Melbourne – New Years Eve…

Tags

Australia, Fireworks, La Citta, Massage, Melbourne, Nail fixing, Nail gel, Nails, New Years, New Years Eve, Prosecco, Windsor, Windsor hotel

Today we have absolutely nothing planned, it will be a “whatever-we-feel-to-do” day in Melbourne. Our hope was to get massage and maybe do our nails, but we did not find any appointments that fit us.

Had a toast, juice and cappuccino BF at The Winehouse. It was perfect! The fresh orange juice was great, with ice and without pulp, just the way I want it. ☺ Inside the shop they had a complete wall with wine bottles, soooo many and they arrange wine tastings. They have a webshop, as well.

HM in Melbourne

Very impressive decorations

The store is huge and so are the lamps

The huge HM store in Melbourne
After BF we went to the HM shop. Jossan heard that is it amongst the largest HMs around here and it was really big. It is what they call, the Australian flagship store = the largest in AU of the HM shops. Jörgen followed us there but then he realized that this was turning into a REAL shopping day and then he said Bye Bye and went on his own little adventures. Jossan and me continued to do some more shopping. I bought a scarf at HM, a black scarf with some wild animals on it.

What time is it? It is Prosecco time!
After some shopping we felt that the time has turned into Prosecco time 😉 and then we ended up at a really nice place, Xxxxxxx (my memory fails me). We ordered Prosecco and Jossan took a pumpkin salad and I had some grilled Chilli and garlic prawns. OMG, it was a heavenly combination.

What time is it? It is Prosecco time! 🙂

Massage and nail fixing
After lunch we continued to a shopping centre, quite large. Our plan for this day had been to either get a massage or do our nails, but it seemed that this would not be possible since everything was fully booked due to the fact that today actually I New Years Eve. BUT… at the shopping centre we found both massage, so we both took a one hour oil massage and then just opposite, we found a place where they did nails, so we got our nails done as well. Haha, it was just perfect.

New years eve at La Citta

Dining at La Citta
In the evening we went to La Citta, a little restaurant I had booked after Jossan freaked out about having to do everything. I looked it up on TripAdvisor, it was not amongst the top grade restaurants, actually I think it was around number 207 out of more than 3000 places. But if you see it in comparison to that number, 3000, then it had a really good grading. And it was VERY GOOD. A nice little personal. The waitress was very good, took care of us perfectly, so service minded and positive. We drank some very good wine, Jossan drank Prosecoo of course, and I had a Bay Bug Risotto. OMG, it was delicious. And I LOVE risotto. And seafood.

Spectacular fireworks from 17 roof tops

Impressive Melbourne fireworks

Firework for us and half a million other people
We left the restaurant and looked up the perfect spot to see all the fireworks. We sat on the side walk and waited and had the cutest little boy ever running around us, chased by his parents. Jossan close to wanted to adopt him, hehehe.

They had some really impressive fireworks in Melbourne. A total of 10 tonnes of fireworks were launched from 17 rooftops and other sites through the night at the family fireworks at 9.30pm and the midnight shows. And luckaly the temperature dropped from 39 degrees to a pleasant 27 degrees so it was a lovely evening.

So, once again we were about the first in the world to celebrate New Years. The last time was when we visited Josephine in Sydney a few years ago.

From Cairns to Melbourne…

Tags

Australia, Cairns, Double Tree by Hilton, Hilton, Hilton hotel, Melbourne, Parma, Windsor, Windsor hotel

Today we leave the northern part of Australia and we go down south, to Melbourne. Here we will stay for five nights and then we start our journey back home to good, old Sweden. BTW, I saw on Facebook that Sweden got its first snow yesterday. Seven centimetres. That’s great!! I think winter should be winter = cold and snowy, and there is definitely much more of a Christmas and New Years spirit when you have snow. Christmas in Australia just isn’t Christmas for me. Sorry all Aussies, but that is just the way it is.

We leave with Jet Star at 14.30 today so we actually did not have to hurry at all. First breakfast at Double Tree by Hilton, which unfortunately was very crappy. Longing for the Sheraton breakfast, which was the best breakfast during our whole trip. Just excellent!

Then we did the packing and we decided to check in 6 bags, since there were actually were able to check in more than one bag per person, as long as they did not exceed 30 kg. Our bags are really full and then they have a weight of around 23 kg, so it is almost impossible to press in 30 kg of clothes in them. They are too small for that.

The packing went well, we actually have some kilos left, but we have a bag check in limitation on our next flight, from Melbourne t o Stockholm via Doha. Then we are just able to check in one bag per person, so then we will have to pack really smart.

Took off to the airport. It is still raining cats and dogs. What a weather, and they have had it for a week. Lucky we did not plan to stay up in Cairns for a few days!

At the airport
Jörgen drove me to the drop off place and left me there with all the luggage. Then he and Jossan drove back and returned our rental car. That car has been great. DO not know if I have said it before but you sit really comfortable in it, even in the back seat.

We had a coffee and wrote bag tags for 45 minutes and then they opened the check in and we could get rid of our entire luggage. The boarding was a bit late, as always when you fly with Jet Star, apparently, but just about half an hour late. We “hit the air” at 15.00 and came to Melbourne approximately 3 hours later. Here it is one-hour time difference compared to Cairns so now we have a 10-hour difference to home.

Took a cab to the Hotel. It was a very nice, but kind of unorganized taxi driver that drove us. First he asked if it was OK for him to stop to get gas. There he filled up the car and also went to a shop to buy some soft drinks. Then he continued driving but forgot to start the meeter for a while. We all laughed about it, that this trip would be so very cheap for us. But then at the end, at Windsor Hotel, he started babbling about some parking fee etc. and said that the trip would be 82 dollars. I think he actually ripped us off since I read on the airplane that the taxi fee from the airport to Melbourne should be 60 – 70 dollars. SO he might not have been that nice anyway.

Windsor Hotel
At the Windsor Hotel, a man came out to our taxi and helped with the bags. He looked out in the straight air and mumbled and it took us a while to understand that he was talking to us. It looked as though he talked to some other person, a bit like a secret service man, haha. Both Jossan and me felt exactly the same. So strange.

The view from the entrance of our hotel

Then we got to the reception and we were met by a nice and happy but the strange thing with him was that he had not even heard about the big fire along Ocean Road. He lives here and did not know about it?? 450 fire fighters are out there, trying to get control over the fire and he was like: Oh, My gosh, did not hear a thing about that. Hahahaha, maybe he is completely busy working, like in the song: I’ve got bills I have to pay, so I work, work, work every day, I’ve got mouths I’ve got ot feed, so I will make sure everybody eats. J

This hotel is OLD. It was built in 1883 and they have kept the old-fashioned style. It has very wide halls and stairs, high up to the sealing, and huge windows. But unfortunately there is no pool. L We got a rather spacious room but no view at all. The windows were “dimmed”, I guess to hide an ugly view! 😉

Installed us in the room and then went out to try to get some lunch/dinner. We walked and walked and looked at a lot of menus but we had a really hard time to agree on where to eat. When we finally decided to have Chinese food they said the kitchen was as good as closed. We went back to another restaurant that we thought had looked nice, but that kitchen was closed as well. SO, we ended up at a Parma place where they said: You have 5!! Minutes to decide what to eat, so we did our choices really quickly and got the food. Wohoooo!! And it was so good. Never had that kind of food before but according to Jossan it is really common and popular here in Australia. It is called Parma and you can chose from chicken, meat or vegi and then you get a huge portion of whatever choice you made buttered, with melted cheese on top accompanied by a fresh salad and French fries (they call it chips here). And some red wine to that, a super tasty meal.

After the dinner we went straight to bed. Was a bit hot during the night but apart from that I slept really well.

Cairns, here we come…

Tags

Airlie Beach, Airlie Beach Motor Lodge, Andersson, Australia, Cairns, Double Tree by Hilton, Gluten, Gluten free in Australia, Hilton, Hilton hotel, Marita, Marita Wallin, Marita Wallin Andersson, Marita Wallin Andersson Blog, Marita Wallin Blog, Wallin

Today we are leaving for Cairns, a road trip for about 700 km. I had the alarm on 06.55 and after about 15 minutes we all jumped up and started packing. We had a quick breakfast with hard bread, caviar, cheese, coke, water and orange juice. Posted two wrinkly postcards (have been to close to my bikinis) to mormor and farmor that I wrote back on Fraser, but had not yet posted. Probably we are back home before they arrive. ☹ But I have sent them 2 already and those they should have received by now. ☺

Jossan has checked the temperature in Melbourne. Tomorrow it will be 36 degrees and AND on New Years it will be…THIRTYNINE DEGRESS!! OMG, that is just terrible.

Left Airlie Beach Motor Lodge, and made a quick stop at Hungry Jacks (drive through) for a cappuccino, a flat white and a strawberry milkshake. The milkshake was delicious. ☺

The laziest farmers in the world
Right now, at 08.50 we are driving though “Sugar County”, as Athena explained to us. Here it rains quite a lot so it is very green and no problem to grow sugar cane. And there really are sugar cane fields everywhere. Athena said that sugar cane farmers are called “The laziest farmers” since they plant their sugar canes and then they will just have to wait for them to grow during 2 years, and then there is time to harvest, hahahaha. Great job!

Today Monsieur is driving, I am blogging and Mademoiselle it applying for jobs. All busy doing their stuff. At 10 we had a short pee stop and Jörgen wanted to change drivers, but we told him to go to the toilets and then he was not so tired anymore when coming back so he was able to drive for a bit more. And Jossan was very happy about that since she has a good Internet connection right now.

One rainy day
Rain, rain, rain, dark clouds mile after mile for a whole day. A complete shit weather and the temperature has now dropped to 24 degrees C. Had a stop at 15.30 at McDonalds and Subway to have a late lunch. And there they also had the McCafé. Josie says they have that all over Australia. Took a a look and they had 4 different gluten free cookies. Wohoooooooo! I bought a Raspberry Friand for 2,50. OMG, it was SO good. Had a taste of marzipan and I just loved it. Hope it comes to Sweden as well. Then hit the road again. Around here there are a lot of banana farms and it is really, really super green everywhere.

Came to Cairns at 16.45 and checked into The hotel Double Tree by Hilton. The man at the reception said that they have had this kind of weather for a week now.

Jossan rearranged all herr packing since now we are only allowed to have 3 bags with 30 kg each and then 3 cabin bags, 7 kg each. So a total of 111kg. Luckily I brought the travel scale from home so we could check the weight ourselves. I will do my packing changes tomorrow.

Airlie Beach day 2 – Barrier Reef boat trip and snorkling…

Tags

Airlie Beach, Airlie Beach Motor Lodge, Australia, Barrier Reef, Boat, Boat trip, Cactus Jack, Gluten, Gluten free in Australia, Mantaray, Marita, Marita Wallin, Marita Wallin Andersson, Marita Wallin Andersson Blog, Marita Wallin Blog, Mexican food, Nachos, Paradise, The Great Barrier Reef, Tropical fish, Whitsunday’s

Today it is time for a boat trip out to the Barrier Reef and Whitsunday’s. Had a mini breakfast on the balcony and then we got picked up by the company MantaRay outside our hotel at 07.15. Many Swedes on the tour, I think thee were nine of us. Then there were people from US, India, England etc. It was a whole day trip, from early morning until about 17.00 in the afternoon.

Like entering paradise
We started our journey towards Whitsunday’s and it took us a good 1.45 hours . It is cloudy today and a big risk for rain, but so far, no rain. Dimitri, our photographer guided us on the island and then we went down to the beach. The beach was completely stunning, sooo very beautiful. When we are in the water we need to have full cover wet suits because of the stinger/jelly fish season. We walked around in the bay and looked at all the stingrays in there. Marvellous. No sight of the Lemon shark though, they apparently hid from us. We stayed at Whitsunday’s for one and a half hour and I don’t think that I am lying when saying that this must be one of the most beautiful spots on the planet earth. If I would have worn a long, white, wind catching dress it would have been magic, as I would imagine it would be entering Paradise.

The great Andersson pose

When back on the boat again we had lunch, a Mediterranean buffet. It was very good, I liked it. And they had also arranged gluten free alternatives for us. Perfect!

The captain was a funny guy. He presented the boat, the staff and the security instructions in such a great way, with a lot of humour. I really like that. It gets the group in a really good mood from start. All was great with the safety and the regulations on the boat. They really knew what they were doing, and it felt very safe.

Time to go snorkelling
Next stop was at the Barrier Reef. The captain anchored up the boat and then we went into shore in a small rubber boat. Then on with the mask and snorkel and off we went, into the ocean. The reef was AMAZING. So many beautiful colours, purple, blue, pink, green, yellow and white. The whole rainbow at the bottom of the ocean. The sight wasn’t as good as when we went snooba diving in Hawaii, you need to have full sunshine to have super clear site, but anyway. It is a fascinating world down there. The fear of sharks was just blown away, no thoughts at all of that.

Funny fishes

We stayed snorkelling for about 2 hours, which was great. No rush, we had plenty of time to float around on our noodles. Well, this was not quite the truth when saying we. Jörgen snorkelled about 20 minutes, then he looked at the side and filled his snorkel and mouth with salt water, had a huge coughing attack, gave up and went to shore. Jossan stayed with me nearly all the time but took the same rubber boat as Jörgen back to the big boat. I stayed till the bitter end, until I thought that if I don’t get up now they will leave me here. I had a problem with my mask getting foggy all the time, but apart from that, AMAZING EXPERIENCE!! 😀

Dinner at Cactus Jack
Got back home and we all went straight in to the shower, so nice to get rid of all the salt water. I took the time to dye my hair as well, since the grey hairs have returned. Sounds like a movie: The return of the greys’, moahahahahahhaha. This time I made it in the colour “Dark chocolate” and it got dark. No problem for me, nice with a change. ☺

When I was ready we went down to Cactus Jack at Airlie Beach Hotel and had dinner. Everybody was very satisfied with the food. I hade nachos (like if I would take ANYTHING else when going to a Mexican restaurant = not a chance), Jörgen had chilli and Jossan had a steak with bea, corn and a salad.

Blogging time in the evening
Jörgen and me went up to the reception area to get some connection. To the Internet, I mean. 😉 Right when we sat there we hard a BIG crash, KABOOOOM. It must have been a cocoanut falling down from one of the trees. OMG, if someone would have passed there that very moment they would really have passed… away… forever.
Then Jörgen went to the room, really fast so he wouldn’t get hit by a new cocoanut falling down and Jossan came out, to use Jörgens computer. We are one computer short since Jossans computer has crashed some weeks ago, and we all have our missions. Jörgen is checking his mail, paying bills, managing the firm and checking out FB. Me, I am checking my mail, blogging and making some updates on FB/LinkedIn. Jossan is applying for jobs. Sitting out here, we are accompanied by the sound of kakaduus and toads. We also have a small gecko running around our feet. ☺

Went to bed at 23.00. Oh my gosh, that was extremely late for being us on this vacation. What has happened?? Maybe we are automatically adjusting our bedtime towards midnight to be able to stay awake at New Years Eve in Melbourne!!?? 😉

Airlie Beach day 1 – The Anderssons go Jetski…

Tags

Airlie Beach, Airlie Beach Motor Lodge, Australia, Black Kakatoo, Eagles, Eco Jet ski, Gluten, Gluten free in Australia, Jetski, Jetski tour, Kangaroo, Kangaroos

Woke up in Airlie Beach. Strange to think about that the people here have their ordinary, normal life in the places we just visit for vacation. How most of the time destiny decides where you end up. And sometimes you yourself when making life changing decisions.

We went to xxxxx to have some breakfast since we heard they had a lot of gluten free stuff but they were closed on Sundays. SO then we kep on walking and ended up at another café and they had both gluten free toast and home made gluten free musli. Perfect.

Where do all this grey hair come from
After breakfast Jossan and I went to some shops and Jörgen went home. I bought hair colour. It is really about time to do something about that grey line in my hair that for some reason keeps coming back! ☹ This time it will be Dark Chocolate. We’ll see how that looks, my plan is to do it Monday evening, if I have the strength to do it after a whole day at sea (we are going out on a boat tour tomorrow).

Eco Jet ski tour
Today is the day for going Jet skiing. At 11 Athena, from Eco Jet ski, picked us up at Down Under and then she drove us to the Jet ski beach, approximately 40 minutes from Airlie Beach. It was we and another family of four that were going out on the tour and Colin was our guide. We jumped into our wet suits, put sunscreen no 50 on, and then went down to the beach. There Colin had a lecture on how to drive a Jet ski and then he took each driver out on his Jet ski, to demonstrate all the “How to’s”.

Soon ready to go out on a jet ski tour

Colin, our jet ski tour guide

Too much excitement
And then out we went. Jossan and Jörgen drove at first and I sat behind on Jossans jet ski. Is kind of tricky until you get the feeling for how to do and most importantly, what not to do. NEVER slow down when turning, this will make the jet ski flip. In the beginning we went out on “open water2 but after a while we got in to more narrow passages. Then Colin stops and tell us that we are in “gator land”, which means that this is the territory of the alligators. OMG!!! He said that they would be asleep during day time and that they also already heard us long before we got there so we were not to worry. HA! Easy for him to say. Those 30 minutes in the alligator area was just terrifying. The only thing I could think of was the guy that was eaten by an alligator just the other year. Holy crap, this is much too exiting for me.

Jörgen prepping for some action

Then we left the “swamp” area and then, back on open water, I got to drive. Really cool, but in the beginning yu feel rather unstable. Especially if you get some waves from the other guys around you. Svallvågor, I mean. 😉 We also stopped at a small reef to snorkel a bit but we did not see much. Not much is like NOTHING. Jossan and me did not swim far enough and Jörgen found out that even though he actually had shaved off his mustasch this time, to be able to snorkel, he could not do it. He can’t see without his glasses. He would need special googles to be able to see under water. My God, this snorkling thing just isn’t ment for him. ☺

Came back around 17.00 and then we sat down and chatted a bit with the other family and had a drink. Really nice and relaxing. Then Athena drove us back home to the hotel.

Great safari experience on our way back home
On the way back home I told her we had not seen any live kanguroos so far and she promised me we would see some. And YES we sure did. First we saw 3 kangaroos. Athena turned the car around and went back so we could see them really close. It was great. Then we saw another one, just after a few more km. He sat right beside the road, so cute. Athena backed up so we could have a clos look. Loved it!!

We also saw two big eagles on our way back home and also some farmer making some controlled bush fires. Athena also spotted to black kaka doos and she told us that seeing black kaka doos, it means there will be rain. What a fantastic safari trip we had back home. ☺ Thanks a million, Athena!! 😀

Came back to the hotel, took a shower and then we ate leftovers from yesterday and the day before, pizza and thai chicken. MUMS!

Did some blogging, checked out Facebook and went to bed at 22.00 (then both Jossan and Jörgen were already asleep). Tomorrow it is time for a new adventure. A boat trip out to the barrier reef. Hope the weather will be good, they say it will be rain AND we saw black kakadoos. ☹

From Rockhampton to Airlie Beach…

Tags

Airlie Beach, Airlie Beach Motor Lodge, Arlie, Australia, Cows, Dead kangaroos, Free coffee, Gluten free, Gratis kaffe, Kangaroo, Kangaroos, Nollvisionen, Rockhampton, Skinny, Skinny cows, Sverige, Sweden

Had the alarm on 07.00 since today is a 535 km long ride day. In the car once again for over 6 hours. What a drag! L The only good thing about that is that I acturally get to do all the blogging I have not had time tpo do earlier

Left Villa Capri and went a few hundred meters to a gas station and had some breakfast there. They had no gluten free bread or sandwiches, so I took scramble eggs with bacon. It was served with a hot tomato and toasts. Could not eat the toast, not gluten free. Does not like hot tomatoes. The bacon was too thick and fat. I don’t like eggs, hahahahhahahaha. So, nothing heavenly about that meal. At all. At 08.50 we were on our way toward Airlie Beach.

Blogging in the back seat of the car

Night time surfing
Spend one hour during the night checking my private mail since my mailbox is completely FULL and the Internet connection we have had before have been really crappy. At the Villa Casa the speed was quite OK, actually best so far in Australia, if I am not mistaken. Even better than the speed of the Internet at Noosa Sheraton. I would imagine that Sheraton should have great speed, but nope, they did not.

Also looked up the shark situation in Australia throughout the years. If the page was correctly updated, there are somewhere between 3-5 shark attacks per year that results in plain and complete death. Ughhhhhh!!! And still people go snorkelling in these waters, like we are going to do in one or two days. Very doubtful if it is really worth the risk. But apparently there have been very few attacks at The Barrier Reef. Not sure at all that I feel safer after reading all that info. Very few is not zero. L

09.05 – One dead kangaroo on the road.

09.20 – Dead kangaroo number 2 on the road

09.55 – Kangaroo number 3 on the road. This one, dead as well

Actually, I haven’t seen any living kangaroo at all on this Australia trip, just dead ones. Had a short Number 1and 2 stop at a gas station and then off we went again. 😉

The temperature is getting higher and higher the further up north we drive. Kind of backwards for a Swede. 😉 Today it is 32 degrees at 10 o’clock.

10.19 – Dead K no 4

10.35 – Skippy no 5, “murder-death-kill” by the side of the road (do you remember what movie that expression, “murder-death-kill”, comes from)?? 😉

Noticed a heard of some really skinny cows along the road. Either they were starving or this was some special kind of cows!? But if you ask me, I’d go for the starving explanation. You could see their ribs and bones right through the skin. Horrible!! After travelling some more km the cows looked normal again. Maybe time for an inspection at that particular Aussie farmer!

10.43 – K no 6, not alive

11.28 – One more dead kangaroo

This makes seven dead kangaroos in 2,5 hours and 250 km. Either they have many more road kills with kangaroos in AU compared to our Swedish road kills of deers. Or the hunters wait here in AU for some more days than they do in Sweden before they go and pick them up. Whatever the cause is, it is still so sad to see that many dead animals on the road.

At around 12 we passed through a small towns like Sarena and Mackay. Apart from some small town here and there, the roads are long, straight and surrounded by fields and trees. All looking the same. Feels a bit like Norrland (the northern part) in Sweden, just hotter. There is a big risk of getting tired and falling asleep. They actually have signs here where they offer you free coffee just so you should be able to stay awake. That is a great idea! J Could be something for Sweden to copy, to help promote the vision of zero deaths on the roads (Nollvisionen).

It is now 13.30 and the temperature is 35 degrees C. We have had a lovely dinner at Bann-Na Thai Restaurant in Mackay. Great food for only 58 dollars for three persons.

Josie spotted 2 more dead kangaroos in the afternoon.

Airlie Beach Motor Lodge
At around 15.30 we arrived at Airlie Beach Motor Lodge, situated close to the centre of Airlie Beach. We got room number 9.

Jossan and me went to the pools downtown to get some sun and Jörgen stayed in the room.

Later on in the evening we went to Airlie Beach Hotel and had some dinner. They had gluten free pizzas and lots of good stuff on the menu so we were all satisfied.

Gluten free pizza at Airlie Beach Hotel

We all went to bed at 21.00….Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Leaving Noosa and heading for Rockhampton…

Tags

Noosa, Noosa Sheraton, Rockhampton, Sheraton, The Apple Tree Creek, Villa Capri Motel

Today we had a lazy morning with breakfast around 09.00. Sheraton in Noosa really has the best breakfast ever. Many things on the gluten free shelf like bread (better toasties than the normal), Christmas cookies, cereals, crackers etc. They also have a station where you can make your own juice with apples, oranges, carrots, ginger, cucumber and a lot of other stuff. Really nice.

Dead car
After breakfast we went to the room, packed up, checked out and went to the car, a Nissan Qashqai. Jossan took the driver seat and tried to start. The car was dead. Flat battery. Luckily we had taken a full insurance with 100% road assistance so we just called the emergency number and they came in 15 minutes. So quick. It turned out the battery was completely finished, was no more, hade gone to the Norwegian forest = IT WAS DEAD. The road assistant guy connected a new battery and off we went. So smooth and convenient. Left Noosa at 11.45 and started the 6 hour drive up north to Rockhampton.

Jossan is happy since the assistance came super fast

Blogging in the garage

At around 13.00 Jossan, our driver for the day, saw a dead kangaroo on the way. Still do not really understand that the kangaroos actually is an animal that exists. Feels like a fantasy animal from a children’s book (Nalle Puh).

Lunch at The Apple Tree Creek
Had lunch at a roadhouse in a really small village called The Apple Tree Creek. We had ordinary fast food that was really good. Home made burgers with delicious fries and Jossan had mashed potatoes with roast beef. Salads to that made of salad, tomatoes, onion, carrots and beetroots. Jummie.

Jossan drove the whole way except the last 100 km, then Jörgen drove. Came to Rockhampton at 19.03. The hotel was closed so we rang the night bell. A blond girl came and opened up to us, said she had tried to reach us since they closed early this evening, but was not able to reach us. We got our room and then she went and prepared the other late arrivals and then she left. Lucky we came while she was still around! ☺

Nothing was opened in town so we had some left over bread, caviar, grapes, apples, crackers and some red wine. Hahahaha, all the people around us are having super Christmas dinners all over the place and we are having the “poorest” dinner ever.

Chillin’ in Noosa…

Tags

Bellini, Christmas, Christmas dinner, Drinks, Mai Tai, Noosa, Noosa Sheraton, Pool, Santa, Santa Claus, Sheraton, Shopping

So wonderful to sleep in a real bed. Felt like a heavenly experience after the Fraser camping.

We had the most wonderful breakfast at Noosa Sheraton. Did not miss ANYTHING! They even had gluten free Christmas muffins. Loved them, tasted like Christmas at home! Nice to get some taste of Christmas since we will miss out on nearly everything. No Christmas ham, no knäck (special kind of Swedish X-mas fudge), no Jansson, no Christmas tree of our own, no glögg, no herring, no meatballs, no prinskorv (prince sausages, hahahaha, small kind of sausages), no Orange Rice, no presents, no Santa. The Santa we have seen here wear shorts!! That is NOT Santa! ☹

Noosa shopping
After breakfast, Jörgen went to the room to do some work and the economics and Jossan and me went shopping. We do not care for the stuffing being beautiful, cheap, expensive, right color, if it fits or anything. The only thing we think about is the weight, since we have limited luggage space back home. SO, low weight = we invest!!! Hahahaha, just kidding, but, truly, the weight is a factor dor all the shopping we do. I bought a striped, black and white dress for Jossan, as a small Christmas present! ☺ We both bought a small dream catcher, I will have mine in the car, and then I also bought a small, beige, leather bag, a white lace top from Billabong and a long, beige lace vest, soooo beautiful. Jossan also bought new flips flops at Billabong since she lost one of her flip-flops yesterday at the rescue incident when we got stuck in the sand. I dropped my flip-flop as well, but that one we found.

Poolside chillin’
After the shopping, Jossan and me went to the pool and read and relxed for about 2-3 hours. Jörgen also came down after a while and we all had one drink each. I took a Bellini, Jörgen a Pina Colada and Jossan took a special, a banana shake with white rum. All tasted good except Jossans Banana shake. Hade a strange taste that none of us liked. We also had a Nacho plate but it was not at all as good as the one we had at Hot Water Beach. That one was super delicious.

Merry Christmas from The Anderssons

Santa came to Sheraton
After a while the weather turned realy cloudy so we went up to the room. Then room service knocked on the door and we went like, ohhhh, not again. Jörgen opened quite sceptic and there was Santa Claus with a Christmas gift to us all. A bottle of sparkling wine and some chocolates. Ohhh, so very nice. Much appreciated! :.-D Cracked the bottle immediately, felt very festive. Then Jossan gave us a present as well, OMG, so nice, even though we had decided that we should not exchange presents this Christmas. The trip is present enough. We got a designed “wine airiator” or whatever that can be called in English. 😀 Perfect, we did not have one of those, we have only used a good old, Swedish “tratt” (funnel), hahahaha, so unsophisticated.

Santa came to us at Sheraton

Vi får julklapp av Jossan, jippi, så snällt!!!!

Did some blogging, I am way behind now after Fraser Island and then I also made a CV template for Jossan since her original got lost when her computer crashed.

Christmas Eve dinner
At 19.00 we had Christmas Eve dinner at the hotel restaurant, Noosa Beach House Peter Kuruvita. Again, all the staff was super service minded and very friendly. Love that about Noosa Sheraton. The dinner included a sparkling welcome drink and then a 4 course dinner. All wine, sparkling, red and white were very good, but I would never order the same food ever again. The only dish that was very good was the fish Jossan ordered, a fish in a curry sauce served with rice. That tasted really good but all the rest, no, not in my or Jörgens taste. It was the kind of restaurant where you mostly get an empty plate and then some strange small servings. And I don’t mind fancy restaurants but I appreciate good tasting food and I was disappointed. Sad, since it would have been really nice to have a special dinner for Christmas Eve.

We went to bed early. Had a terrible neck ache when I went to bed. Took an alvedon (a pain killer), did not help. Took a Treo (another kind of pain killer) later on in the night, rolled up a towel to put under my neck and finally I fell asleep. Don’t know what caused the ache, might have been the draft in the car (shit, shit, shit, so very much an aging sign to complain about the draft, hahahahahaha) together with the intense blogging. 😀

Fraser Island day 3…

Tags

4-wheel drive, AU, Australia, Beach, Beachdriving, Blog, Camp, Camping, Clint, Dingo, Driving in sand, Drop Bear Adventure, DropBearAdventure, Fraser Island, Marita, Noosa Sheraton, Sand, Sheraton, Toyota, Toyota Landcruiser, Wallin

Got to sleep until 06.00. Then Clint walked around in the camp with his portable speaker, playng that special kind of Aborigine “swishing” music (when they swing a string with a wooden thing at the end around their heads which makes a really special sound).

Camp breakfast and then we left the camp for the last time at approximately 08.15. Made a short stop at a café, an opportunity for us all to get some real coffee (the camp coffee is not much to hang in the Christmas tree, as we say in Sweden). 😉 Also some things that are hard to find on this island are proper, fresh toilets. Very rare and therefore so hard to find.

Lake McKenzie
Then we drove inland on the island, for the first time. Really narrow roads and all made out of sand. So curvy and so bumpy. Jörgen just loved it! 😀 Drove some good 45 minutes and then we came to Lake McKenzie. OMG, such a beautiful place. A big sea on the island, so clear water and the bottom is just plain wonderful sand.

Beautiful Lake McKenzie

Rain forest
We stayed there for a bit more than an hour and then we continued our drive, right into the rain forest. The trees in here are enourmous and they have so many strange kinds, gum trees, eucalyptus, some special kind of pines, and many, many more. Took a walk in the rain forest and looked at the trees, the bamboo (huge), the creek with super clear water, saw a cacadoo (flying around, screaming very loud).

Big trees in the rain forest

The lunch was looked away in a cage during our walk, because of the dingo danger, and when we came back for lunch all the tables were already taken so we had to get our towels and sit under the pines, in the shadow. And for lunch we had….tada…the very same lunch as every day. Salad in a wrap. I don’t mind salad but would have been nice with some more variation.

All food needs to be locked in cages to prevent the dingos from eating it

Back to Rainbow beach and Noosa
After the lunch we got back on the road again and headed for the ferries. When we came to the first one, there was many cars waiting in line so we did not get on that one so we had to wait for the next one. Took some 30 minutes. We were on a tight schedule since some of the people in the group had a bus to catch in Rainbow beach. At ferry number two, the 2-minutes ferry, all went good until the last few meters of sand. There the sand were SUPER loose. All the cars made it but ours. We got stuck. Jörgen tried to reverse and then drive again but no, he had to give up. Then we realized that we had to get out and pushed. And so we did. We pushed, and pushed, and pushed. And we, the Dream Team, made it. We got the landrover on track again, but with the loss of jossans flip-flop. I lost mine as well, but that we could find. Jossans shoe was buried in the sand. We searched for a short while but we had to give up, due to the tight schedule.

We made it to Rainbow beach, only 5 minutes before the bus would leave. Perfect timing. SO there we said bye, bye and some people from the group left for new adventures.

The rest of us continued back to Noosa, using a lot of dusty gravel roads. Fun driving, appreciated by Jörgen. ☺ Said good bye to Bella and Fredrik, that had stayed in our car most of the time. Said bye, bye to Stephano from Venezuela/Italy as well and also said fare well to the two Swedish girls (a pre-school teacher and an IT consultant) from Stockholm. Very few people in the group we really got to know by name. I guess it takes more than three days when the group is as large as 30 persons.

A tip to the organizer of these trips, DropBearAdventures, is to, at some point, let everybody make a short presentation of themselves, just name, country and their vacation planes in AU would be nice.

Home, sweet home = Sheraton
Came back to the hotel at around 18.30. Sandy and dirty and in BIG need of a bathroom. Lovely to be back at Sheraton again. The rooms are really great, very spacious and with comfortable beds. Had dinner at the hotel restaurant. VERY friendly and efficient personnel but the food was not that good, except Jossans dish (snapper in curry sauce with rice) which was really good. The wine was delicious, white wine from NZ and red wine from Rioja, France.

Was super exhausted so we went to bed extra early. As if this would have been different from any other nights, hahahaha.

Fraser Island day 2…

Tags

4-wheel drive, AU, Australia, Beach, Beachdriving, Camp, Camping, Clint, Creek, Dingo, Driving in sand, Drop Bear Adventure, DropBearAdventure, Eli, Eli Creek, Entertainment, Fraser Island, Guitar, Indian Head, Sand, Singing, Singing in harmonies

MY GOD!! Clint went around the camping ground at 04.50, playing his special kind of aborigine music, sounds like rrrrrrhoe, rrrrrhoe, rrrrrhoe, rrrrrhoe. Really a special kind of sound. I don’t think I have been up that early for years. The reason for the early rise was that we should be able to see the sunrise but unfortunately there was a huge cloud covering the whole event, ☹ but it was beautiful anyway.

Sunrise at Fraser

Then we had a cold breakfast. Bread and butter (they had gluten free bread, wooohooo), milk, jam and cereals (the gluten free cereals were great) and instant coffee (I’ve had better).

We put on sunscreen, got dressed and packed our stuff in the car and then there was a warm breakfast, egg toasts (toasts with egg filled holes). And you all know how I feel about eggs. And if you don’t, I’ll tell’ya. I think they taste exactly as they smell. Ughhh! I would love to love eggs, they are so practical picnic food and also you can do so many different things with eggs. BUT no, I do not like them. Unfortunately. ☹

Indian Head
We drove off from camp to Indian Head, a sacred place, a high cliff where the aborigines had their trials. If you had done something wrong, you had to walk up the cliff. On the top there were three “elders” who would judge you. You told your story, your version of what had happened and then the judges would decide if you were guilty or not. If you were found not guilty, you could just turn around and walk down the cliff again BUT if you were found guilty, the only way for you was to continue walking up the cliff and just continue walking, until you fell off the cliff. Kind of fast and really cheap trials compared to the ones we have today, that can go on for weeks and even months. The question is how fair they were and how many not guilty people that had to step up the cliff towards eternity.

Me on the cliff of Indian Head (I survived)

The view from the top of the cliff were stunning. So beautiful in all directions, so at least the guilty ones got a last beautiful view of The Planet Earth before they left.

Indian Head, an astonishing view

One of the views from Indian Head

Champagne pools
Next stop was the Champagne Pools, natural formed pools in between cliffs and rocks. Unfortunately this time of year the water is very low in these pools so we just stayed for around half an hour and then we drove to a nearby “sea-lake” and swum there for half an hour. Really nice.

Lunchtime
Drove to a park kind of lunch area with benches and tables. Had the same lunch as yesterday. Not exciting but OK for me, but I thought about the Indian family in the group, that stated (silently) the very first day that the lunch did not taste anything at all. Understandable, since they are used to really spicy food. During lunch a kookaburra bird flew over our table, felt the claws in my hair, hahahaha, and landed on the ground just beside us. Then flew up in a tree and sat there posing for photos quite a while. She/he was so cute, really a fluffy kind of bird.

The cocaburra that attacked my hair

The Wreck
We stopped and had a quick look at the SS Maheno wreck. It was just a very rusty old wreck. If you are interested in the story, you can read more about it here.

Jörgen, The Explorer

Eli Creek
Eli Creek is one of my favourites. A creek with super clear water, so clean you can drink right from it. You go up-stream and then you go into the creek and just float down with the stream Lovely. Jörgen and Jossan just went once, I had to do it one more time. Great feeling, lying there, just floating in beautiful waters. Sunbathed for an hour and Jossan and me actually fell asleep a short while until one of the other Swedes came by and said that we were about to leave. 😀

Airplane island round trip
After Eli Creek we drove a few hundred meters and then stopped by two small airplanes. There two pilots in “knee socks”, so funny, offered us to take a short tour in the planes. 17 in our group went for the tour. They took 60 dollars for a 15 minutes flight. No payment in advance, the deal was: If you come back, you pay. :-O Jossan joined, but Jörgen and me stayed on the ground.

Jossan on her way up in the sky

Dinner and evening entertainment
This evening we had a meat stew for dinner. I hardly could find any meet at all, got over cooked rice, carrots and peas. It is hard cooking out in the forest for such a large group of people and with rather simple equipment. The volunteers working there were very nice and service minded, and really tried their best under the circumstances they had.

After dinner we had some entertainment from within our group. A couple from US, Brad and his girlfriend, played the guitar and sang in harmonies. Really great, much appreciated! And then one of the volunteers took the guitar and sang two or three songs and she was really great as well. What talents we had in the group. Fantastic! 😀

Brad and his girlfriend entertaining us with beautiful songs