Riverfire, River Fest 2008 Brisbane

This picture truly demonstrates what the night looked like for 20 minutes. Fireworks off of bridges, buildings and off the river. The glowing light across the sky is the F1-11 Jet going by
Strike Jet Passing through
Roulettes perfoming the air show
nothing like champagne and fireworks

On August 30th, Brisbane hosted this river festival and it was indeed the biggest fireworks spectaclular I have witnessed thus far. The purpose of this event is to welocme the arrival of spring. I started my journey on the City Cat (a very common means of transportation via ferry on the river) As I cruised the river, the roulettes air show was in force, streets were filling, rooftops were partying and boats were docking to view this yearly event. My arrival was the South Bank area where I watched the sky light up with champagne in hand and filled my soul with happiness being a spectator with hundreads and thousands of others witnessing this truly remarkable moment. The grand fianle of the show was the RAAF F1-11 Strke Jet that sweeps low over the city perfoming its 'dump and burn". I couldnt believe how fast it came through and the vibration that it left. Awesome!

University of Sunshine Coast

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Check out the Joey

This is the Uni I attend here on the Sunshine Coast. I am in the Graduate Diploma in Education and will be finished the program in July 2009. When completed I will be a certified primary school teacher. Woo Hoo!!! I could have done the program at a local school in Ontario but opportunity was there and why not live in Australia and make my dreams come true. The university is alive with Kangaroos living on campus. The novelity of seeing them everyday has not worn off yet, and really I dont think it ever will. It truly is a sight to see them around moving about on the grounds. The Uni is about 15 minutes from where I live.

Brisbane, Queensland

Our day downtown Brisbane. We walked the streets, checked out southbank beach...kinda cool to have a beach right in the heart of downtown and observed the many people that crowd the streets. Brisbane is about a one hour drive from Mooloolaba. You can get there by bus and train but having a car would save you loads of time.

Mooloolaba and The Stormy Sea

July 25, 2008. After 2 days of Rain and not moving much from the apartment, Maria and I decided to go out for a walk. We couldnt believe all the action that was going on just minutes away. The sea was rough, but surfers were out indeed living there dream. A fishermen's boat "Miss Melissa" had been swept by the storm and onlookers watched as the media and patrol team were in motion. Unfortunately the accident took one mans life. It took over 3 days to get the boat out of the local swimming area known to the people of Mooloolaba. We ventured on a long walk on the beach and a wave came up and nearly swept us away. We couldnt believe how high the tide was up and the amount of "professional" surfers that were in the water having we would imagined the ride of their lives. It truly was a sight to see. You knew it was mid afternoon once the children joinned the beach with their families and men and women wasting no time after work throwing on their wet suits and headed out to the area where everyone crowded and watched. Even photographers were there with heavy duty cameras getting a glimpse of surfers riding the waves in this stormy sea. People were talking about the surf and waves for days to follow.

The Australian Zoo

On Friday August 1st we decided to take a day trip to the Australian Zoo. It was a good trip and we covered it within a couple of hours. The highlight of our experience was the Koala encounter we had. It was aweome to have the Koala embraced in our arms for a posed photo...so cool to be up close and personnel. Love it! We saw tonnes of crocs and attended the live show. It was a hot day filled with many animals...

Fraser Island

Our day started at 6:00 a.m in the morning. The tour bus picked us up and off we went for a day trip to Fraser Island. We drove in a custom built 4x4 that is appropriate for the tour. Fraser Island is the worlds larget sand island, 123 km long and 15 km wide. We drove on the beach for many kms which is known as the pacific hiway with a pitstop at Rainbow coloured sands. From there we then took a ferry crossing and more driving on the beach driving through lush rainforest with many old and gigantic trees. Our pitstop was fabulous. Lake McKenzie and breathtaking it was. From there we had an awesome lunch and spotted some wildlife...lizzard, iguana, and a Dingo. So Cool! After lunch we checked out Wanggoolba Creek and went for a walk. We headed back by beach of course and had a fun packed day on Fraser a World Heritage Wilderness Destination in Queensland!

Noosa National Park

We headed out to Noosa National Park after doing a little shopping at the Eumundi Market. O.k. maybe I should say a lot of shopping. The park was breathtaking. We checked out the Noosa area first, had lunch then went on a 3 hour hike. At the beginning of our hike we spotted a Koala..so cool. Then we spotted a snake...not so cool! Then we spotted a whale out in the middle of the ocean...once again, so cool! We went a little off the beaten path and then decided safety first, and turned around to venture back. It was a perfect day!

Sisters in Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast

Thanks to our friend Jade the two of us got a lift to Nerang train station which saved us loads of hours. Yes, hours. The final haul to our destination was one hour and we made it just in time, the sun was rising, the streets were filling and the beach was glowing. We stayed at Chateau Beachside and a room with a view...literally! 1601 was the magical number and when we arrived we didnt want to leave. The weather was perfect, the night clubs were, ahhh o.k if you like drunken 18 year olds hanging out of every corner at the famous "Orchid Street". The weekend was a blast and it was sad to depart the "good life". It took us 6 hours to get home at our residence in Mooloolaba.