Camping Trip–Chapter 3–Hervey Bay Parks

After Maroochydore we drove about 3 hours north to the beautiful Hervey Bay. We spent 5 nights camping here, and LOVED it. It was perfect weather and picturesque environment.

Each morning we would wake up early (sun is bright in a tent) and ask the boys what they would like to do today. Most of the time the answer was “go park” – so we did.

The parks that we visited were great. They were set under a HUGE old tree, that shaded the park and made it perfect to play in.

Ethan and Mumma (Tracie) enjoy coffee and a snack in the train

Ben and Mummy (Sal) with their coffee and snack.

The best (and worst) part about this park was the dirty ground covering. We all got filthy dirty!

Ethan’s dirty legs and sore knees. You can tell how much outdoor fun he’s had, just look at those scratched up knees!

Mummy’s dirty foot.

 

The other park we liked to visit was also situated under a beautiful big old tree. Wonderfully shady on these hot days.This park had a sandy floor, and the most wonderful sand toy contraption you’ve ever seen. I’m not sure if I can explain it properly, but you can see in the pictures below, there is a pully with a bucket, you can lift the sand up to the top.

Once up, you put it in the bucket

And tip it into a white plumbing style tube. There were about 5-6 tubes that transported the sand to somewhere else in the climbing frame. The picture below is Ethan pouring the sand in and it’s coming out the bottom.

Ben pouring the sand in a tube

Ethan thinks it’s great fun.

Ethan and Ben get more sand

Ben watching the sand fall out. As I am writing this post Ben is sitting next to me and saw this picture. He says “tipping sand down there” – nice to know he still remembers!

The final park we visited was a water park. We did not take the camera, as we didn’t want to worry about it getting damaged. It was a great park with hardly any pooled water. All the water shot up out of the ground and drained away. The boys had a fantastic time and Ethan LOVED the water slide!!!! These boys constantly amaze me, I didn’t think he was the dare devil!

Here’s a pic of the water park I pinched off the web, so you can see for your self what I’m talking about.

 

 

So much fun at all the parks!

Camping Trip–Chapter 2–Maroochydore Outings

We spent 4 nights camping in Maroochydore, and made a few little day trips in that time. Our first day we were keen to head to the big pineapple. Ben LOVES pineapples, and we read that we could take a train ride through the pineapple plantation. Great fun for a 2yr old! You can imagine our disappointment when we pulled up and the gates were closed. We were faced with a sign “Closed for Renovations” – such a shame

We continued on, and found a castle that looked like it was worth exploring. Once inside, we discovered it was very expensive to enter, and probably didn’t interest a couple of 2yr olds anyway, so we thought it best to have a coffee in their cafe and move on. The whole experience in that castle was a disaster. It was hot, boys were cranky and hungry and tired and when they FINALLY (took ages!) bought our coffee’s and the boys’ usual “Baby Chino” (warm frothed milk with chocolate power on top and a marshmallow) the lady says “careful, it might be a bit hot” -  IDIOT WOMAN!!!! It was as hot as my coffee!!! What kind of idiot makes a baby chino for a 2yr old as hot as an adult’s coffee!?!?!?!? The fool obviously doesn’t have kids of her own. Anyway, the boys didn’t like the fact that it was too hot, and wanted to drink it right away. Ethan had a meltdown, screaming and crying because he was hungry and thirsty and his drink was too hot. The woman totally forgot to bring the scones we had ordered. Once we reminded her and she bought them……. guess what??!?!?! They were too hot too!!!! Ethan completely lost it when he couldn’t eat that either, I had to take him out for a walk, he was HYSTERICAL. Poor baby. It’s hard when your only little, hungry and thirsty and you can’t eat the nice food they put in front of you. Naturally I tried to offer him one of the snacks in my bag, but he only wanted the food on the table!

Our next stop was a lot better. We went to the Budrim Ginger Factory. They had a selection of cute little shops, a lovely cafe and a old fashion train ride! Perfect for little boys. We took a train ride and had a little look around. It was perfect!

Tracie and boys by the train we rode.

Ben and Mumma (Tracie) on the train

Ethan and Mummy (Sal) on the train

Ethan and Mumma, riding a very old (something like 75-80yrs old) kangaroo ride.

Ben’s turn. (He hated it)

Tracie and Ethan in the gardens of the Ginger place.

We also went on a boat ride through a tunnel where little puppets danced and sang, and the ginger bread man was hiding in each of the scenes. It was cute!

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Our next outing….

We had a wonderful time at Australia Zoo. The boys loved seeing all the animals, and behaved very well through this long and exhausting day. In no particular order, here’s some pictures of our day.

 

A Kookaburra. It had something wrong with it, so it couldn’t fly away

Mumma (Tracie), Ben and Ethan look at the Kookaburrra

One of the many lizards

Ethan and Ben in the kart we hired for the day. It was a perfect way to see the zoo. The boys didn’t have to walk all the way, and we didn’t have to do too much carrying.

Ethan and Ben by a giant crocodile statue. (and some random kid in it’s mouth!) 

Ben, Mummy (Sal) and Ethan feed a kangaroo

Mummy and Ethan

Ethan LOVED feeding the kangaroos

Mummy (Sal) holding Ben as he pats a Koala

Ethan patting the Koala

The crocodile show

Some brave zoo keepers feeding the crocs

The “Kids Zoo” – barn yard animal feeding area. Ethan feeding a goat.

Ethan LOVED feeding these animals too. He was so gentle with them. He talked to them, asking if they liked the food and if they wanted some more. He’s such a lovely boy.

Of course, Ben had a go too.

Ben and Ethan, checking out a lizard. The zoo was FULL of water dragons, like the one pictured above. They are the same as the ones we have in our back yard, but ours are younger and smaller.

Mumma(Tracie), Ben and Ethan on the zoo bus/train – we got tired of walking!

All day, all Ben wanted to see was the elephants. Luckily, it was worth the wait. It was feeding time when we finally made it to the elephants, and both boys watched them pull leaves off branches and feed them self. It was very interesting to watch.

We had a great day at Australia Zoo.