Australian East Coast Road Trip!

April 10,

Greetings Friends, Family, and Fellow Travelers,

Sara’s Thoughts and Recap
We spent two weeks in Noosa Heads, a beach town on the Sunshine Coast, where I booked us a two bedroom AirBnb in a complex with access to a pool, gym, and game room, as well as several drawers of toys that kept Calla occupied for hours. We did some regular life-ing there – all of us got haircuts, and on two separate evenings, Justin and Simon cooked us a delicious meal of fajitas with guacamole. Unfortunately, it was rainy for much of our time in Noosa, but fortunately we had enough buffer days to enjoy the surrounding area.

Currently, we are visiting Byron Bay as we road trip our way to Sydney. The primary reason we stopped here was to snorkel around the Julian Rocks, but sadly post-cyclone the water conditions have not recovered and it is too murky to go in the water. With our one full day in Byron, I’d hoped to visit the local lighthouse and a beach, but as the rain continues to fall intermittently, we found that no one was really up for a full day of outdoors adventures. Instead, I signed Calla up for a 45-minute kindergarten circus arts class. I watched her tumble and spin, and the girl was so delighted she was literally buzzing with energy while waiting in line for the obstacle course. (A woman nearby – who did not realize Calla was mine - even pointed at her and said, “well this one is really excited.”) After the class we learned that the gym had a camp program that day because it’s local spring break, so after some quick deliberation, Calla was enrolled in camp through the end of the day where she could ninja, trapeze, and climb to her heart’s content. Justin dropped Simon off to meet her, and they both had a fantastic afternoon. Simon even swung on the flying trapeze!

Some highlights from our time in Noosa Heads

Fishing and Crabbing

One morning, I booked us a four-hour fishing and crabbing charter. (When Jonah says, “We only do things that you want to do!” I plan to cite both this and sitting through the Minecraft movie – on the date of its premiere, no less.) I have been a person who watches other people fish, but have never actually fished before myself. We piled onto the boat with our guide, Marc, and another family consisting of a dad and two mild mannered teenage boys.

Marc was quite the character – in just four hours, folks, he managed to be repeatedly sexist, racist, anti-American, and anti-Semetic, all at the same time! It was truly an impressive feat. I knew we were in trouble when – as soon as we stepped onto the boats and said where we were from, he asked where our MAGA hats were.

Anyways, I’ll spare you the multitude of examples, though he was shocked to learn that we were both Jewish and enthusiastic eaters of crab. He said, “I guess it depends on your level of indoctrination.” Attempting to diffuse the tension, I quipped “or I guess how much you love shellfish.” Incidentally one of our final spots was a place where they catch Jewfish. Now, this is the real name of the fish (though I’d never heard of it) but after tolerating so many bizarre comments about our religion, hearing him talk repeatedly about catching Jewies was off putting.

… Well, what a wonderful learning opportunity for our three impressionable children. We debriefed our fishing trip with the kids later that night and were pleased that the boys had picked up the same problematic comments that we had. We talked about how they felt, and what they thought they could do next time something like this happens. We also shared the ways in which we pushed back and challenged our guide’s assumptions without escalating tensions while on the boat. The whole thing was sort of darkly comical in that there was no hate or malice in Marc’s voice; just good old-fashioned ignorance. Which, as we know, is often the worst kind.

I suppose I’ll also add that the first thing I caught was a giant shovelnose ray, which is a shark/ray hybrid at over one meter long. (“Just because you’re a girl doesn’t mean you can’t pull it in! I have three daughters”!) Altogether, we caught almost a dozen fish, but as only one was large enough to take back with us, we left it with the guide. He did cook us up some pretty delicious crab to eat on the boat, though, which we devoured.

Hiking Noosa National Park

After days of rain, we were excited to finally head to Noosa National Park for a hike. Unfortunately, everyone else in a 10 mile radius had the same idea, also because it was Saturday and the parking lot for the park is also the parking lot for the surfing beaches. By the time we got ourselves together to leave, the parking lot was jam packed. We drove around for nearly an hour, and by 10am and upwards of 80 degrees it felt too late to pivot to a farther out hiking location. So, we opted to split up, and Justin dropped Simon and me off and headed back to our Airbnb to take Jonah and Calla to the (within walking distance) beach. The beginning of the hike was tree-covered and a bit muddy, and thankfully we’d doused ourselves in bug spray because mosquitos were everywhere. We took a brief detour to the beach and then circled back through the Noosa Coastal track. By then, we were getting hungry and running out of water, and it was incredibly hot. I was itching for an acai bowl, so we popped into a frozen yogurt shop. Apparently, Simon had never been to one of those “all the rage in the aughts” frozen yogurt shops with rows and rows of toppings, so he went a little overboard.

Day trip to Mooloolaaba

I was eager to go to another crafts market in nearby Eumundi, but as it was raining so hard I could barely see the outlines of the trees outside the window, I realized that this plan was unlikely to be. So, I agreed to go to Mooloolaaba (perhaps my favorite-named place in all of Australia) so the kids could go to an aquarium. Confession: I greatly dislike aquariums, with the possible exception of visiting on a sparsely populated weekday. They are almost always too crowded and smelly. In this regard, The SeaLife aquarium did not disappoint. It was small and, because it was a rainy Saturday, densely packed full of sopping wet people. Calla kept putting her head in those little plastic viewing bubbles and I swear I could almost see the tiny germs emanating off of them and onto her. I am not a germaphobe except in this one context, perhaps because of the one time nearly two years ago I let Calla play at the SeaTac airport’s kids’ area, following which she developed strep throat almost immediately. I understand correlation does not equal causation but, you know, I was her travel companion and did not get sick. [Ed. note: See Calla’s somewhat discrepant take on the aquarium below. Also, I’ll just leave here that Calla came down with a fever and a nasty cough several days after visiting the aquarium. No further comment.]

Happily, it started to clear up and we were able to take a walk around the marina, stopping for DIY ice cream pops before heading back to Noosa Heads.

K’gari Island detour

We took a three-day two-night detour to K’gari Island (the “K” is silent), formally known as Fraser Island. K’gari is the largest sand island in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In order to navigate the island, you need 4WD, as the roads are either beach highway or sandy inland track; often, both options involve driving through some pretty epic puddles. While K’gari is a beach island, there are over 100 freshwater lakes, not to mention miles of hiking trails. It is also known for having many resident dingoes, who roam the beaches throughout the days, often looking for food.

While I’d signed us up for a group camping expedition through the company Sunrover, I was pleased to learn that we were the only people on the tour. Our driver, Scotty, picked us up first thing in the morning, and we began the long drive to the island. We stopped at Rainbow Beach for some extra snacks before boarding the ferry. There are no full-time residents on the island, save for service industry folks, though some Australians have holiday homes there. This also means that provisions on the island are really expensive, so we took care to bring everything we thought we’d need prior to departure.

The ferry dropped us off at the southern tip of the island at a place called Hook Point. We drove up the beach track, stopping for lunch en route, and then going for a hike around Eurong. I absolutely love rainforest hiking, particularly when there’s just enough rain to keep you cool, but not so much that it becomes uncomfortable. That was our experience here, as we trekked through giant leaves and admired the lush scenery. Later, we went for a swim at Lake Mckenzie, where the water was cold but refreshing.

We drove back down the beach and checked into our camp at Dilli Village, where we were staying in a small, two room cabin, one of which had a set of bunk beds with an extra mattress on the floor. I was pleased, as I love a good set of bunk beds while traveling. So many hotel sleeping conundrums could be solved with the presence of a set of bunk beds. But I digress… Scotty cooked dinner for us at the communal kitchen. When he turned on the grill, a giant snake slithered out from behind, which I am glad I was not there to witness firsthand. We sat down to a meal of schnitzel, veggies, and potatoes. After dinner, we tried to build a campfire and learned that marshmallows in Australia do not have gelatin, which means they don’t toast the same way that they do in the US. When asked, Scotty said that he’d never eaten a s’more before and wasn’t even sure they sold graham crackers in Australia. The kids were scandalized. They roasted marshmallows, anyways, lighting them on fire and eating far too many for right before bed. (I tasted one – they are also much sweeter than American marshmallows!) They told each other outlandish ghost stories between bites. I brought over our bottle of wine and Justin and I traded off taking swigs. It was a beautiful evening.

The next morning, we left around 8:30 and tried to drive up the beach, but the tide had already come in strong so we pivoted and took the Southern Lakes Track (inroad island tracks). We stopped at Lake Boomanjin, where the water is filled with tea tree oil from the surrounding forests. We drove all the way north to Cathedral Beach, and that’s when we finally started to see the wild dingos! Justin thought it would be funny to do his best Larry David impression and crying, “dingooooooo” every time one came by. This was amusing for maybe the first three dingoes and then it started to make my brain hurt. I also had to explain the ethos of “the dingo ate my baby” to the kids, which has been commandeered so frequently in popular culture that it obscures the incredibly sad origins of the story.

We stopped for a fish, calamari, and chips lunch. No matter how many times we emphasize to Calla that chips will always always mean fries here in Australasia, she remains disappointed that she isn’t eating potato chips or – crisps. After lunch, we headed further north to Middle Rocks, also known as the Champagne Pools, because the water beyond the rocks looks like spouting champagne after the cork is popped. We climbed the rocks, but the water was too rough to swim. In general, the island’s topography has shifted after the large cyclone that hit just a few weeks ago, which devastated quite a lot of the coast. The tides are stronger, and there’s banks of sand all along the beach.

After the Champagne Pools, we drove back to check out the S.S. Maheno shipwreck, which washed ashore 90 years ago. We’d hoped to walk around a bit, but there was a dingo nearby, and it seemed safer to just view it from the car. Finally, we ended our afternoon at Eli Creek, where we took turns floating on an inner tube down the river and the boys hunted for tadpoles and played frisbee.

It was pouring by the time we got back to the camp, and the mosquitos were worse than we’d ever seen them before. Calla and I opted to skip dinner at the communal kitchen and have Justin bring our burgers back to the cabin because both of us were already covered in bug bites despite using a hefty amount of bug spray all day. So, we had a cozy girls pajamas and podcast dinner on the floor of our cabin.

On our last day in K’gari, we checked out of the campground and headed to Lake Wabby. This was the most fun thing we did the whole trip – after a 45-minute hike, we were treated to a desert landscape. It reminded us of being in the Moroccan dunes.

But…we kept walking, and suddenly there was an oasis in the middle of the desert. The water was the perfect temperature, and we took turns giving each other “sand mud” massages. As always, Simon was Simon.

(No Simons were harmed during the making of this film.)

We left Wabby and drove to the ferry, where we reversed our journey back to the mainland. Scotty let it slip that he was a Hamilton fan, so we all sung along to the soundtrack as we traveled back to Noosa. All five of us agreed that our time in K’gari exceeded our expectations.

Eumundi Market

A pro of staying somewhere for two weeks is that when the market gets rained out, you still have another opportunity to visit the following week. Yes, this was another artisan market, and yes, we stayed for three hours. There was a dizzying array of food options, and several eclectic craft stalls. The sun was shining, cold beverages were purchased, among a few other things that we’ll likely need to ship back home.  

Australia Zoo

Our final day trip from Noosa was to the Australia Zoo, which is better known as the Steve Irwin Zoo. Simon participated in the Zookeeper for a Day program while the rest of us unsuccessfully attempted to cover the entire zoo in the four hours before the wildlife show began. Highlights included petting the kangaroos, who were hopping around an open green, as well as petting a koala. I was surprised to find that koalas are very smelly, but their fur was so supremely soft that it made up for the noxious attack on my nostrils. At 1pm, we headed over to the Crocoseum to see the show, which featured cameos from the dingoes and parrots before the main stars of the show emerged – a crocodile and his handler, Robert Irwin. Prior to visiting the zoo, I’d wondered how much involvement the Irwin family has in the day-to-day operations, and admittedly we were all really surprised to find 21-year-old Robert (i.e., son of Steve) at the helm. He was extremely impressive as he balanced interacting with the crocodile and keeping the large crowd entertained. He was also clearly quite passionate about the animal. While at Hartley’s we were told that crocodiles tend to be “dumb,” Robert extolled them, highlighting the ways in which crocodiles are smart and beautiful creatures.

At 2pm, we picked up Simon and reconvened to figure out whether to leave or explore the one part of the zoo we’d missed. I asked Simon what he wanted to do, and he said because his program only took him to visit a few animals he wanted to, “stay and do the entire zoo.” I looked at his big, trembling green eyes and gave him a hug and sighed. I reminded him that prior to enrolling him in the zookeeper program we’d discussed the fact that he might not get to see everything. He quickly recovered and opted to visit just Africa (conveniently a 5-minute trolley ride away from Australia. Small world here at the zoo.) while the rest of us checked out the on-site animal hospital. As always, Jonah will write more about the specific animals we saw.

Justin’s Soapbox

Just so everyone can understand Sara’s Larry David reference above, here’s the line delivery being referred to, from Curb Your Enthusiasm:

Would this really be so annoying to hear multiple times, whenever we saw a dingo? Would it?

Ok fine. That’s all from me today! Later!

Jonah’s Musings

We've been in Noosa for the past two weeks, and in this blog, I want to write about the zoo that we went to, Steve Irwin's Zoo. This was an amazing place and if you ever go to Australia this is a must thing to do.

In case you don't know, Steve Irwin was a wildlife warrior who was very good at capturing injured or dangerous animals out of areas they shouldn't be. Steve also had his own show, the crocodile hunter. He also had a wife, kids, and a massive zoo. Unfortunately, Steve passed away in 2006 in an underwater filming accident.

The zoo was absolutely packed with animals everywhere from alligators to elephants. There was also a tiger talk that they did at the zoo, where I learned about the smallest of the tiger subspecies, the Sumatran tiger. Although, I already knew so much about tigers that I didn't learn all that much. The zoo also had an echidna, a type of marsupial that looks like a hedgehog. Unfortunately, they weren't out when we went to look for them.

But by far the biggest thing there at the zoo was the Crocoseum. There, we got to see Robert Irwin do tricks with crocodiles. Robert Irwin is Steve Irwin's son, and he knew just as much about crocodiles as his father did. In the Crocoseum, we saw a large saltwater crocodile that apparently bit Steve Irwin's hand, and there were also dingoes, and parrots that flew back and forth across the area. one was even trained to put a piece of plastic in a recycling bin to encourage recycling.

Another thing that we did was go to Fraser Island. This island was totally dingo infested. Dingoes are a type of wild dog that was introduced to Australia a long time ago. We stayed on the island for 2 nights, and we saw so many of these beautiful wild dogs. We saw way over 20 of them!

Anyways, that's all for today, make sure to follow the newsletter, and subscribe to the YouTube channel! See you in the next one!

Simon’s Reflection

I went to the Steve Irwin Zoo and I was Zookeeper for a Day! I held a snake, I fed a Tasmanian devil, I held a koala, and I saw behind the scenes. I went to the Crocoseum where Robert Irwin went in and there’s a crocodile named Graham and he was trying to run away from Graham. Also, I fed a giraffe and at the zoo they had the tallest giraffe in any zoo! I saw a tiger, elephants, rhinos, zebras, and cheetahs. I liked going to the zoo because, as Zookeeper for a Day, I could go inside places that other people couldn’t, including my siblings.

At K’gari Island, we had a very good guide. We kind of slept in a cabin where there were lots of mosquitos. The guide made us very good food, and we saw like a hundred dingoes and a hundred eagles!

At the circus place, I did a lot of stuff. First, I did an obstacle course, but each time stuff got harder. I then did the ninja course what was harder than the first course. There was a hole in the climbing wall that I could go under and I stayed there for a long time. I scared Calla’s guts out because she didn’t know I was in the tunnel and I said, “boo.” Anyways, I went on the aerial swings where I made a cocoon and just fell asleep, and then I woke up and it was time for the flying trapeze. Flying trapeze is like you grab this bar and the person on the ground shouts out what you do with your legs. When she says, “hup” you fall down, but there’s a net. The ladder was the most scary part. It was very, very, very wobbly. It was really fun, and then we did trampolines. Since there were four of us but only two trampolines, we had to trade off. I learned how to do a half turn seat drop. I almost fell off! I really liked doing this circus camp. It was very fun.

Calla’s Corner

Mommy: Hi Calla! Today we are going to talk about the time we spent in Noosa Heads and K’gari Island.

Calla: So, it was really nice to be looking at the aquarium, and in the aquarium museum, it was so fun. There was a place where we played and we had food. I wish we could live at that aquarium! So, it’s very nice to be at the aquarium because there was sting rays, sharks, and also jellyfish!

Mommy: Calla, which one is your favorite?

Calla: All of them. I actually like the sharks the most because I never saw one before.

Mommy: Sure you have.

Calla: No, I only saw them at the museum. Where else I saw sharks then?

Mommy: In the water or other aquariums we’ve been to.

Calla: Well, ha! Forget about the other one. Let’s just say that’s my first time seeing a shark. Let’s just say that.

Mommy; Ok.

Calla: So, I liked the aquarium because I got to see Nemo fish, Dory fish, and some kind of other things.

Mommy: And we got popsicles afterwords, remember?

Calla: No, I don’t. I thought that was a different day. Silly me! And then I got a popsicle afterwords with marshmallows and yummy chocolate frosting on a mango one.

Mommy: That was a fun day. Is there anything else you want to say?

Calla: I’m almost done with the aquarium. This is the bad time I’m going to talk about. It made me sick!

Mommy: Well, we aren’t totally sure the aquarium made you sick. I was kind of just joking.

Calla: I’m allergic to it!

Mommy: Do you want to talk about anything else?

Calla: I liked the crocodile show [at the Australia Zoo]. It’s very muzific.

Mommy: What does that mean?

Calla: It means very cool and astonishing. So that really is about our blog! Thank you for listening. So, I hoped you liked what I said, so it might be a lovely time to take a rest from this because I’ll do blogs another time. Thanks for listening to what I said.

As always, thank you for following along. We will send out one final newsletter from Australia before we travel to our 6th and final continent, South America, at the end of the month!

xo,
Sara, Justin, Jonah, Simon, and Calla