Burleigh Heads

Another beautiful day - another trip to the beach! This time to Burleigh Heads on the southern end of the Gold Coast. This is the view from our spot, looking up the coast towards Surfers Paradise.

Auntie A took the opportunity to take her brand new surfboard out for a last ride on the waves before she had to head home to Switzerland.



Again, looking up the coast towards Surfers Paradise



Hanging out and enjoying some special time with Auntie A.



Our little Pirate - reading up on different species of fish and looking out for his ship.



Even Pirates need a drink sometimes.



Just some photos I like.

Seaworld

A's last weekend in Oz so we headed to the coast to spend the day at Seaworld.



Welcome to Seaworld and walking through the park working out our plan for the day.





First stop Sharkbay where you can touch the cute starfish and watch the sharks from behind the safety glass.





Koboshi loved the Dolphin show especially when they jumped out of the water.




Lunch for the crew; emptying our wallets but loading our guts for the afternoon session.




Koboshi loves to get out and about, here he is watching the ski show.

The Seaworld ski show.

A and K on the pirate ship ride. Seaworld doesn't have many rides but we did them all.




Ka and A on the Seaworld Eye and looking down towards Surfers Paradise.



K stayed down below to look after Koboshi.

After many hours of fun in the sun it was time to bid Seaworld farewell and head for home.

Sven's big day out!

On Sunday it was Sven's biggest day of the year: the RSPCA Million Paws Walk in Brisbane.


The crew is in the car, ready to go - Sven to the MPW and Koboshi to see his grandma.






At the starting point where hundreds of dogs wait for the walk to commence. I think we are still a few paws short.





We are on our way... together with about 3000 other dogs and their owners!






It was a perfect day for a walk - K, A and Sven enjoyed it heaps!!!




A little drink break along the way




After the walk. Sven was exhausted - more from the excitment then from the 3km walk...



Sven enjoys a cuddle with auntie A



Tired and happy! And finally the centre of attention! Only 364 days to go until the next MPW!!!

Mother's Day

Dear Mummy

Sometimes you get discouraged because I am so small

And always leaving my fingerprints on furniture and walls

But every day I'm growing, I'll soon be so tall

And my tiny handprints will be harder to recall

So here are my little handprints you'll remember with a smile

On Mother's Day 2007 when I was a little child

Love from J

Koboshi made Ka's first Mother's Day present at Kindy complete with a poem.

Breakfast is served. The food and table waiting for the mothers.

Mother's Day breakfast at our place. It was Ka's first Mother's Day and Joshua was being the perfect little son!

Three generations of G's



Koboshi and his grandma, both are very happy.

Koboshi is now saving up and working on his Father's day gift.

Our dam tour of the Brisbane Valley

Saturday morning was a beautiful Autumn day with great weather so we went for another road trip. This time we headed north west to the dams to see the effect of the drought first hand.




Our fist stop was Syds Pie Factory for a fill up on the best pies in Queensland. We often have lunch stops here on Saturdays - the chunky steak pies are the best!!!


Then it was one and a half hours to Wivenhoe dam via Fernvale



This is why we are on level 5 water restrictions. This is the main dam for south east Queensland and it is less than 20% full.




Here is a comparison shot. The picture on the left was take in 2004 when it was green and filled with water. The second shot was taken this week - the earth is dry and brown and the water level has dropped dramatically.





The information sign and building at Wivenhoe, there were a lot of dam facts.


After Wivenhoe we kept driving northwest and then turned right at Esk to complete our loop home. However, since we didn't have a map we took a wrong turn and had an exteded drive coming home via the Sunshine Coast.





Somerset Dam was the original dam for Brisbane. After Brisbane last flooded in 1974 Wivenhoe was built downstream to stop that from happpening again. Now with two big dams Brisbane is no danger of flooding particularly since we haven't had decent rain in 4 years!!



Lake Somerset.




Koboshi loves a drive and enjoyed the five hour trip. Here we are driving through the Sunshine Coast hinterland heading back to the Brisbane Valley.





Looking out toward Caloundra and the Pacific Ocean. The beach is just behind those mountains.


We had a good dam tour and a good dam look at the countryside west of Brisbane.