We are in Brisbane staying with Mel, a friend of Clare’s. For the next couple of weeks we will mostly be staying with friends and family around the Brisbane area, enjoying their hospitality. Thanks for reading, stay tuned for more news. Feel free to post us a comment too. Rob, Clare and Olive.

We joined Katrina and Trevor for breakfast at Noosa. While they headed to the beach, we drove up to Eumundi to visit the markets. They are a massive market with everything from jewelry to food, kids’ clothes to crafty stuff, and lots of free food samples. Back at the Cox household, we went for a swim in the pool and a bounce on the trampoline, and of course some more playtime with the kids.

Before we left Rainbow Beach, we drove up the hill, and went for a hike to the Carlo Sand Blow, an interesting sand dune formation. From this beautiful town we drove through Gympie to Tewantin, just out from Noosa. We are staying here with Katrina, Trevor and their twins Isabella and Sebastian. The kids are about the same age as Olive so it’s great for them to play together. We just had a slow afternoon catching up. In the evening we cracked our Bundaberg Royal Liqueur that we purchased at the factory, it is a nice drop.

We decided to have a cooked breakfast this morning because we missed our usual Sunday cook-up yesterday. Clare went for a stroll around town to check out the shops and sights of Rainbow Beach, then took Olive for a swim at the pool. After lunch, we walked along the beach to the colourful ‘rainbow’ sand dunes, dodging 4WD cars on the beach. These are the towns name sake. A swim at beach was very refreshing, and feels so different to further up the coast due to the waves. A surf beach is a much more exhilarating swim than the calm beaches further north. However Olive is not so sure about the scary waves.

We started early today and walked to the spot where the dolphins are fed every morning at 8am. This is the main thing to do in Tin Can Bay, and there were plenty of people there all with the same idea. We went early to line up to get some fish to feed to the special Indopacific Humpback Dolphins. There were three of them, and Olive was fascinated. Before we checked out, we went for a bike ride along a winding path around the bay to a playground at the end. From Tin Can Bay it is only a short drive around the corner to our next destination, Rainbow Beach. It sounds like a nice place to visit, and it did not disappoint. We went to the Surf Club to watch Storm get thrashed among the Manly supporters. The afternoon was not a total loss, as Rob bumped into an old friend Andy from his AIS days, who he had not seen for over 15 years, who was up here from Sydney on a holiday to Fraser Island. This evening we also found out that Pam and John (Granny and Grandpa) will be visiting us further down the coast in about two weeks. We are very excited about that!

We repeated yesterday’s breakfast on the beach. After a quick dip for Rob, we drove to Maryborough, an old town about 25 minutes inland from Hervey Bay. Although it was early, we could not resist a stop at Saur’s Pie shop, still making pies using their 1912 recipe, and selling at prices from around that time too! We then visited Brennen & Geraghty’s store – a preserved general store which still had stock on the shelves from the 19th century. It was a fantastic step back in time. We then went on a walk around town, there were many well maintained historic buildings particularly in the old portside area. In the afternoon we continued our journey to Tin Can Bay, a small fishing village.

Our caravan park is located at the beach, and we had breakfast at a picnic table on the dunes watching the rising run. We all went for a morning swim in the calm waveless waters while the tide was in, then Clare and Olive went for an epic walk to visit some op shops to update Olive’s wardrobe. She has been gradually growing out of the clothes we brought with us from the start – some of the dresses we brought with us are good tops now. We also regularly get new books as she grows developmentally.