Hurley Burleigh Pro

Junior Pro Surfing Competition in the Gold Coast this past weekend. We went down and watched the action. 64 kids entered, 4 days to go through heats, best judged wave in 20 minutes on the water, single elimination, top two duel it out inthe final. The final was a local Burleigh boy named Thomas Woods and a Brazillian kid, both surfing for $25,000 USD. Very cool atmosphere down at Burleigh Heads - tons of locals cheering for Thomas as he walked through the crowd. We got a cool explaination of "surf scoring" in a competition.... just in case I decide to enter the next comp! Amazing that this 16 year old 5'4" Brazilian kid recieved the final prize cheque. We wondered how long he will be able to live off that cash? "Skull Candy" was a sponser as well. Noah grabbed a bunch of "give aways" in the throw off for the 'grommets" (kids).

GBR Photo's

Well, we are back at school this week. Our "Australian Routine" has kicked into gear. Kev @ TSS, Hannah @ St. Micheals and just got asked to play district Volleyball, Noah @ Worongary and is House Captain this year, Wendy on supply list and awaiting her first calls of the term.

I was flippin' through photos and picked out a couple from our last trip. Sunrise shot is overlooking the island after a morning run.

I love this beach shot, I think it will be my new screen saver. Plus its where we swam with the Sea Turtle.




Wendy was feeling like quite the jet setter booking a flight on one day and flying the next. She rather enjoyed the aircraft exit right on to the runway.

Noah at the top of Passage peak which was an amazing hike up to a huge lookout.

More News...

Lizzy & Geo arrive on Thursday.

Rick & Bubba arrive end of Feb

Ryan & Joel arrive March. R 7 J and I are going to head off and do a surfing safarii - should be sweet!

Noah @ Pine Rivers BMX

Gotta Watch Sea Turtle Videos

OK........ highlight today was meeting up with a HUGE live sea Turtle. All we could keep saying was that Auntie Wendy (BC Wendy) would have gone as balistic as we did when we saw it.

Kevin yelled out loud when he saw it "hey hey hey guys, over here". Kids and Wend thought is was something scarey but when they saw the size of this turtle they were as amazed as me. This guy let us swim beside him for a while. Soooooo cool. Check out these two Youtube Video Clips.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6QB3JrOes0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW864iTpbGM

Life on Hamilton Island

Arrived on Virgin Blue and met by our host Esther, who had a cool sign for Wendy who had done all the work for this tour.

Amazing pools everywhere and waterfront beach is beautiful. We are in our own little condo with a beautiful view of the island. The cool part is the golf cart we get with the condo. The whole island has very few cars, its all golf carts. We load up the buggy and get around the island.

Went for a run this morning and takes about 20 minutes to run to the far side of the island. Feels very much like "Fantasy Island" - I am sure they must have filmed some of that show on this island years ago.

Last Minute - Great Barrier Reef

Totally LAST MINUTE Club this week. Wendy scored a huge deal with a last minute flight and accommodation on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef. Book

ed on a Friday, fly on Saturday. Love it! Totally spontaneous trip. We are up here for the week and lovin' it!

Today we got a lesson on SCUBA diving. Tried on the tanks and messed around in the pool to see how the breathing works. You end up really chomping down on the mouthpiece to the point where your jaw is tight when you are done. After messing around we scuba, we grabbed snorkel gear and headed out onto the reef and saw some amazing underwater wildlife.

Check out Hannah with her little yellow friends (fish) - they followed her around the whole time, must have been attracted to her bright orange rashie.

Four Years Later

Our family at Lake Mackenzie, Fraser Island, four years after our last visit.