Taj's Tattles 3

How To Catch A Toad Fish

Put on little pieces of prawns.

Then you cast your line in the water.

When the toad bites, reel him in.

At Moonee Beach we stayed at a caravan park that had a dog in front of us and one our left and right.  We went to the beach.  That when I caught my toad fish.  I felt happy because I caught a fish and it was my first fish at the holiday.  I released him back into the wild so that he could make friends with the other toads and grow bigger.  We went bike riding. We went scootering.  We walked into town.  I bought sunglasses and fruit chews.

We went to the pet porpoise pool. I got kissed by a dolphin and seal.  It was cool.  I liked the dolphin kiss beeter because he didn’t do it like the seal.  The seal had a furry kiss and the dolphin had a soft kiss.  I got picked out of the crowd with somebody else and we got to brush Zippy’s teeth.  Zippy was a dolphin.  And Ryley and somebody else got to sing to the seals.  The penguins were really cute.  We didn’t get to pat them.  I saw one swimming in the water.

We saw lots of waterfalls.  Most were baby ones.  I walked 6 kilometers.  It was really cool, my legs got really sore.  We thought Ryley and Tamsyn split up, we thought they went the wrong way.  We found them out the front of the shop. 

We went down the toboggan slide at The Big Banana.  It was cool but i got to hope out of one of them because I had to grab dads hat because it fell out of the toboggan the ride before.  We got a free ride to get the hat.

Tazzie's Talk 3

Tazzie's Talk 3

Another week more great stuff discovered. This week I have enjoyed The Pet Porpoise Pool, the waterfalls and the Big Banana.

The Pet Porpoise Pool

I loved the Pet Porpoise Pool because you got kissed by a dolphin and seal. After you got kissed we got to watch the Pet Porpoise Pool show. It was amazing to see how high the dolphins can jump. I also liked how they trained the seals to pick up rubbish and put it in the bin. They didn’t teach them to perfection because my brothers didn’t end up in the bin. After the great show we got to pat the dolphins and seals and also feed them. But that was not all because hiding in the corner was little penguins. So when we were about to go they told us we could feed the penguins. They were sooo cute.

The Waterfalls

That's Dad, Taj and I behind the falls.

At the waterfalls we had to walk about 3kms before we saw the first waterfall it was massive. It was easily 20mt. We walked about another km and then came across the biggest waterfall I have ever seen. It was like, 30mt tall probably bigger. It was beautiful but I think that the other one was more beautiful but both were amazing. It was really worth the 6km walk to see what we saw.

The Big Banana

When we pulled in at the big Banana we saw that there was a toboggan slide. I was so happy to see that we could be racing down a toboggan slide again. When we got our tickets we were off but this slide was not as good as the ones at Anna Bay, so you couldn’t go as fast. EVEN RYLEY CAUGHT ME!!! That was how slow it was. But it was better than nothing.

We are going to Lennox Heads. I think I liked Moonee Beach the best so far.  



The view from our caravan at Moonee Beach



Kristy's Clip 3

Wow things have really settled into routine now.  We all have our set up and pack up jobs and can master both processes fully in 1 ½ hours.  Not bad really.  We manage to do it in a state of relative calm which I’m sure won’t last.  Well when I say relative calm what I actually mean is that everyone except Ry is calm.  As many of you will know Ry doesn’t cope well with change, so packing up and moving house every couple of days sends him spinning.  Hopefully he’ll settle soon, if not I might just grant him the wish that he made today and send him home on a plane for few days.  Get ready Grandma, you may be getting a visitor.

This week has provided us with the most beautiful location.  I demand all you Melbournians to book your holidays right now!  Actually you can keep reading my page then go and book the following:  Moonee Beach Caravan Park.  A beautiful aqua tidal river ripples over sand bars into a pristine open surf beach.  Rolling sets of perfect waves, one after another.  Just beautiful.  One morning I headed out for a run. I ran out to the point and stopped to enjoy the view.  At the time I was thinking, this just can’t get better.  Then, like God is treating me to complete perfection, a pod of dolphins start cruising through the waves right in front of me.  You’ve got to DO IT.

 

Ry, star of the show

What started as a two day stay turned into a week-long visit.  Most of the days were spent fishing and reading, just kicking back and relaxing.  However we did decide to take on a couple of tourist tasks.  We headed off to the Pet Porpoise Pool in Coffs.  This was a brilliant day for all of us.  School holidays are over now so most of the tourist activities have thinned right out.  The Porpoise Pool operates on the same principals as Australia Zoo.  They encourage the kids to touch and feel all the animals in the hope that they’ll develop a love for them and become little enviro soldiers.  Well it worked for me.  Getting a kiss from a dolphin was certainly something exceptional.  The kiss from the sea lion on the other hand, well, I’m pretty accustomed to those whiskery kisses, the fish breath I could do without.  Ry was lucky enough to be called up on stage to help with the performance.  He had to sing happy birthday to a seal so that the dolphins would dance.  It was gorgeous.  Taj then got called on stage to brush dolphin’s teeth.  It was so cute.

From frolicking fun to flat out fitness.  We drove up into the hinterland to the Dorrigo National Park where all five of us embarked on a little walk.  It starts with a skywalk (check out the view below) then circles around in a 6km mountainous loop.  The highlight of the walk was the two amazing waterfalls.  At one of the falls you could actually walk right through the back of the water and come out on the other side.  Even the kids thought this was pretty exciting.

After packing the van this morning we decided to do the essential Coffs Harbour tourist activity.  We went to the Big Banana.  It is old, tacky, corny and absolutely hilarious.  Taj walked through the banana and said, “Naaaw I thought it’d be better than this.  I thought we’d get to walk through the squishy part of the banana or at least we’d get to eat it”.  Their moods escalated however when they found the toboggan track. 

So we’re planning one more stop in NSW before we bid farewell to bad roads, bad speed signage, excessive  speed detection devices (sneaky buggers), potato scallops, indicating off roundabouts and their silly idea of football (how is it football when you use your hand more than your foot).  Good bye also to the beautiful coastline, gorgeous rainforests and some pretty spectacular skate parks (although I’m sure we’ll see lots more).

Missing lots of you lots, Kristy xox.

Adventures Of Lemur Boy 2

The sand dunes were the 2nd  best thing we've done so far. They were awesome. We went 4 wheel driving over some but got bogged once and then made it through.  The sand dunes were massive. We got our boogie boards out of the car and then climbed to the top of the sand dunes. We went down, we went so fast and i crashed and face planted and I swallowed heaps of sand. I surfed down the sand dunes on my boogie board. I found a surf board with no fins so we used that too. It was the fastest of all of them. Me and Taj walked for ages and then dad told us to come back. We also dug wombat holes mine was the biggest.  If i stood up in it, it would be up to the middle of my belly. Then we had a race. Me and Taz v's Taj and mum. We got off to a great start and then mum and taj caught up and won.  We went back over the sand dunes and hopped in the car and headed off.

The sharks and rays where the best so far.  We got into a wetsuites and got a stick with food and a few cups of food.  We got to get in the shark and ray tanks.  The first tank we went in was the biggest sharks. They were bigger than dad and mum.  We got to pat and feed them.  There was a baby but it was still bigger than me, Taz and Taj.  There was also a Baramundi and a Gummy shark then we went to the little sting rays. They were funny.  They kept biting  our feet, it tickled. Then went in the two massive tanks.  There was a big stingray called Raspy.  She weighed 300kg. There were Port Jackson sharks that kept biting you.  There were also some school sharks that were really smooth and quick.  When we went into the main ray tank there were lots of small Port Jackson sharks that would bite you on the butt.  There were heaps of different stingrays but my favourite was the Eagle Ray.There was a tank of catfish, baby sharks and rays.  I had a great time

The next day we went tobogganing.  The first time I went down I was being very cautious.  Tamsyn just went full speed.  Dad caught up to me and told me to hurry up.  The second time we went on I wasn't cautious and I didn't put on the brake. It was really cool and lots of fun.  Tamsyn went full speed again and Dad couldn't even catch her.  We hopped on a little train to go up to the maze.  We took a long time to get through the maze.  Taj and I were the first people to finish.  Mum and Tamsyn took, like three hours.  The man told me that if I put out my left arm and kept it on the left wall I would finish in less than one minute.We got back on the train and saw heaps of Gymie Lillies.  They are the tallest lillies in the world.

In the afternoon we hopped on a dolphin cruise.  We learnt about some new species of fish.  My favourite is the Jackass Morwong.  It was really rough.  We  didn't see a dolphin for pretty much the whole cruise.  Then right at the end we saw a pod of dolphins.  Not many people got to see them because lots of people were laying on the floor vomiting including my dad.  The rest were Japanese tourist.  There were babies in the pod. We got right up close to them.  We could almost touch them.

The next day we went back to the toboggan park and finished off our rides.  We went tobogganing, rock climbing and played in the jumping castle.  The tobogganing was really wet and slippery.  When you went fast you would almost slip off the track.  It was scary.  The rock climbing was really fun.  we were rock climbing upside down. 

I've loved Anna Bay and can't wait to see where we go next.

I'll report back next week,
Lemur Boy

Taj's Adventures 2





 We went to Anna Bay.  I played golf and I played on the toboggans.  We went on the train ride.  It was cool because we got to go on a tractor train ride. It led us to the maze.  Me and Ryley were the first ones out. We went on the jumping castle.  My favourite was the Scooby Doo jumping castle.

We saw some dolphins when we were going back to the bridge.  Dad got boat sick.  I got boat sick as well.  We had fish and chips on the boat.  Me and Ryley had a coke, Ryley had a coke zero and I had plain.


 
We went to the sand dunes.  Me and Mum versed Tamsyn and Ryley.  Tamsyn and Ryley were flogging us at the start and then we just managed to beat them.  It was fun racing Tamsyn and Ryley.  It is the biggest s and dunes in the world.  Dad got bogged two times.  One, me, mum and Ryley weren’t in. Daddy and Tamsyn had to dig their car out until they got towed out by a tow truck.
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Me, I am feeding the baby shark.  

We swam with sharks and stingrays.  There was the biggest shark that I've ever seen.  My toes got nibbled by the stingrays but it didn't hurt.  Ky would have loved it.  Mrs B would be scared. there was a sting ray, it was ginormous.  It was bigger than every kid in my grade. I wasn't scared.  It was really cool







See ya, Taj.



Pentz' Prattle - Gorgeous Anna Bay

Hi Ladies and Gents,

It has been a while since my last blog only because I really couldn't be stuffed, I mean have been busy and don't really care about any of you, oops, I mean would like to share with you my experiences.
Anyway a big thanks to the Rigby's and Cathy for their great hospitality at Singleton, the house was awesome and a great piece of luxury.

My highlight so far has definitely been Anna Bay. Couldn't stop thinking of Scotty as we drove around and over the massive dunes and watched the kids run into the distance or surf down the face of them. They were amazing, even more amazing was that some other 4WDers (thanks for the tip Scotty, we definitely needed it) credited my brilliant driving and were in wonder on how I got to some places. One fool even thought to follow me, yes the bloke who got bogged in his own paddock!!!

Other highlights of Anna Bay were the beautiful scenery (amazing), the Toboggan Run, feeding the Rays and Sharks, however, although the kids loved the dolphin watching I did my best effort to feed them some regurgitated fish and chips. It was a bit bumpy. All in all Anna Bay was sensational and anyi\one who gets the chance should call in, you could spend months there.

With my ego in full swing we headed off to Myall Lakes, relaxed in the National Park and I decided to take Taz for a bit more expert 4WD driving. As soon as I hit the beach, my new found confidence evaborated and turned to how the hell am I going to turn this car around and get off this beach. Well, I gave it a shot and got myself so deeply bogged I became a tourist attraction for the passer bye. Slightly concerned, Taz and I began to dig, with very little effect, luckily a true 4WDer came in and snapped us out of our predicament. Soon after we left Myall Lakes, wasn't as we hoped, a Ranger charged us more for staying on a piece of grass than we had at the awesome Birubi Beach Caravan Park at Anna Bay and we didn't catch a fish.

Today we have arrived at Bonnie Hills and the views are breath taking. Looking forward to more adventures and a little less 4WD driving.

Catch ya,
Chris.

Kristy's Clip 2

Beautiful Anna Bay

From grapevines and mountains to beaches and sand dunes.  What a contrast.  We settled into beautiful Birubi Beach in Port Stephens.  So many of my friends had told me about this little piece of paradise but it has seriously taken my breath away.  Some things need to be seen to be truly appreciated.  Morning runs along the cliffs of Anna Bay with the sun warming my back, ahhhh almost enough to get me back into training for the marathon.

There’s so much to do here and the kids have just loved it.  To my gal pals at home I’ll let you know that I’ve ticked off one of those bucket list activities that I told you about.  Keep reading and all will be revealed (yes I took photos). 

After setting up the van we took a stroll down to the beach.  You wouldn’t believe that the beach was just 300m away and there’s a skate park on the edge of the beach.  As we wandered along the foreshore we came upon a cemetery.  Seriously, a cemetery with million dollar views of the cliffs and the oceans.  So you can get million dollar beach views but it will cost you your life. 



The view from the cemetary



We got back to the van and Chris suggested that we go for a drive.  We headed down the road and Chris saw the sign 4wd beach access.  “Let’s give that a crack,” he says. “Alright but if it starts to get tricky we turn around Ok.  Remember we’ve never been 4w driving before”, I reply.  Sharp left off the main rd., whack it into 4wd and hit it! 100m in, we’re cruising, 200m in, too easy, 300m in, “Oh dear lord, hold on kids”.  We were all laughing hysterically as we bounce our way through the deep sand with me urging Chris to keep flooring it.  Finally we make it out onto the beach front and we get to cruise along the beach, smiles from ear to ear.  Up in the distance a 4wd pulls over, as we pass he pulls back in behind us and begins to follow.  We note that he mustn’t feel very confident and has decided to follow us for added comfort.  Chris’ quote of the trip at this point, “Don’t follow us ya dickhead.  We got bogged in our own paddock”.  In the distance we can see silhouettes of people running up sand dunes so we figure there must be a way to get up to the back of the dunes.  We take a right and head inland.  That’s when we come unstuck, or should I say stuck.  We contemplated going over a dune but could see that it was going to be a challenge.  Sure enough we hit the sandbank and stop.  Thankfully we were able to reverse out on full throttle.  We all jumped out of the car and head off into the sunset.  The next day we come back armed with surfboards and boogie boards.  With a little more confidence we got the car over the dune and the adventure began.  Check out the amazing photos.  Again, seeing is believing.

I had told a couple of the girls at home the intention to knock a few items off my bucket list while I’m away.  This week I got to do one of them.  As promised, photos are available.  Yes I faced all my insecurities, stripped off and …….. Swam in a tank full of sharks.  It was amazing.  For all of you who think I’m foolish let me explain my rationale.  You see, I went in with my entire family.  I figured if the sharks were really hungry they’d eat the biggest person, bye bye Chris.  If they were a little peckish then they’d go for the smallest one, see ya later Taj. I figured I was pretty safe!  So straight into the big tank we went.  The big sharks were so relaxed and calm it was just beautiful.  Then I went into the small sting ray tank and had my toes nibbled on causing hysterical laughter and snorting.  Finally I got into the mixed tank with the 300kg sting ray, the Port Jacksons, Reef sharks, Banjo sharks and many many more.  It was amazing.  The sting ray was utterly intimidating, she kept swimming up to Taj and I and pushing on our legs to get us to loose balance.  Later when I got to feed her she pinned Ry, Tamsyn am I to the wall while trying to eat food off our tummies.  It was in this tank that the inevitable happened, a shark bit me on the butt.  Sadly it didn’t take a big enough bite; I’ll need to keep running to stay in my jeans!


Floating smorgesboard





I’m surprised as I write this to think that I got all this and more done in one week.  Funny enough it doesn’t end there.  Today we headed off to the Toboggan Park.  It was a morning of fun and giggles as all of us tried to catch Tamsyn on the toboggans.  She had one mission, get down fast.  Apparently the way to do that is to not use your break at all.  She flew at break-neck speed (seriously has anyone started taking bets on our first hospital visit). Ry, as usual was conservative while Taj tried to roll his by swinging it up to the sides.

Our final adventure at Port Stephens was to take a cruise out on the bay looking for dolphins.  Although the weather has been beautiful this week a strong gusty wind has chopped up the bay in a big way.  Chris rang the tour operator this morning explaining that we have a child who tends to get sea sck, “No worries mate.  It’s very calm in the bay”, was the operators reply.  If that’s his idea of calm it would take a tsunami to get him to rate it as choppy.  We board the boat with 40 Japanese tourists (not really the seafaring type). The tour operator brings on board a yummy box of fresh fish and chips for all the Japanese people (possibly not the best food for a boat trip) and set off in the hope of spotting some bottle nose dolphins.  45 minutes in and there’s 7 people on the floor holding their heads.  Every additional 5 minutes sees another tourist lay down on the floor.  Then the vomiting starts.  They’re vomiting on the carpet, in the toilet, off the side, off the back, it was hilarious.  Looking at my kids I felt a little proud, yeah I have kids with iron guts, kids who can stomach anything.  Then I think, mmmmm, where’s Chris.  Down the stairs he comes with Taj and they make a beeline for the couch, “Arghhh, just move, I’ve gotta lie down”, moaned my hulk tinged husband.  “Me too”, groans Taj.  So that’s the end of my bragging.  At that moment the captain announced that the dolphins were surfacing at the front of the boat.  With that, Tamsyn, Ry and I skip to the front of the boat for an unobscured view of the 7 majestic dolphins.  Taj was then tempted to come and watch, providing an instant cure to his sea sickness.  Chris on the other hand remained on the couch until the boat docked.