We had all packed the night before so that we could get to the airport in time to get the Lyms to their flight home. They were kind enough to take a bag home for me and Linette so that could more easily make our tight connecting flights when we finally went home.
While the Lyms flew home, Linette and I stayed behind for a couple more days with Jon and Shauna. We took a small airplane up to Hervey Bay (pronounced "Harvey Bay"...which is pronounced "Hahvey Bah-y").
So we had a couple hours to kill in the airport first.
Jon and Shauna knew a family who lived in Hervey Bay, Bill and Leanne Rostedt, and they had invited us up to stay with them and see the cool things in that area. We only had a couple days available by the time we knew about this, so our schedule was pretty tight up there, but it all worked out.
When we arrived in Hervey Bay, we picked up a rental car and drove to Whale Bay Marina to do a whale watching tour on The Spirit of Hervey Bay. Linette was a bit worried about this idea, as she has had poor luck with getting seasick on previous such tours, but Bill assured us that the bay was protected from big waves, and that the whale watching here was some of the best in the world, so we went for it.
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| Linette, Bill Rostedt, and Shauna |
The water was pretty, and it was fun seeing sailboats and little sand islands full of birds.
Then, off in the distance, we saw some splashing. As we got close, we saw a baby humpback whale jumping out of the water!
The mama whale put her tail out of the water and slapped it down really hard, over and over again, as if to tell the baby, "Hey! Get over here! There's a boat coming!"
But the baby was all like, "Wheeeee!!!"
"I mean it now, get over here!"
"Wa-hooooo!! Again! Again!"
(It was nice having Shauna along with her nice zoom lens for many of these shots).
Here's a 9-second video clip showing some slapping and jumping.
"That's it! You're watered!" (That's their version of "grounded").
It was so fun to see this "little" whale having so much fun.
And one more time!
Later we saw more mamas and babies traveling around together, which was sweet.
And this whale was just rolling over, slapping its fins in the water, swimming upside-down, and just generally goofing around.
It was a really cool experience.
We probably saw 6 or 8 different sets of whales during our 4 hour trip.
These three whales just hung out right by our boat for several minutes.
We also saw a few small dolphins swimming around the whales as well.
Here is a two minute video clip showing some of the highlights of the tour: Mama slapping the water, the baby jumping, dolphins, whale belly flops, whales rolling around, and some Australian accents.
Linette took advantage of the padded benches to recover from the trip.
Off to the side we could see Fraser Island, which is the largest sand island in the world.
Fraser Island has a rain forest covering much of it, and also has wild dingos roaming around it.
We saw a huge pelican on the shore near some people over there.
I thought these birds were cool.
Finally we got back to the harbor.
It was a fun outing, and nobody got sick, so it was a success!
Our host introduced us to the Pirate's Cave souvenir shop, where we all bought a few things.
Bill also took us to the local fish and chips place, where we got some great food.
While we waited for our order, we zipped down the street to ride the colorful "Sky Wheel" that was in town for a limited engagement.
But first, we all grabbed an ice cream cone at "Mr. Whippy," since that is a local favorite as well, and we only had one day to "do it all!"
From way up on the Sky Wheel, we had a nice view of the city lights (and of the lack of lights beyond, which is to say, the ocean).
Then we rushed back to grab our food, and then went to Bill's house to eat.
After dinner, I lost a game of chess to their son, who had been on his high school chess team at one point. Nobody was surprised he beat me, but he said, "Well, it was hard...and I had to think...."
That evening a bush-tailed possum paid a visit to the back porch.
That night Bill's wife Leanne arrived from a trip she had been on, and it was so fun to listen to their little banter back and forth.
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| Bill and Leanne Rostedt (picture from their Facebook page) |
Bill showed a video clip of one of his sons on "Philippines Got Talent", where he sang a song and played the guitar. (His son served a mission there, and made it to the second round at least).
That evening Linette suggested that they might want to hear the "Thursday Song", so I played my recording of that, and they seemed to appreciate it.
In the morning, they had a beautiful breakfast prepared for us, so that was a wonderful way to start the day.
Leanne helped Bill stick to the diet that the doctor had him on.
Our last big adventure for the trip was to visit Fraser Island.
We booked a tour in a big four wheel drive jeep-like vehicle, which drove us up onto a ferry, and off we went.
Once we arrived, we drove off the ferry and started across the island. Like I mentioned, Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island, and is covered in forest. Except for right within a couple of resorts, there are no paved roads on the whole island, so you have to have a serious four wheel drive vehicle that can handle big, bumpy sand roads.
The vehicle and the bouncing around was exactly like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland.
Our first stop was at Lake McKenzie, a freshwater lake in the middle of the island. It has no streams coming into it, but comes from rain water. The water was amazingly clear and pure. After swimming in a nasty-tasting ocean, it was wonderful to swim around in this beautiful water.
Linette was trying to decide whether to go in, so I helped her decide. So helpful.
This was probably my favorite part of the day.
After that, we bumped our way through the forest some more until we got to "Central Station", where we stopped for lunch.
We saw a pretty cool lizard on a tree there.
And this tan lizard that almost looks like a snake.
There were vines on many of the trees.
This little video clip shows a vine that looks like someone strung it all around like a trap.
The boardwalk through the area was fun.
In the creek there was an eel swimming along. The water is perfectly clear, and they say it's pure enough to drink (if you don't mind a little eel flavoring, I assume).
Here are some eucalyptus trees that have shed their bark.
Across the aisle from us in our vehicle was Anna Manhert, a gal from Germany who was traveling around Australia by herself for six weeks before going back to work for a law firm or something. She was fun to talk to throughout the day.
Once we reached the far side of the island, there was still no paved road. Rather, you drive up "75 Mile Beach", trying to stick to the sand that is wet and firm enough not to bog you down, while staying out of the actual saltwater that can ruin your vehicle.
Other tours sometimes stop to let you take a 15-minute plane ride for $75, but we moved along.
It was interesting navigating the rocky sections of the beach.
We stopped at Eli Creek, where we walked up a boardwalk and then walked through a sandy creek with a crowd of other people. I didn't have my camera with me, so I don't have pictures of that.
But when we got back down to where we started, we saw a big Fox Bat hanging in a tree just overhead, so we checked it out for a while.
Our last stop was at the S. S. Maheno shipwreck, which has been there since a cyclone ran it ashore in 1935.
With that, we drove back down the beach, and back across the bumpy sand roads through the forest. Once in a while the bumps would synchronize such that the entire vehicle would bounce straight up and down several times in a row. For some reason, this made everyone laugh every time it happened.
Finally, we drove back onto the ferry and steamed for land.
Linette and I had to fly from Brisbane (a three hour drive away from Hervey Bay) to Sydney the next morning at 6:30 a.m., so we were anxious to get down to Brisbane before it got too late. However, our hosts had invited us to have an Aussie barbecue with them before we left, and that turned out to be just lovely.
(They had a swimming pool, and I dipped my toe in to see if I should go for a swim, and Linette helped me decide. Fair's fair.)
We could see the Southern Cross that evening, as well as the "pointers" that help you locate it.
- The two stars at the top are Alpha and Beta Centauri.
- If you follow them down to near the roof of the shed, you can see 3 stars that form the "side" of the Southern Cross. (The fourth star at the bottom is not as bright, and may be just obscured by the edge of the shed).
Unlike the North Star, which points north by itself, there isn't really a bright star at the south celestial pole, so what you do is take those two stars along the the cross, and go 4 times that distance (some sources say 4.5 times), and that will be south. To find the celestial pole more precisely (around which all the stars rotate), you can take those two pointer stars, draw a perpendicular line from their midpoint also to the left, and where that intersects the Southern Cross's line, that's where the southern pole is. Like this:
After dinner, we had a lovely conversation, in which Leanne shared her touching conversion story with us.
Finally, it was time to bid farewell to our new friends. We had a three hour drive ahead of us and had to get on the road (more specifically, the left side of the road). It had been a wonderful visit, and we wished we had had more time there.
We stayed at a hotel in Brisbane, and Shauna drove me and Linette to the airport at 5 a.m. the next morning. Jon and Shauna were visiting another friend that day and would be flying home the next evening.
Here is an aerial shot of the city of Brisbane.
We flew from Brisbane to Sydney and on to San Francisco, watching many movies along the way. While waiting for our plane to Salt Lake City, we caught most of the morning session of General Conference.
Finally, we flew home to Salt Lake City.
The kids picked us up from the airport, and we listened to general conference again on the way home.
Eventually we gave out some presents.
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| The Snuggle is Real |
My favorite parts of the trip included petting the kangaroos, hearing the excellent accents, hanging out with the Stokes family, the beautiful views at the Blue Mountains, seeing whales and eating Tim Tams. :)
Cheers.
