Tuesday, April 28

We travelled from Cairns to Brisbane today – our flight left Cairns at 10 a.m. and we were served tea on the plane. It was a good flight, some cloud but I did get a picture of a small part of the Great Barrier Reef from the plane.

We landed at noon and then it took quite a while to pick up the rental car. Finally, we had the keys in hand and were off for Caloundra and our condo at Worldmark Golden Beach. We stopped for lunch at Macca’s (McDonald’s) and I noticed that they have a number of computer stations where you can order your food the way you want it – not sure if it’s going to happen elsewhere but you certainly wouldn’t need as much staff if it catches on (and what about the kids looking for minimum wage positions?).

A quick stop for groceries and we were at the condo. I love it here – the unit is pretty small (and the kitchen is miniscule) but all the units have a water view and a deck.

We went for a wander down the road and found a geocache along the Costigan Mangrove Boardwalk.

Not much more to report – we weren’t feeling too energetic. Oh, the wifi here (and in Sydney) connects through the tv. It’s a neat system – and the internet is cheaper than the first trip here (but definitely not as cheap as at home).

Wednesday, April 29

We must be in relaxation mode *s* The main entertainment today was heading to the Eumundi Markets, about 40 minutes north of Golden Beach. It’s advertised as Australia’s Premier Artisan Market – Make it, Bake it, Sew it, Grow it but we saw a lot of imported crafts. We did find a wonderful local artist, Michelle Pike, who was selling her quirky Australian artwork. She was very interesting to talk to and we spent a lot of time in her shop – in our opinion, it was the best one there *s*

Once we finished browsing the market, we saw the signs for The Big Pineapple – who can resist a giant pineapple? (Not John!).
It wasn’t very busy there so we pulled in and took photos before we decided to find the Ettamogah Pub as we had seen lots of photos of it and it seemed like an interesting place. We were very disappointed to discover that, while the building is still there, the character has gone. It is now a no name pub with no interesting writing on the outside walls. It’s too bad since it was so well known.

We drove around sight-seeing for a while and then found a great parking spot at King’s Beach where we could eat our picnic lunch and watch an awesome kite-boarder – he was getting big air time. We drove around a bit more (and tried to find an elusive geocache) before we came back to the condo to enjoy our view. It’s quite windy today and we’ve had a few short rain showers but none of the thunderstorms that were forecast.

Tomorrow we are heading to Fraser Island for the day – we have an hour’s drive north to the pickup location (and have to be there at 6 a.m.). Lucky for us that we are still waking up early.