Friends, Family & The Festive Season.

Now, late November and getting closer to the festive season, it’s time to return to Brisbane and Lismore to spend time with family & friends before heading off again. Planning on sticking around until New Year, we both picked up some casual work until Christmas to top up the bank account.

It was special being able to spend time with both of our families on Christmas day. Even if it did mean driving from Lismore to Brisbane. Our nephews, Brodie & Cooper are growing so big now and it was magical waking up with them and my brother, Jason, on Christmas morning. There is nothing like being around children at Christmas. Seeing the excitement in their faces while emptying their stockings truly made me smile and brought back many childhood memories.

After breakfast in Ballina, we headed back to Brisbane to spend the evening with Ben’s family where plenty of laughs were had playing “Minute To Win It” games and seeing Brooke dressed up as Santa!

Of course, we did more than just celebrate Christmas in 6 weeks, there was Corrie & Sue-ellen’s farewell to Canada, Koby & Charlottes 1^st B’day parties, visiting Brooke & Michael’s new house, and a nice (but rainy) overnight stay on the sunshine coast.

I definitely can’t forget to mention and recommend 2 fantastic restaurants that Brooke & Michael introduced us to!

Pepi’s Mexican @ Newmarket – awesome and affordable Mexican food.

Mundo’s @ Bardon – Yummo! Brazilian BBQ where meat is carved and served fresh at your table.

Highly recommend both restaurants if you’re in Brisbane. Both affordable, great service and fantastic atmosphere.  Thanks Brooke & Michael... can’t wait to get home and go out again!

Bear @ Christmas

Xena @ Christmas



Brooke playing Santa to Ben.




Minute To Win It.... look at the concentration!



Ben's Minute To Win It!

COOKING @ KOOMBALOOMBA DAM

 Go on... have a laugh... I still am! I had heaps of fun putting this together while Ben & Xena were fishing at Koombaloomba Dam.

NOTE: I had to shrink the file substantially in order to load onto the website, this has resulted in loss of quality. Unfortunately this is only good to view in the size displayed on the blog, not in full screen mode. I am still working on how to do this without losing the quality but i certainly wasn't uploading a whopping 300MB file!

Byfield National Park

National Park (NP).... As beautiful as some of them are, they are dreaded words on our trip. NO DOGS. So with some prior planning we drove the quite boring stretch of road between Mackay and Rockhampton to take Bear & Xena for a 2 night stay of their own at a well researched and very reputable boarding kennel near Yepoon. I imagine it's like having children really, dropping them off and saying goodbye, hoping they'll be happy and looked after. I was very sad leaving them for the first time on our trip, I felt we had left something behind! I am not sure why I worry though... they have always had so much fun playing with other dogs at the kennel in the past.

So with the kids dropped off we weren't too much further from the entry of the park. Since moving to Mackay, both Ben & I have been wanting to visit Byfield but better late than never! Known for its great sandy 4wding and fishing... we were very excited!

Wow.... Nature at one of it's best! We drove through a large amount of state forest before reaching the NP, confronting us with towering sand dunes, narrow tracks, long stretches of beaches (white and sandy as i knew them, not coral), deep blue ocean.... and NO-ONE ELSE TO BE SEEN! It seemed we had the entire NP to ourselves for the weekend. Woohoo!

We set up the camper behind the dunes right on the beach, in between 5 rocks and the inlet and not having to walk the dogs, we weren't entirely sure what to do next. We are still getting used to this RELAXING thing they talk about!

I can't wait to go back to Byfield NP, the sea was a bit rough to launch our small boat this time around, and I can't remember why we didn't get any fishing done here??? From memory I think it was more to do with Ben's keen enthusiasm for 4wding! For the one full day we had in the NP we explored the "Orange Bowl", an amazing sand blow that, to Ben's disappointment, can no longer be driven on. So, in attempt to satisfy his need for speed, we explored on foot and Ben revisited his childhood of tobogganing down the sand dunes. As fun as it looked, I decided to be the photographer!

This really is a place you could explore for days. It's a shame we didn't get a chance to catch any fish or crabs, it really looked like a promising place... and so peaceful. We didn't see another car, besides the ranger, all weekend! Next time I think we will stay for a week. Another thumbs up location!

Rain Rain Go Away... We're Going To Mackay Today!

That's right.... RAIN! For those that know us you will be familiar that nearly everywhere we go it rains... well this is no different. The weather turned miserable at Kurrimine Beach so we decided to head for Mackay to stay with friends Chris & Shantelle for a few days. I was sad to miss a stopover at Bowen but we have spent alot of time on the coast between Cairns and Mackay so it wasn't anything we haven't seen before.

We arrived in Mackay... still raining and had an enjoyable few days catching up with friends, watching TV for the first time since we left and enjoying staying in a house during the bad weather. THANKS Chris & Shantelle!

Not long though and the weather improved and it was time to leave "Home" and continue south down the coast! Next stop Byfield National Park.

KING REEF - KURRIMINE BEACH

Finally... we made it to King Reef, a place we had planned to be our first stop of the journey! Better late than never!

A short drive from Paronella Park and just north of Mission Beach, lays a tiny picturesque town on the Great Barrier Reef. We decided to give the caravan park a miss when we found a small, basic and more affordable council run camping area right on the water... beautiful! The weather wasn't the best, a bit windy to hit the reef in our small tinny, but there was plenty of beach to run the dogs and an inlet to throw a line and "TRY" for some mud crab!

The reef is just 300 metres from the shore here, the closest it comes to the coast, boats can only be launched at high tide and by tractor as the water is extremely shallow for hundreds of metres offshore. We did explore the coastline briefly in the tinny... we didn't find the awesome fishing spot we were after though... and the only fish we caught was the gar fish that jumped right into our boat! The wind started to blow and we ventured back to dry ground.... If only the weather was better for our stay... the locals all headed out one one fine day, they seem to know the spot to go!

With no luck at the reef we decided to hide from the wind and launch the boat into the inlet. Ben was so excited that today was his day and he was going to catch a mangrove jack! It was all I had heard about for the last few days. Can you imagine the look on his face when I caught the only 2 keepers. I really did feel terrible for him.... no really... i did! At least we had fish on the table for dinner! (And i had a great time catching them.)

NOTE TO SELF: Beautiful place...next time tell the wind to bugger off.... don't let Krystle catch all the fish and ask the locals how to get to the reef fishing spot!

Ben's Mangrove Jack.......

Krystle's Mangrove Jack!!!

Tropical Jam - Paronella Park - Finally A Recipe

This blog was meant to be incorporating recipes from our travels... remember! Finally, sitting starring at me at Paronella Park gift shop was a bright orange scroll of paper and a sign screaming at me like Vegas saying "Paronella Park Special Jam Recipe". It was exciting, i had no idea what kind of jam the recipe was for until I purchased the scroll.

I haven't had the chance to make this recipe on my travels, jam making wasn't too high on my list. So Please, If you ever try it let me know how it goes. Enjoy!

TROPICAL JAM

Ingredients:

2.25kg Diced firm Paw Paw

750g Tin Pineapple - drained weight

250g Crystallized Ginger

175ml Lemon Juice

1.75kg Sugar

Method:

Crush pineapple and chop ginger in a food processor.

Place diced paw paw, ginger and lemon juice into a large saucepan and cook slowly for 1-2 hours until fruit is soft.

Place sugar into the ingredients and cook on medium for a further 10-15 mins or until thick.

Watch for burning. Place into warmed bottles and seal.

Flying Fish Point To Paronella Park

We weren't south bound for long. Just a short drive south of Cairns we reached our next stop over, Flying Fish Point. It was the name that drew us in really. Neither of us had visited the small coastal town before and the thought of fresh fish and mud crab were way too tempting.

Can you imagine our disappointment when we didn't catch any fish or crabs!! We didn't try very hard though... let's blame it on the windy weather. Casting off the beach I put up a good fight with something that snapped me off right at the edge of the sand but that's as close as we got.

The town itself was very small and peaceful. The caravan park added a nice touch by placing their fallen coconuts in a basket for guests to eat. This kept Ben busy for a while, still keen to be the provider! Even Bear loved eating the coconut.

However, with no fish and windy weather we decided to pack up camp and head for Paronella Park. Wow, Wow & Wow!

Friends of ours highly recommended a visit to Paronella Park, (thankyou Chris & Shantelle) and being something we have driven passed many times before there was no way I was missing it again.

Once the home of Jose Paronella and a venue he first open to the public in 1935, the words to describe the park are MAGICAL & INSPIRING. The certainly didn't call him a dreamer for nothing. The history in the castle like structures, waterfall, homestead and hydro power plant are incredible and truly make you realise that with hard work we can truly achieve anything and create something beautiful. I will let you read about the park in more detail at www.paronellapark.com.au

We chose to camp at Paronella Park for the night so we could experience the day and night tours. I would highly recommend staying for the night tour if you have time. The facilities are basic but the staff extremely helpful, dog friendly and well worth seeing the grounds lit up at night.

Check out the pics!

Breaking open the coconut at our campsite, Flying Fish Point.

My, What a lovely set of coconuts!

The one that got away.

Paronella Park, Grand Staircase 1930's.

Waterfall, Picnic Area and Bridge, Paronella Park.

Refreshment Rooms by Night, Paronella Park. AMAZING!

Refreshment Rooms by Day. Paronella Park.