After our little sojourn over to Vanuatu and another excellent flight with Air Nauru we arrived back into Brisbane and a couple of nights booked at our first ever stay in an Air B&B.  Renae booked this for us and the place she chose was excellent.  We weren’t far from the river or city centre so the next day after a great nights sleep we walked down to the river and caught one of the river ferries into the city centre.  We were also very lucky to have a clear sunny day to do our bit of touring in the city.

Our day spent in the city was a mixture of a lot of walking and some apparently essential shopping for the girls.  The river ferry system is a great way to get around Brisbane if you are able to use it.  They have a lot of stops along the way.  The only downside we felt was that you weren’t able to purchase a day travel ticket for the ferries.  Opportunity for an improvement there I think.  Later that night we caught up with Hollie Walton for a meal  and night out.  Great way to finish the day off.

We had planned a bit of a short tour of some of Queensland while Renae was going to be with us so after our day of touring Brisbane city it was on the road and back to Stanthorpe to get the van and start our little trip.  On our drive back to Stanthorpe we called into Lake Moogerah for a morning tea stop and look around.  Very nice little area with nice small rural plots.  Stanthorpe was next and catching up with Wayne and Julie again was great and also to see some of the extra work they had completed in the short time we had been away.

We were having one night in Stanthorpe and the next morning Renae had arranged to go on the park run in town.   As the weather in Stanthorpe can be very cold we both decided that she could go into town on her own. Glad we did as apparently the temperature for the park run was a very chilly -4.6C. Great weather if your a polar bear I suppose. After Renae came home we finished packing the car and van then said our goodbyes to Wayne and Julie then hit the road for Noosa.

Unfortunately for us our arrival in Noosa also came with some cloudy and cooler weather. Renae was hoping to try some surfing at Noosa but the weather and surf conditions didn’t seem to want to play the game.  We also had a small amount of rain while here for a couple of nights so that made life more interesting for Renae as she was sleeping in a swag outside.  Just isn’t enough room to have more than two people sleeping in our van.  We did do a walk through some of the Noosa National Park that followed the coastline .  We got as far as Tea Tree Bay before turning around and heading back.

Leaving Noosa our next destination was a caravan park called Standown Park.  We had stayed here before when we went to Fraser Island a few years ago and this was our plan again.  We were leaving the van at the park and going over to Fraser Island for two nights.  The ferry we were catching leaves from Inskip Point which is near the town of Rainbow Beach.  The weather also seemed to be clearing up a bit so things were looking brighter all round.

This trip across to Fraser Island we weren’t going to go as far north on the island as before.  After a nice flat ferry crossing we were on the island and ready for adventure.  Our first camp site on day one was Dundubara.  This was still a reasonable drive along the beach to get to.  On our last visit to the island we didn’t see may dingo’s but this time was different.  We were lucky to see quite a few walking on the beach.  They are very scrawny looking on the island though, they look very hungry.

While at Dundubara campground we did a walk to the Wun’gul Sandblow.  This is a large slow moving sand dune that is gradually moving in a westerly direction engulfing plants on its journey.  Dundubara was an excellent campground with lovely hot showers and very large sites.  We also passed the Maheno Wreck that is very slowly rusting away gradually into the ocean.  Renae did her obligatory handstand in front of this.  We were lucky as well as the weather fined up very nicely, good thing as we were all tenting it.

Day two at Fraser saw us driving inland a bit and looking at some of the freshwater lakes on the island.  Nearly all the roads on the island are basically just single lane tracks of varying degrees of smoothness and firmness.  You probably wouldn’t want to be here during holidays or long weekends as passing bays are a bit scattered.  As some people are not the most courteous of drivers it would get pretty frustrating I would imagine on these tracks.  Then there are the larger tour operators in their 20 plus seat trucks to navigate as well.

The freshwater lakes on Fraser are all different with Lake McKenzie having the bluest clear water to Lake Garawongera that has real tannin stained waters.  We also took in both lakes Birrabeen and Boomanjin.  Our camp for day two was Central Station.  You would think you were in a tropical rain forest at this camp.  It is quite damp and there a moss covereing tree trunks all over.  It did get quite cold at night and just to top it off the hot showers weren’t working.

Well Fraser Island was a quick trip and it was back over to the mainland to repack everything from the car and then after a nights rest on the road to Hervey Bay.  This was just a one night stopover again for us.  As it happened there was a park run in Hervey Bay the next morning so Renae was up early again to compete in this one.  Kaye went along this time.  The weather was a bit warmer than Stanthorpe plus it also started an hour later as well.

After packing the van we were on the road to our most northern destination with Renae.  Agnes Waters/1770 was going to be our home for a couple of nights.  This is a very nice area of Queensland that does attract quite a few southerners during the winter months.  We were also in time for the markets on Sunday that were only a short walk down the road from our caravan park.  I tried hard to encourage the others to do the walk but they couldn’t be persuaded.

1770 is also where Captain Cook came ashore back in 1770 hence the name of the area.   This was Cook’s second landing in Australia.   A rock cairn has been erected and there is a nice coastal walk from the cairn to Bustard Bay Lookout.  Wave Lookout from this walk also offers some nice views of the coast.

We were nearing the end of our travels with Renae and our next destination was a bit south to Bundaberg.  We had two more days left with Renae and we arranged a tour of the Bundaberg Rum Distillery.  We had done this a few years ago and quite enjoyed it so talked Renae into doing it as well.  They have built a big new reception and sales area since our last visit and also changed the tour a bit.  From what I remember of the last tour this one is not quite as detailed and in depth as previous.  Still the tastings at the end of the tour were quite nice though, if you like Bundy Rum that is.  That night we also went for a farewell meal to the RSL Club which was a short walk over the river from where we were staying.

After we had had said our goodbyes to Renae it was time for us to catch our breath and sit back and relax.  We had a great time showing Renae a very small part of Queensland and we did a lot of travel in a short time compared to how we normally travel.   We ended up staying in Bundaberg for 8 days.  Bundaberg is not a bad town and there is a bit to see around the area.   We also did a day trip down to Hervey Bay during this time as Kaye had dropped off some jewellery to be looked at in our earlier visit there a week before.

A visit to the Hinkler Hall of Aviation is worth a look if your ever in Bundaberg.  This tells the story of Bert Hinkler who was born in Bundaberg and was a pioneer Australian aviator.  He designed and built early aircraft before being the first person to fly solo from England to Australia and also the first person to fly solo across the Southern Atlantic Ocean.  He unfortunately died at the young age of 40 after crashing in remote countryside near Florence, Italy during a solo flight record attempt.  His body wasn’t discovered until about a year later and he was given a state funeral in Italy.  He had an amazing life in his short time and to read his history is really interesting.

After 8 days of chilling out in Bundaberg it was time to get on the road again.  We have decided on heading inland for a look.  Hopefully the weather won’t be too cold for us and maybe the crowds will be lees as well.

We had a great few days in Stanthorpe catching up with Wayne and Julie, they are doing an excellent job in setting up their property.  This also allowed us some time to do a few small jobs around the van that we had put off. 

We drove down to Brisbane the day before we were due to fly out to Vanuatu and stayed at the hotel near the airport for the night.  The next day we had a 10am departure and were a bit surprised when we found out it was on an Air Nauru plane.  We hadn’t  flown Air Nauru since leaving Nauru over 30 years ago.  The flight to Vanuatu was excellent with heaps of leg room in economy.  Can’t fault the flight at all, good service, good food and roomy.

After we arrived at Port Vila we had around a two hour wait as Renae was flying in from Sydney.  We had arranged to meet her at the airport before we all boarded our next flight to the island of Espiritu Santo.  The three of us were spending 4 nights on this island before coming back and catching up with Anika and Ben on another island.

Espiritu Santo or just Santo when you talk to the locals was a great place that was at a lot slower pace to Port Vila.  The development hasn’t been as quick as on the main island and I suppose this would be the case with all islands in this area.   On Santo we stayed in the main settlement of Luganville.  The hotel was on the main street and the noise was very minimal.  Renae was keen to dive the WW2 wreck SS Coolidge.  This was a passenger liner converted to a troop carrier that was sunk after hitting a sea mine and the captain ran it aground before it sank saving all but one life.  Renae did three dives on the wreck, two during the day and a night dive that allowed you to see all the glow fish around you.  While Renae did the day dives on the SS Coolidge, Kaye and myself went over to a small island called Dany Island for the day.  This was a short drive out of town then a small dinghy ride out to a private island that we had all to ourselves for the day.  It was also the day of Kaye’s birthday so it was an excellent way to spend the day.

We also hired a car for the day while at Santo and did a drive along the coast up to the small village of Port Olry.   Santo is well known for its blue holes.  These are fresh water holes that have continuous fresh water flowing into them that has been filtered through the limestone.  They are such a vivid blue and so clear they are stunning.  Champagne Beach was also pretty special.  This beach had beautiful white sand and with the calm ocean it was very idyllic.  We also had this whole beach to ourselves, just amazing.  If we ever come back to Vanuatu we must remember to pick the same time of the year, hardly any tourists, just great.

Another place of interest on Santo was Million Dollar Point.  The story behind this was that at the end of WW2 the Americans had a lot of surplus equipment on the island and instead of trying to take it back to the US they offered it to the French for a pretty cheap price. The French thought they would be smart and declined the offer hoping the Americans would just leave it all behind. Instead they drove all the equipment off the end of the wharf they had built and then blew up the wharf.  Now when you visit the area there are all these rusted out body parts and engine blocks littering the beach

We had great four days on Santo but it was time to leave and fly back to Port Vila.  We had one night booked at a hotel in Vila then we were off to Hideaway Island where we were catching up with Anika an Ben.  The hotel we stayed at in Vila was quite old but OK for one night.  They had kava tasting on the night we stayed so Renae sampled that for the first time.  She wasn’t convinced it was nice tasting and I don’t blame her.  We also paid a visit to the local market in town and had a nice sit down meal with the locals.  Good fun all round.

Our drive to get to Hideaway Island was about 15 minutes out of Port Vila and about a 300 metre boat ride off the coast to a very small island that has a few bungalows on it.  Once there it was well set out and all the activities were free.  This included use of mask and snorkels, glass bottom boat cruises, stand up paddle boards and introductory scuba lessons.  They also get a lot of day visitors to the island as well.  We arrived on the island around midday and Anika and Ben arrived around 3.30pm.  It was good to catch up and have both girls together with us to help celebrate Kaye’s birthday.

Besides snorkelling and a couple of small boat rides there wasn’t a real lot to do on the island, four days was going to be long enough for us.  Just off the island there was a good little bar that had different entertainment each night and we were lucky enough to be able to watch an excellent fire show.  We were expecting to see a couple of people doing minor acts but instead were treated to 90 minutes of non stop fire entertainment and it was just a donation at the end of the performance, just amazing.

We also hired a car for one day and did a day trip to the east of Port Vila.  We also visited a blue hole here as well aptly called Blue Lagoon.  Even  though it wasn’t as spectacular as the ones we saw on Santo, it was still nice though and this one actually fed into the ocean if you swam and followed it around. It also had a couple of ropes you could swing off and this kept the younger ones occupied for a while.   One nice place was Eden on The River which had some nice waterfalls and a great swimming area underneath them.  We had lunch at Eratap Beach Resort which also had a very nice little beach area and again not many tourists around.  This does seem a good time of the year to visit these islands.

Well after a great 10 days in Vanuatu and with five of those with both girls it was time to pack up and fly back home.  We really enjoyed the pace of life in Vanuatu and it was great to be able to walk around and not be hassled like you are in Asian countries.  One thing we did notice here was how unpolluted the water seemed to be.  With all the snorkelling we did we didn’t see any rubbish floating in the water.  Very different to some Asian countries. 

We would really like to come back again one time later and do a bit more island hopping.  They seem to have a pretty good air service between a lot of islands in the group, over 83 islands in Vanuatu as well as local boat services.  They even have an active volcano on Tanna Island that you can visit.  I think you could fill in about 4 weeks here quite easily.

After we arrive back in Brisbane Renae is staying with us for around 12 days so we will be doing a bit of touring around Queensland with her as our guest.  Just hope we aren’t to boring for her, or to slow.