Livin The Dream There NaDan

We are back.  I know what you are thinking- "it has been 3 weeks, they don't care about us anymore, it's cold and wet down here and those bastards can't even keep us in the loop with livin the dream".  Well it is not about you so get over it, and we have been livin the dream, the boys have even taken off the KFC ad. and tell NaDan every second "livin the dream there NaDan".  We have been in Noosa since late Friday and having never been here before it is as beautiful as everyone says it is.  We had a great week on the Goldy but were very happy to leave the apartment and get back to our simple camper life.  It was also good to get the internet back up and running after a stuff up over how the bill was being paid, me not having my account info, and Telstra not being able to find it.  So after not worrying about it for a while then spending 3 hours on the telephone we are back on line.  You can't travel without some issues popping up and they continued as we left the Goldy, dropped into Officeworks to get a webcam that will work on the computer (still not working), then the car wouldn't start.  Lucky to be parked next to a car yard and just down the road from a battery place which was all replaced in no time and $200 later.  Then when we finally got to Noosa after finishing the second Harry Potter audio book and onto the second Percy Jackson, set up by about 4.30pm (it doesn't matter how early we leave we always arrive late) and found none of the lights worked.  We only knew of one set of fuses and none of them had gone, so after some serious deliberation and research found another 2 fuses on the caravan battery and one of them had gone (what doesn't kill you makes you stronger).  So to backtrack to just after the last blog, we basically had 3 days of rain at Byron before Nanny and Poppy, Shaz and Jase and Mavi (she is now officially Mavi instead of Maeve) arrived.  Gaz and the boys took the car down to welcome them at Ballina airport and when there seemed to be no taxis, piled all the luggage, 5 adults and 4 kids into the Exploder and headed back to Byron (just like the old pub runs).  Shaz had rented a great house with a big backyard and the sun came out to greet them.
We have had generally good weather ever since with only 1 day being cold which was apparently the coldest Queensland day in 100 years (14deg) but the indoor pool at the apartment was still nice and warm!  The night before the others arrived we decided to go to the Sushi Train for dinner which had sensational food to choose from.  It was hilarious with the boys noting how much was the cost of each different colored plate and adding up how much their dinner was costing.  NaDan was just grabbing whatever, taking a bite and saying "I don't like that" and Kirst was worrying about the cost and yelling at him.  But the rest of us cleaned up the leftovers and it only cost $100 for a quality family feed.  Well that was the start of 2 weeks of gluttony.  Jase was keen for a beer when they arrived and we had Chinese takeaway the next night, followed by a big brekkie the next morning at the cafe next to the park, followed by more beers and a big barbee cookup etc. etc.  Kirst also cooked up a ripper risotto for everyone and Shaz and Jase took me and Kirst out for a special night of fine dining while Nanny and Poppy looked after the crew.  This continued as we hit the Goldy theme parks until Kirst finally drew a line in the sand and started making lunch.  Thank God for that, I think I was turning into a chip.  Jamie Oliver would have been horrified with our eating.
So some of the highlights were: ofcourse spending lots of time with Mavi (she always wanted to know where the frogs were until Daddy's frog jumped on her face);




Arch and I surfed the Pass a couple of evenings til complete dark (so dark a guy ran over me on a surf mat) and the sky was amazing ( I actually lost Arch in the dark and ran around the beach trying to find him for a while); we loved surfing and walking around Broken Head (it is still pristine and has an awesome barrel off the point); we played golf for Jase's b'day and Wooz drove the cart over a couple of tree stumps then Jase broke the record in monopoly deal after a big spag feed up; we hit the skatepark at Suffolks and Kirst me and NaDan played tennis while Arch and Wooz carved up the skatepark til dark; there were always dolphins out in the water playing; Wooz bought a Quicky backpack off Danny Wills in his shop; the girls all had special treatments at Gaia Health Resort while we went to skate at Lennox Head then bought heaps of stuff at the market incl. Nadan's amazing bubble wand; the flying fox at the Macadamia Castle;

me, Dad and Jase had massages off Lucy at the house and I got a 2 hour one (felt brand new after that one); Kirst and Wooz surfing at The Pass while NaDan was screaming at them to come in cause he was cold;
NaDan lowlying
View over Byron

and we took a trip up the Goldy for a day with Nanny and Poppy and the boys joined in a skateboard learning session and a skate jam at the Nerang skatepark followed by lunch at the Currumbin RSL.
Overall it was a massive 2 weeks in Byron and then we followed it up with more of the high life staying in the highrises (Wooz called them highliners) at The Goldy.  Unfortunately Nanny and Poppy's apartment is a residential one that is filled with a bunch of stiffs that don't want you to even wipe your arse while you are staying there.  We got into trouble for everything- airing out the camper in the visitors carpark, having lilos in the lagoon pool,
making too much noise in the unit, water dripping off the balcony, Haysie staying too long in the visitor carpark, diving in the pool and, and... (luckily they didn't catch NaDan firing his spinner off the 10th floor balcony).  But that didn't stop us enjoying ourselves and the boys really improved their swimming while we were there.
Michelle, Wendy and the kids met us at Seaworld after getting off a plane at Coolongatta then Michelle and the kids came up again on the Saturday and the crew had a ball in the pool and having races on the beach.
We smashed the 3 theme parks with lots of rollercoaster rides and big waterslides and Arch made the big screen in the stunt show at Movie World.  Wooz and NaDan had a ball in Buchaneer Bay at Wet n Wild and Wooz belted the strongman test at Sea World to win a big orange puffer fish with NaDan not far behind winning an orange lizard.

NaDan havin a fair suck on the sauce bottle before the seal show
The Young Guns
The boys on the ropes
Kirst winnin the race
The Podium
Take Off
Wooz the road runner
The boys on the log ride
I'm shot


  We watched movies every night and had some big swell come in and I finally got to surf Burleigh on a big day.  Wooz noticed on the telescope that ZOOM was WOOZ upside down, which sorta suits him, and when we rode out to the spit a guy pulled up next to us and did a big slag on the ground, so we saw a guy spit at the spit.
The Spit Ride
We had the best fish n chips on tour at the seafood market near SeaWorld and had a great day trip to North Straddie which has great surf and we saw turtles and more dolphins and Kirst reckoned she saw a whale, which noone else saw, so then Arch said he spotted a mermaid and I saw a sea cucumber!
See the whale?After arriving at Noosa on a beautiful day, and riding down to main beach to see the beautiful sunset and the cool sand castle with candles in it, then having greasies (second best fish n chips on tour) on the way back, riding in the dark (like we did quite a bit a Byron riding back along the trail to the caravan park behind the house) we slept in the next morning and then the rain came in and didn't stop til the next morning.  We still walked in the rain around the heads to suss out the surf then we went to the fishing shop to suss out, yep you guessed it, the fishing.  The guy told us a secret spot and gave us all the good gear and bait.  So the next day Arch and I had a great surf out at Granite Bay on the low tide followed by the best icecreams on tour at the gelatissimo in Hastings Street followed by a fishing session where Wooz caught a great bream in about 30secs then Kirst caught another and I had a massive bite (it was probably a shark) and he got away.

We did a Rexy and let the other little biters go then went out with Paul and Beachedes for the best burgers on tour so far to top off a magical day.  That was followed by surfing TeaTrees most of the day today and me getting a ride from the outside point to the beach and Arch catching some good ones before having his board nearly sliced in 2 from the fin of a mal, it is still ridable but needs some repairs.
Boys at Tea Trees
Wooz and I caught a big crab too Child style by letting him nip our finger.  We also ran into a guy in the carpark who we surfed with yesterday and asked him how he went as we were trying to get a carpark with a thousand other people, and he said he was leaving, they were just waiting on The Child (how bazaar we thought The Child was still in Melbourne).  We had a nice bike ride round the big loop from Noosaville to Noosa Heads and back round to Noosaville then had a beer on the river as the sunset.  It was a beautiful warm day and a "red sky at night which means what Woodley?" says Kirst regularly.  Off to Australia Zoo tomorrow to pay tribute to Big Stevo whom we first watched on tv on the occasional quiet night in London 12 years ago.  Livin the dream NaDan.