Las Vegas to Sheffield

Frank's nephew, Nick and his new wife Clare, who tied the knot in a helicopter above the lights of Las Vegas a couple of months ago, continued the celebration at their favourite pub in Sheffield, England 2 weeks ago.

The Wedding Cake was actually a Cheese Cake - a real Cheese Cake.

The Cheeses used were - Layer 1 = Cheddar, 2 = Hot Chilli, 3 = Blue Cheese, and top = Mustard and Horseradish

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The Chef in the family, younger brother Matt, made both Chilli and Grape Chutnies, and from what I hear the cheeses and their accompanients finished off the dinner and fun night very well.

Sunday fun

Yesterday was really relaxing, with some walking first thing - checked out a Sunday morning market at Cotton Tree, then for lunch we wandered up to the Alex Head Surf Lifesaving Club for a light lunch with Lois and Col. We first met them in 2004 when we were all travelling around Australia. They then moved from Auckland to Caloundra. We have since done a couple of other trips together, plus home visits . In fact it was Col who trained Frank in the cane toad "techniques". at our place end of last year!

Just over the sand dune from our camping area.

En route to the Club - love this Pandanus, its roots and shadows!

A quiet little critter hiding in the vegetation

Alex Headland in the background

Outside the Surf Club Our view from the Cafe - Nippers in action yesterday afternoon.

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It was super to catch up with them again, loads of laughs about our trips and how much fun we've had and the things we've seen, and YES we made some plans for next year - the 4 of us are going gem fossicking and camping up around Emerald, Sapphire, and Rubyvale, plus catching up with the hot spas in Mitchell and many other things in Queensland's outback. Should be wonderful, the plans are starting.

Cool Coolum

Saturday morning , sun was shining, early rise for us, and a trip off to Eumundi Markets again for some more Christmas shopping. The Buskers are everywhere.

Above - The multiple "didgeridoo" gent - really excellent

These dear little violinists - love the hats and shorts.

Post markets we drove to the Noosa River - so much action going on here

Decided not to go into Noosa - there was too much weekend traffic - best to go there mid week - another time. We then drove onto Coolum Beach, devoured an excellent gelatti, while we watched this little monkey climb a small Pandanus tree.

It was time to walk the Coolum Beach boardwalk out to Point Perry

Coolum is truly beautiful from any angle - and I took photos from all angles!

The rock formations

Quiet spots

just everywhere

This Coolum Boardwalk is probably the best we have been privileged to walk along.

The vegetation all along it is outstanding

Onto Point Perry

flowers and tropical trees everywhere Dedication at Point Perry

Some young ones testing the diving on the rocks on the point.

The small cove on the other side of the Point.

I apologise for the amount of photos - there are piles more!!! - Truly lovely walk, to be retraced again - that's for sure.

Maroochydore

We are now camped beside Maroochydore Beach - just delightful, have only had one ordinary day, the rest have been excellent for loads of walking and some touring.

Maroochydore is popular for every kind of surf sport.

Mum's watching their kids surfboard lessons late afternoon

More volunteer lifesaver training

Kite surfing as well

Looking across to Alexander Headland

The 2 little campers next door, watching the sailing boats

Early morning dog fun!

The Brig sends this one back to it's owner.

During our beach wanders we both realised we definitely needed a hair cut. Frank wandered off to check for a barber and found just across the road from the Caravan Park - "Lawrence of London". He made his appointment and came back with a good trim. The story over the cut was Lawrence left England 35 years ag0, but had done very well for a few years before this by working as a hairdresser in the Spanish tourist resorts - gold was easier to transport than pounds in those days. Good cut though!

Rainbow Beach - Father's Day

Doing nothing is on today's schedule - it is, and has been raining now for about 24 hours, so I have time to play with the blog and photos. Yesterday morning we enjoyed a Father's Day brekky down at Barnacles, toasted a coffee to Ian across the Tasman, and his Father's Days wishes the night before , and watched the dolphins come and go again, the day was glum in the sky, but the breakfast and mood was very good.

Immy and Ethan's art work for Dad's Day blogged across the Tasman

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Absolutely no weather complaints from us, we are the lucky ones - cannot believe how many people are suffering in Christchurch with the earthquake damage and southern Australia with floods and winds, Nalda tells me Batemans Bay really received a bashing - trees down, and no electricity, and loads of damage. Fortunately we decided to make the most of the sunny skies on Saturday afternoon and took off for Rainbow Beach - as the weather forecast for Sunday and today was going downhill fast.

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I have found a map which shows where Rainbow Beach is, took us about 30 minutes to drive there from Tin Can Bay..

Below is an aerial photo (not mine) of just a tiny little bit of the Great Sandy Strait

Below-Rainbow beach on Wide Bay - 22 klms

Very popular for surfers and 4 wheel drivers - who are watched carefully by the police - we saw one get chased along the beach after he had been wheeling in circles just near some people walking.

We watched some Lifesaver training

And yesterday when reading the local paper (Caloola News) I found that the Queensland Lifesaver of the Year (Lleam Rees ) who has just been awarded Australian Lifesaver of the Year - is from the Rainbow Beach Surf Club - he also undertakes a lot of the training.

Rainbow is a delightful spot

with plenty of revegitation as well

back up to the Surf Club for a cool lime and bitters.

Then we drove up to the Caloola Walk towards the Carlo Sand Blow, the photo below (not mine) shows it sitting above Rainbow Beach - it's about 35 acres in size and was named by Captain Cook after one of his crew - Carlo!

It is used by hang-gliders and para-gliders

The walk through the rainforest to Carlo Sand Blow, is very pleasant unless you get caught behind a hang-glider dragging his gear to the top - which we did, but managed to pass him.

At the top - we decided against the difficulty of walking on the hot Carlo sand blow. You can see the start of the coloured sands (supposedly there are 72 different colours along Rainbow Beach).

Backdropped by Double Island Point