 2000 to 40. The general tourist store ('The Rainbow Shop') was still operating, the pizza shop but that was about it.

All the small businesses that supported the Island's tour operators are still running but on a much reduced scale. Adrian for example had switched from being head of outdoor entertainment for the resort with lots of people under him to doing tours on the glass bottomed boat.

We had lunch sitting on the walkway from the main resort heading down to the beach (a place we could certainly not have sat in a previous era). Then we walked through the water to the rocks at the end.

Cathie encouraged each of us to go goggling - that's not searching the web - but searching the rocks with goggles on looking for fish darting amoungst the rocks. I am always the hardest to persuade to enter cold water but ended up having a terrific time.

Then we walked all the way around the north end of the island past the other resort that also closed down at the start of the year and waited on the beach for the ferry to collect us.

On the way back the ferry staff in a game tied Abraham up in a life jacket as if it was a straight jacket. And we told Adrien the kids blog address so that he can mark their report on the coral exploration.

All in all a very good day!

Now to BBQ some sausages and then Bible time and bed.

Rockhampton / Yeppoon

A big day of driving today from Hervey Bay to Rockhampton. It is probably the kind of big driving day that we are going to get familiar with over the next couple of weeks.

On the way along today we listened to a Bible talk on Philippians and had pressed pause lots to discuss it. Then we stopped that after about 45 mins and the kids watched The Ant Bully on my laptop in the back seat with the sound plugged into the car audio system.

We stopped for lunch at a 'Stop Revive Survive' place and then listened to a John Williamson album. I'll say more about John Williamson as we go on. But I think he is the best song writer I have heard who captures snapshots of Australian and especially bush and outback life in verse. I've bought a few albums by him along and we spent a bit of time singing along with and explaining the lyrics to the kids from the album We love this Country. I had a bit of search on the web to see if I could find a catalogue of Williamson songs cross referenced to location so that

Then Cathie and I listened to and discussed the first half of Mark Driscoll's presentation to Sydney ministers from St Andrew's Cathedral a couple of weeks ago. (If I wasn't on holidays I would tell you what I thought :) ).

We arrived at the tourist place at Yeppoon just before five in time to book a day trip to Great Keppell Island tomorrow.

The mossies are much more active here. I tried using a mossie coil in the caravan but it ended up smoking the place out. I think I'll try it again tonight but leaving the plastic windows unzipped to keep air flowing through.

Hervey Bay and Fraser Island

What a great day. I am feeling very relaxed as I write this on my
iPhone on the ferry back from Fraser Island.

The day started at the jeep second hand place where we got a new back
up fan -meaning air conditioning can now be used again in the car.

Then I went and bought a new fuse for the extension cord we have to
attach the portable in car fridge we have in the boot to the cigarette
lighter power supply.

We had decided to have a day in Hervey Bay and not move ok to
Rockhanpton until tomorrow.

I took the kids down to the tourist info place and we discovered that
a ferry was leaving for Fraser Island in 40 minutes. So we raced back
to the caravan and found swimmers and headed down to the ferry terminal.

There was a resteraunt lunch, a Ranger's tour of the island plants,
see saw a dingo on the beach then we swam and went in the spa in the
tropical resort pool.

It was very pleasant!

One of our criticisms of the yobbo who lead the tour at the Big
Pinapple yesterday was that he new little about his subject (pinapples
and maccadamia nuts) and he didn't care about his subject.

Today's tour was a stunning contrast - the Ranger new lots about the
subject and was very personally interested and committed to the
welfare of Fraser Island (although she did admit at the end she was
more into wombats than plants) but had grown to love plants in her
current job.

Cathie decided to have a quiet day on her own back in Hervey Bay so we
shall see what she has been up to soon. It has been pretty intense
for us all being in each other's company 24/7 but as Solomon observed
the time that we have been spending in the Bible has helped lots.

We have been looking through Philippians both reading it as a Bible
Study and listening or watching talks on video and pressing pause and
discussing.

Thanks to those who have prayed for I'd that we would do family Bible
each day - I think we have except for the two Sundays - but we were at
church those two days.

Tomorrow it's Rockhampton/Yeppoon and the Great Barrier Reef then we
go Emerald, Longreach and Mount Isa before we head to the Northern
Territory next Monday.

Buderim and the Big Pineapple

Sunday morning and we packed the caravan as quickly as possible and
headed off to Lakeshore Church of Christ, pastored by L-T Hopper who
used to work at Christ Church, Gladesville.

Church was full and exciting. They have a great set up - they own pre-
school and use the pre-school class rooms for Sunday kids ministry and
they share a car park with the pre-school and the local shopping
center. But the thing that stuck me most was the men. There were men
in their fourties who were exercising leadership at every point. It
was very encouraging.

They had a great boooksales system - one of the guys orders books in
from christianbooks.com - they work out to be miles cheaper than
through the shops - he subsidised the freight costs and lots of people
buy good Christian books. I bought books by DA Carson on his father's
life and work, Mark Dever on church and Tim Keller on the reason for
God.

L-T's wife Belinda invited us back for BBQ chicken lunch at their
house and it was good to catch up with them. They were delighted and
shocked to hear about Cath and Otto getting married as they were on
the same year at Bible College at Otto.

Belinda is a communications graduate and just starting to think about
how to start using her media gifts as well after taking a break for
baby making (three lovely daughters).

We headed off to the Big Pinapple - which quite frankly was a massive
disappointment.

Cathie remembered it from her childhood - and the disappointment was
that of was exactly the same as it was thirty years ago when she was
there last - except the guide was not as competent.

It was so clearly past it's glory and such. Stunning contrast to
Australia Zoo, which we saw on Saturday.

The tour guide - who took us on the nutmobile through the maccadamia
nut plantation had not been there long, didn't really know his stuff
and wasn't that interested in his subject matter.

We had the same tour guide for the plantation express train through
the pineapples and the story was much the same.

After the Big Pineapple we headed off to Hervey Bay. We ended up
getting their after dark. I have now made a commitment to Cath that we
will arrive at our overnight location before dark - as that will
significantly reduce her stress.

Saturday: Australia Zoo

te
The Irwins and the Steeles - they didn't talk much :)

I went to Australia Zoo not really looking forward to it - but feeling like it was something that I ought to do once in my life - and feeling a little cynical about all the hype over Steve Irwin.

But in the end I was very impressed.

The negatives first
There is too much haigiography of Irwin. He is everywhere. From the huge jump in the toyota add at the entrance to the name of the shuttle train 'Steve's Safari.' The half hour performance we watched in the Crocoseam was billed as a tribute to him and the things he stood for. It doesn't make sense to call the place 'The home of the Crocodile hunter' with a photo of him - when he clearly isn't there.


Now the positives - and there are many

Something led by one person will be stamped for good or ill with that person's personality and vision whereas the organisation led by a committee or board by nature is one of compromise.

Australia Zoo has vision and character in a way i have not seen in any other zoo.

It was by far the best zoo I have been to and we had a wonderful time - seeing lots of animals up close. Many of the exhibits actually had keepers in the cages sitting with the animals to answer questions.


Cathie has been a little frustrated the last few days that so far the balance of our holiday has been higher on fun that learning. Well Australia Zoo was fun but it was a day filled with conversation and learning. I was very impressed.

Sideline: A delightful moment for us was when Hannah discovered that Australia Zoo was not in Sydney as she had assumed.



ps We didn't see Bindi!

Car
When we picked up the Jeep on Friday it still didn't have a backup fan. The replacement fan from jeep was quoted at $1300, and the repair guys had not been able to get one second hand that day. They gave us the name of a jeep place at Maroochydore which specialises in second hand parts - so we will go there.

But it means two days of driving with no back up fan - and hence no air conditioner.

This was fine as we drove with the windows open. More stressful was keeping a close eye on the temperature. We sat at 95 which was the middle of the dial the whole trip. 120 was the red area. I am not sure quite what this means but I am keeping a close eye on it.

Feeling
It now feels like we are starting to get more off the beaten track. All though we are only at the Sunshine Coast. It is starting to feel like the outback is approaching. This is exciting.

We are also starting to get into the rythum of things. We arrived at the Big 4 Forest Glen Caravan Park at about 4pm, the kids went for a play in the pool while Cathie had a sleep and I edited up a video. At six pm we looked at the Bible. Abraham actually fell asleep towards the end of this time - he was so tired after the big day at Australia Zoo.

Then dinner and then we actually got the kids to bed by 9pm and us by 10pm. I woke at 5:30am.

It's seven now, we will breakfast, pack up the caravan and head to church.

We just heard this banging around outside the caravan - it was a brush turkey trying to break into our rubbish. Abraham was out of bed in a second and headed out to scare it away.

Friday at Ashgrove, Brisbane

Friday: We started Friday carless again and began to formulate a plan A and plan B.

Plan A was that we would have a quiet day at the caravan park (we need this and then get the car back tonight and head to the Sunshine Coast and the Big Pineapple and Australia Zoo over the weekend (we need to find out where the church on the Sunshine Coast is that LT Hopper is pastoring in time for Sunday morning).

Plan B was that we would have a quiet day at the caravan park (we need this and then hire a car for a trip to the Sunshine Coast and the Big Pineapple and Australia Zoo over the weekend ahead of getting the jeep back on Monday.

Either way a quiet day at the Caravan Park while we waited for a 4pm phone call. The senior manager of the caravan park is a lovely lady in her fourties who has been a source of information and encouragement - very different to the junior duty manager we encountered on the first day.

Today started with a really good time of family Bible discussion focused on the back half of Philippians 2 then Cathie and I shopped together at lunchtime.


Cathie thought I was crazy for taking a photo of her in the supermarket!

Backyard cricket in the caravan park this afternoon, then just after five Solomon and I caught the bus to to the Hagins Performance Motors.

Good news from the car people. The jeep's oil problem wasn't as bad as we had feared. The oil pressure switch has been replaced but there has been no damage to the engine. The backup fan which will still need to be replaced is actually only required when one is running with the air conditioner - and we will be able to get one of these from a jeep place halfway to Rockhampton early next week.

The car difficulty has only set us back one day on our schedule and I think it was probably really good for us to have this break.

Tonight Abraham and Cathie are going to watch their National Geographic video, Solomon is going to listen to the Swans game. Everyone's going to get ready to go early in the morning. And we plan to head off tomorrow to drive to the Sunshine Coast and to say hi to Bindi at Australia Zoo.

Around and about Brisbane

Wednesday: First visit to Brisbane city

Abraham and I went with the tow truck driver and the jeep to Ashgrove Car Care. I bought a coffee for me and an icecream for Abraham on the walk back to the caravan park.

After lunch the kids and I headed into Brisbane on the bus. Cathie gave us a short list of things she wanted us to buy. We stopped at the chemist and bought the things Cathie wanted before getting on the bus. I sent solomon to run them back to the caravan.

When he hadn't come back I rang Cathie ok the mobile and together we prayed and started to search. Hannah was posted to wait outside the chemist, Cathie waited outside the caravan park and I waked up and down the highway looking for Solomon.

I felt impotent with no friends in a foriegn city and no car.

I never know in these situations when I should escalate the alarm. Cathie is more willing to give the kids freedom than me and slower to press the panic button.

When I couldn't stand it any longer I called the police. They very reasonably asked me where I was. As I was trying to work out the address: 'Corner Ashgrove road and.... Enoggara road'. Solomon appeared in the distance in tears.

He had headed down the wrong street at top speed and after running a long way couldn't find the caravan park,got distressed and headed back.

There was an emotional reunion and Cathie then walked us up to the bus stop where we headed into town.

First thing we saw when we got off the bus was JB hifi. Some friends gave us some gift vouchers for DVDs to watch on the trip both at night and for the kids on the long driving.

Our first purchase was:
The game plan (Hannah)
National Geographic x 3 (Cathie)
Valient, Home Alone (Solomon)
King Kong, ET, Spiderman 2 (Dominic)


Walking around Brisbane we were am amazed by the quality and and quantity of street architecture.

After ice cream treat the kids were ready to come home to the caravan park and my idea of walking the Story Bridge was vetoed.

We spent a bit over an hour reading Philippians 2:1-11 and listening to a talk on that passage - stopping it every few minutes for a discussion.

After dinner by democratic process we chose to watch 'The game plan,'

Tuesday: Seaworld

A quiet Saturday

Today was the most relaxed day of our holiday so far. We didn't leave the Gold Coast Caravan Park - and recovered from the frantic activity of the past week.

In the morning we blogged, edited up our little videos and sorted out the caravan. After five days on the move and rain as well, there was dampness, washing to be done, a sink to unblock.

It's suprising how we have had to queue up for the computer to diarise. I have been very keen that we have a memory of this trip to consult in the years to come. And I also thought that I would prefer to record and edit as we went rather than do it all in a big job at the end.

Abraham particularly is a slow typer and so takes a lot of time over his posts.

We had a lovely BBQ lunch in the caravan park by the pool, Cathie did the washing while I read Bryce Courtney's 'Brother Fish,' and the kids splashed around.



Before dinner we watched a Bible talk on video on Matthew 6 and had a good time stopping the video to discuss things along the way as a family. Hannah prayed that we would see God as father, Cathie that his name might be Holy, I that his kingdom would come, Solomon that God's will might be done and Abraham that God might provide us with our daily bread. We will watch the second half of that video probably tomorrow night.

Tomorrow we will visit Christ Church, Currumbin and then after that we are planning to go to Seaworld.