We have been in Torquay, Hervey Bay for 2 weeks and that is the longest we have stayed anywhere on this trip but the weather and the beach frontage was just too good to move on from. We have sat on the beach most days with our books and umbrella and just soaked up the atmosphere. I even managed a swim in the sea last week. Not bad for someone who usually only has one swim a year and then it has to be very hot. They call Hervey Bay “Wide Bay” and it’s easy to see why. It is a huge bay facing north and flanked by Fraser Island on the eastern side and the northern coast on the other. The sea is more like a lake as it is so calm with just little breakers and the water is crystal clear. The Hervey Bay area is very tourist orientated and there are about 12 caravan parks in the bay. This is the area where the humpback whales migrate to from the Antarctic every year to have their calves and mate. They return to the southern waters about October. We are lucky enough to be here for this amazing sight this year and we went whale watching last week. It has to be the highlight of our trip so far. We left Hervey Bay about 9am and the boat took about half an hour to find a spot just north of Fraser Island where we found our first pod of whales. They usually congregate in groups of 2 or 3 and they love playing to an audience, just like dolphins. We saw these huge creatures lift their whole bodies out of the water; slap their pectoral fins and tails and “blow”. There were 57 people on our trip and everyone had cameras and videos clicking away. We got some great photos but always just missed them breaching (when their bodies are completely out of the water) by a matter of seconds. We have the memories though. We probably saw about a dozen whales at different times so it was a very good day. Whale watching is big business for Hervey Bay and so are trips to Fraser Island. We had done that a few years ago so it can wait again till another day. Fraser Island is a huge sand island and is World Heritage listed. It covers 184,000 hectares and has dunes that reach 240 metres in height. Driving your own 4WD on Fraser Island is really popular and also tours in 4WD buses. Last Sunday there was a head on collision between a 4WD and a tourist bus on the beach of Fraser Island with 10 people injured. There were helicopters picking up the injured and ferrying them to hospital on the mainland. A few people have said it was an accident just waiting to happen as some drivers ignore the normal road rules on the island and wear no seat belts and speed.
It was good to see the All Blacks redeem themselves a couple of weeks ago. We were in Mooloolaba for the first Bledisloe Cup match and as I had bought a Silver Fern All Black flag with me from NZ, we very cockily hoisted it on the afternoon of the game amidst some very smart comments from our Aussie neighbours. After the terrible result we snuck out early the next morning and pulled it down but the neighbours could hardly contain their glee. We were in Noosa for the second test so decided we wouldn’t bother hoisting the flag this time (I know we didn’t show much faith in our team) and we watched it at a club. There were far more kiwis there than Aussies so it was a good night.
We all know that Australia is a sport mad nation but the Olympic coverage has totally taken over the country. We only see NZers if they are competing against Ozzies. Mind you Australia is doing quite well so far, especially in the pool. I have even found myself cheering for them.
You all know how Jim loves second hand shops and bargains. We went to a little country town called Cooroy inland from Noosa and there we saw the oddest second hand shop we have ever seen. Most of the stock was outside including mattresses, lawnmowers and furniture and it had been there for some considerable time I can tell you. Jim found a bread maker, the same as we have at home, and it was filthy dirty and covered in dust. He got it for $10, which was half the asking price and was so proud of himself. He didn’t even know if it went but he was happy. We took it home and he scrubbed and polished it up and then that night he made his first loaf of bread. He wanted us to wake up to the smell of freshly baked bread. We forgot that when we make it at home it is in the kitchen with the door shut, so when the dough mixing process started at 3am and sounded as if the whole machine was going to explode, I was ready to turn it off before we woke the whole camp. It eventually stopped after about half an hour but that was the last time we made bread overnight. We now make it during the day. It has turned out to be quite a good little buy and makes beautiful bread and buns.
Petrol is still at $1.47 in Hervey Bay but yesterday we went down to Tin Can Bay and got fuel at Gympie on the way home. Gympie is on the State Highway and with our Woolworths docket we got it for $1.31 a litre. That’s the cheapest we have paid for ages. It should start coming down now as the price per barrel has dropped quite a bit.
Beer and spirits are a lot more expensive in Australia than NZ and the spirits are in smaller bottles. Bargains can be found in the wine department though. We have been buying cleanskins in both red and white wines for only $24 per dozen, that’s only $2 a bottle and it’s very good wine. There are lots of NZ wines over here but they are usually much more expensive. You can’t buy wines in the supermarkets like at home, only at bottle stores which are usually next door to the supermarket and owned by them as well.
We only have 2 more weeks before we turn inland for the return trip to Melbourne via the inland route. We are staying at Bargara which is on the coast from Bundaberg for a week and then it’s onto Seventeen Seventy for a week. Hope the sun stays shining.
