And relax!!!! Here in Byron bay for a couple of days now which is lovely. Very happening place lots bars,restaurants and surfers!! And some very good music being played just a shame we don't have a babysitter!!!!Beautiful beach and gorgeous blue sea too with the lighthouse up on the hill it is just stunning place to be :-).We had a really lovely couple of days in hervey bay with the stinky bus parked right on the beach. Really shallow beach and small waves so really really safe for the kids and had miles of golden sands to ourselves a lot of the time. We saw great wildlife at this site. It was inundated with lorikeets which are beautifully coloured parrot type birds but they are very very noisy when settling down to roost. As dusk fell thousands of bat flew over and not just the little things we get at home HUGE bats - was like something out of a horror movie!!! They came out the same time the lorikeets were screeching so very atmospheric!!!
We had rain sunday morning so did a bit of schoolwork and then got to play on the beach a bit later. As we were walking back someone told us to watch out for dolphins and sure enough there were a couple playing around quite close into shore was fab!!!!

So monday we had to pack up again - got on the road about 10 and didn't park the van here til 6pm so very long day. The down side of travelling with kids- the phenomenal amount of toilets stops required!!!! Seem to be spending 80% of my holiday in public toilets with one two or all of them!!!!
Have travelled througgh beautiful lush green countryside yesterday cattle country and thus lots of horses too. With a back drop of wooded hills!!! Around maryborough and Gympie was particularly lovely. Gympie was badly affected by the floods and it's extraordinary when we driving along a road and we can see the flood water Mark on the trees around us around 1 to 2 metres above the van and we stand at over 3 metres!! Must just have been terrifying. On the surface life seems to have got back to normal in a short time but so so many people must have had their lives devastated.
Once we were south of Brisbane (over a very funky new bridge) we decided we would just drive through gold coast and past surfers paradise just to have a look. Thank god we decided not to stay there - so so so built up and touristy but slightly sleazy too. Some fab huge boats in the Marina though.
Then out of the madness into the tweed coast area - much nicer to be out of the bustle and the traffic. Has been very odd being on a three lane motorway after so long on small roads with no traffic.
Right that's it for now have got serious shopping to be done today!!!!