A Special Easter

 

It's is a special Easter this year, Laurie became a Nana again. Her daughter Rhianna and her boyfriend Dylan had a baby girl. "Peyton Amanda Dixon" was born March 31 at 12:58 am. She weights 7lbs 13oz and is 21in long.

 

 



 

 

Fun Time At The Byron Bay Blues Festival.

 

Mark Laurie and I went to the Blues Festival yesterday and had a great time and Cherie came after work. This is the 29th year of the festival and they do it right. This land is only used for the festival so it makes it easier to set up every year. They have lots of merchandise and food venders, you can also camp with a tent or trailer or rent a teepee or a camper. They have 5 different tents set up so there is lots of different music.  It starts at noon and goes to midnight for 4 days. We arrived around 2:30 and our first band was The Wailers witch used to be Bob Marley and the Wailers. Then we moved over to another tent and watched The California Honeydrops. We had something to eat and the went back to the main tent and watched Jackson Brown. We didn't want to stay for the last band The Original Blues Brothers Band. We left early because at the end of the night it takes about 2 hours to get out of the parking lot. We had a great time, the music was great and we were impressed how organized every thing is run.

 

California Honeydrops

 The Wailers

Jackson Brown

Big Tents

 Some old guy!

Perfect night with a full moon.

 

Mark will be going back to work tomorrow so we won't see him again until he comes to Canada. I'm still hoping to get one more dive in before we go. We leave next Saturday to go to Brisbane for 5 days then home.

 



Two more weeks!

 

We have two more weeks then we go home, five months have gone by fast. This weekend we are going to the Byron Bay Blues Festival.          https://www.bluesfest.com.au/
We will only be going one day to see "The Original Blues Brothers Band" and "Jackson Brown". It should be a great time.
 Last Tuesday we decided to go into Byron Bay to have a BBQ by one of the beach area's. The public BBQ's get very busy so we were lucky to get one without waiting. It was a great beach and BBQ area.

 Yesterday Mark and I did another dive and it was a great dive. Again lots to see, we saw a shovel head shark which are very rare to see.

 

 

Next Saturday we will be going up to Brisbane to stay with Ken and Sharron until we leave on the 12th. Hopefully we can get one more dive before we go home.

Great Time In Brisbane.

We checked into our hotel on Sunday night ready for a nice couple of days. We booked a superior room with a river view.                    Here's a picture of our river view!
                                                           Not really a great view.

 

 

It's to bad because you only get to do this once and it was a bit of a let down. Well we were in a great area of the city and we were going to make the best of it. The first night we had Greek dinner with Kenneth and Sharron. After that it was off to the casino to loose our money and we had a great time. Second day it was a walk around the area. We walked around the south shore of the river and this is really a great part of the down town area. I'm going to show pictures of our 2 days of walking around.

 Maritime Museum.

Pictures from the Botanical Gardens.

 

Picture's from the Ferris wheel

 You can see the man made beach in this picture. It's a great beach area and it's well used.

 

The walk was a little hot so we sat in the shade and we were entertained by this little girl.

 

 

We had a great time and Brisbane is a beautiful city.

 

Our last dive in Byron Bay Mark took a picture of a large Manta Ray. There is a program in place to identify these Manta Rays so Mark sent the picture to Project Manta at the university of Queensland. If this is the first time they have seen this Manta Ray then you get to name it. We found out this Manta Ray is named Chinook but they were glad to hear from Mark because it was the first time Chinook has been reported so far south.

 

 

Also last month we took a drive to Mark and Cherie's new 2 acre property. It's just outside of a town called Alstonville. It's very quiet and there's a great view.

 

 

Our next adventure will be attending the Byron Bay Blues Festival on Easter weekend. This should be fun.

 

 

 



Less than a month left here in OZ.

Laurie and I like it here in Australia. The beaches and the weather are perfect in every way. But we have to think what's ahead of us. I can't wait to get home and check my mail. I know there will be and invitation to Harry and Megan's wedding just 2 months from now. How exciting!

A few days in Brunswick Heads.

Marks girlfriend Cherie works at a hotel in Brunswick Heads and she got us 2 nights there for free. That was very nice of her and we enjoyed it very much. The hotel is within walking distance of the town and the beach. It's a very small town and quiet but it has a lot of restaurant's and small shops.
Here's a very pictures from around town.

Our Hotel 

Coffee house around he corner

Brunswick River

Rough Sea's

 

Cyclone Linda was just down graded to a sub tropical storm and is just now turning away from the cost about 300 kilometers off shore.

 

 

Today we are getting ready to go into Brisbane for 3 nights and check out the down town area. 

Rain, Rain, Rain.

 

 Well it is the rainy season and it has been raining hard off and on for the last week. The road hasn't been flooded over for a week now but it's getting close again today. The temperature has been comfortable so it great to relax around the house, but it's been to much relaxing. The rain comes and goes so much we can't get out for our daily walk with the dog. We are hoping it will start to ease off soon. Next week we are going into our favorite small town Brunswick Heads for 2 nights. Cherie has got us a room at the hotel she works at so that should be fun. Brunswick is a small town and it's not crowded with lots of tourist like Byron Bay. Laurie and I like it there a lot and we will enjoy our morning coffee's street side down town close to the river. While we have been sitting inside watching the rain we have been trying to think of some where we can go for a little getaway. The only thing we can find is 3 nights in down town Brisbane. So a week today we will head down and have a look around. Another place to go that close is Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast but we have to stay away from there. The Common Wealth games start soon and its already starting to get crazy busy there.
 I was very surprised last week on March 1st, it was the first day of fall here. In Australia they don't go by the equinox they go buy the first of the month because it's more convenient. So fall, summer, winter, spring all come on the first of the month. Now there's some interesting S.H.I.T.!
 I have recently heard from friends we sailed with in the Caribbean that are now in St Maarten. They are there now and watching the sailing regatta from the lagoon yacht club. Sounds like the island is slowly getting back on there feet. They also had a visit with the new owner of Mauna Kea. Hear is a picture they took as they left. I'm glad that she wasn't lost and she has given some one a good home.

Diving in Byron Bay

Mark and I went on a dive at Julian Rocks in Byron Bay. This was a great dive because this day there was lots to see. I'm still waiting for Mark to edit our dive at North Stradbroke Island.

We had a great time at North Stradbroke Island.

 

 

We took the 5pm ferry over to the island and it was much bigger than I thought. It was another 20 minute drive and we were at the house near Point Lookout.

 

The island had every thing you would need so you wouldn't think you were on an island. We unpacked and relaxed for the evening with some dinner.

 Our first day there was a little cloudy and windy but it was still a great day for a walk on the beach.

The Pelicans here are twice the size as the Pelicans in Florida and the Caribbean

 Here you see a shark net so people can swim

 I caught this guy at the last second running for his hole.

You can see how windy it is on the beach. It looks like snow blowing across an open field.

We found our legs were getting sand blasted so we went into the bush to see if we could see some wild life. We were told we may see some Koalas here.

 Here's a very Knotty tree!

This was the only wild life we found this day

Our second day on the island was up early for a walk around the gorge. First a coffee. 

 Across the street from the coffee shop.

 

A look down the beach from on top of the gorge

 The beach seems to go on for ever!

The walk around the gorge was breath taking.

After we finished the walk there was a stop for a family photo.

Cherie Blue and Mark

 

The third day was a dive in the morning and relax on the beach until we could get on the ferry. Mark has taken some video of our dive but he doesn't have it ready just yet. I will post that later.

 

 Great beach!

We are back at Marks place and tomorrow we will be doing a dive in the afternoon. If it's a nice day Mark will take his camera for some more underwater video.