EXPLORING THE NEW AND THE OLD

We had another relaxing day yesterday.  The weather is perfect.... now a fisherman wouldn't say that because it is quite windy but that is what makes for nice cool weather.  In fact we haven't even had to use our air conditioner yet.
We started the day with a nice cooked breakfast....

Steve's speciality

Mostly we spend the mornings around the van relaxing.  Steve still has a bit of school work to do... assessment tasks for next year,  some PD,  some DoL to finalize from this past year.  All tedious tasks but not so bad when you are doing them in such a relaxed surroundings.  He is  biting away at them without the stress and pressure.
Meanwhile I used the time yesterday morning to get all my Christmas cards written and addressed and even managed to get them posted when we went for our afternoon drive. 

Christmas cards all done and sent

We spend the afternoons exploring and going for drives.  Yesterday we decided to check out the Botanical Gardens in Bundaberg.  These gardens were established when my Dad was Mayor here.  The main drive around the gardens was actually named after my Dad so I really wanted to go visit and have a good look at them. 

Drive named after my Dad...

The other sign at the Botanical Gardens....

The gardens have come a long way since my Dad established them and are a credit to the City of Bundaberg.  There is so much to do and see there,  Beautiful walks, three museums and on weekends, even a steam train runs around the gardens giving people rides.

We parked up near Fairymead House - this is an old homestead that has been relocated to the Gardens and restored to it's former glory..  This original homestead was part of the Fairymead Sugar plantation and mill and wasn't far from where we lived... It is a magnificent homestead and was actually lived in by a good friend of ours grandparents...  Nice knowing a little of the history,  Now it is a function centre, and a museum on the beginnings of the sugar industry in Bundaberg....

Fairymead House

It is now set in beautifully manicured lawns and looks just amazing.  It is surrounded by verandahs.  A very typical queenslander on stilts.  The home is huge.... the verandahs are huge.  All I can say is that I am thankful I don't live in a place as large as this.  I would hate to have to do all the housework. 

More views of Fariymeand house... Amazing roof structures above and entrance...

Some of the beautiful flowers in the gardens

The grounds were immaculate and Steve couldn't resist a lay down.

From here we went on a walk through the Japanese Gardens....

Japanese Gardens

More of the Japanese Gardens.

Then we walked through the Wallum Scrub area.  This Wallum Scrub is unique to this area.   We didn't realize when we initially started walking through this area but it is also the breeding grounds here for the Cattle Egret a form of Ibis bird...... The trees were full of young birds...

Cattle Egrets

We then came across this lovely area.  It kind of looks like more Japanese Gardens but I doubt that they were because they were in a totally different section to the gardens from the last lot we walked through.  Maybe these are Chinese ones.  Not sure as we didn't see a sign but they were certainly lovely too. 

Beautiful setting

Not sure if these are Japanese or Chinese Gardens, but we enjoyed the walk. 

The Gardens are full of lakes and water ways... and we sat for ages watching this fountain in one of the lakes.  The wind would catch the jet of water and we watched as it made the most beautiful of rainbows. 

Rainbows on the lake. 

Beautiful area and walks around the lake

One of the areas I was particularly interested in was the home of Bert Hinkler.  A couple of dad's council men ( One was a builder) went to England to dismantle the home of Burt Hinkler  to bring back to Bundaberg and erect it in the Gardens.  This was a painstaking job as each piece of the building had to be labeled and marked so that they could reconstruct it back home.  It is now set in beautiful gardens,   

Bert Hinkler's Home brought from Southampton In England.

Bert Hinkler's English Home...

Named Mon Repos

Even the name of his home had significance.  Mon Repos is a beach just out of Bundaberg.  Today it is famous because of the turtles that breed there, and their is a research station also situated there now where they monitor the turtles.  It is another on our list of places we want to visit whilst at home. 

Unfortunately by now it was 4pm so we didn't have time to actually go into the Bert Hinkler Aviation Hall of Fame.  We are definately thinking we need to come back and go through there also. 

Hinkler Hall of Aviation.

We left the gardens closer to 5pm and decided to go for a drive to Moore Park.  This is a beach we often went to in our teen age years but it would have to be 30 odd years since we have been down there. 
Nothing much has changed here......

Lovely long stretches of beach...

This kind of surprised us a little as this is probably one of the better beaches around Bundaberg in that there are no basalt rocks lining the coastline.  Long stretches of sandy beaches.    We noticed also that there is a section of beach designated to 4WDs.

It was a lovely afternoon...  we also dropped in to say hi to some good friends that we haven't seen for a couple of years and we have organised a breakfast date for the weekend...

We headed back to the beach where we went for a nice long stroll along the board walk at Bargara.  One thing about the beach down here is that there are many lovely walks along the beach front.  

Arrived home just on dusk,  enjoyed a nice glass or wine, with some cheese and fig paste before cooking dinner.  This is what we have missed this year... Our little adventures away in the van... There is something nice about staying in Van parks too.  You meet the loveliest of people and everyone is in that relaxation mode...
We are planning a quite day tomorrow... need to do some maintenance on the van...