Animals, Beaches and Fossiking - Australia

We spent about 4 weeks in Australia.  A few days in Sydney and then a few weeks based out of Brisbane, staying at Chuck's brother Peter and his sister-in-law Gayle's place in Redlands Bay.  They were great hosts - showing us the sites, suggesting places to go, feeding us (kangaroo roast) and even letting us borrow their car.  Staying with them really made the trip wonderful. We all enjoyed learning the Aussie slang from Gayle.  Chuck and my favourite saying is...'we are not here for the shade' - we learnt this one when drinking one evening with our hosts and their neighbours!  Kenna and Cole liked "crook".  We now have a richer vocabulary than before.


We spent a lot of time meeting the local animals, checking out the beaches and fossiking.  Here are a few pictures about our adventures.


Kenna with some lorikeets - feeding time!


We all got to meet the friendly camel - this was taken right after it gave me a very big sniff!

















We all liked the echidna...
















Chuck with a baby python

















Feeding the kangaroos - here is Chuck
















Family photo - Chuck, Cole, Tinkerbell, Kenna and Colleen
















Officially the cutest animal (according to our family) -  red panda















A wombat (do you know what shape their poop is?)
















We saw some great beaches.  Even though it was winter it was 24 - 28 degrees.  Warm enough to walk the beaches and play in the waves.  We even did a kayak trip looking for dolphins - but no luck.  We may just have to come back to try again.

Stradbroke Island - a large sand island not far from Redland Bay.   Peter spent the day showing us around.





Playing frisbee on the beach at Byron Bay. 
















We found a great apartment to stay right near the beach at Rainbow Beach - a wonderful place to hang out and have a glass of wine.










Kenna and Cole really hanging out at Rainbow Beach.






At Rainbow Beach there were some huge sand dunes - fun to climb up and race down. The kids spent a whole afternoon exploring the dunes.
























Rainbow Beach - many colors of sand and large dunes.

Fossiking - Chuck getting the sand and gravel ready to sift - hoping to find a gem.  He is wearing a toque as it was minus 9 degrees in Glen Innis where we were fossiking.  What a shock to the system!






















Cole fossiking at the edge of the river - hoping to find an amethyst, emerald or sapphire.