A FEW DAYS AT HERVEY BAY

It has been a pretty hectic holiday.  Left straight from work at the start of the holidays to head to Toowoomba for my niece's wedding.  It was a love,y time catching up with family and friends and then we headed into Brisbane to help Sarah and Colin out with Willow.  The poor little chicken was sick and couldn't go to daycare.  Not that we needed much convincing to help out.  Both Steve and I caught their flu, which meant we had to spend a few extra days in Brisbane and we missed my very good friend Eleonore's 60th Birthday.  I was so disappointed as I was really looking forward being there for her party. 

We ended up having a little time in Bundy to check on Steve's Dad as he has not been well at all, and also to give Steve a bit of an extra break so that we could recover.  We left Sunday morning to head home.  By Sunday night I had no voice and was generally feeling very lethargic and unmotivated.
all we had time to do was unpack from our weekend in Brisbane and pack the van to head away again.  We had planned  in having a few days back in Rocky but that didn't happen.

Steve's dad has been re admitted to hospital again yesterday so we have spent a bit of extra time in Bundy so Steve could check on his Mum and see his Dad.

Back in Bundy again on our way south

We obviously weren't fully with it when we were packing, as we arrived in Bundaberg to find that we had left the Caravan keys at home and there was no way we could lock our van.  Neither of us could believe that we had done that.  In has meant that we have spent the here in Bundaberg this morning running around to caravan dealers looking for a new lock and keys for our caravan and boot.   $100 later we are now able to lock the van and boot again.
So we had to stay a little longer and do some repairs...

Putting in a new lock on the caravan door...

 It was good spending a little time with STeve's Mum... It has been a very stressful year for her also, as she also hasn't been well and had to have open heart surgery...back at the same time as Steve's dad.  She is also trying to recover and also look after her husband, and it has been hard for her to see him steadily going downhill week after week.
You can see she hasn't been well, as normally her garden is full of blooms.  They haven't been able to do any really gardening this year... In fact all that has been done has been done by the boys... Neverless I still love to wonder around her garden and enjoy what blooms were out...

This bush was flowering profusely, and it has shades of purple, mauve and white flowers all over it...

Only a few of these lillies are out this year...

 Normally Mum's whole front garden are full of these flowers in many different colours... I think she is really missing her garden...

Love that these were out in full bloom.

 We have these at home too courtesy of Steve's Mum and ours are also flowering profusely at the moment.  I would love to get some more different colours in them....

These little folk were hiding in the garden...

I found these little fellows hiding in the garden.... right near where we parked our van....
I had a wander down around the vegetable garden whilst I was there.  Mum has bushes and bushes of ripe cherry tomatoes.  We love them, especially home grown ones as they have so much more flavour.  I ended up picking a bucket for her, as the bending down really gets to her....
We ended up bringing a heap away with us also.  I can see we will be having them in our salads, stewed for breakfast and just as snacks...

some of the produce i  picked this morning...

Steve and his Mum spent a couple of hours up at the hospital.  His Dad is not good and there is talk that they will be flying him to Brisbane for more surgery...
In light of this, we decided to only go as far as Hervey Bay, so that we were still close to Bundy in case we were needed later in the week.    We didn't end up leaving Bundy until nearly 4pm in the afternoon and arrived down in Hervey Bay a little after 5pm.

It was quite cool when we got here and had to set up camp... Still we both have our set jobs to do, and it didn't take us long to get the outside set up...

Our set up for the rest of the week...

Back view from our Ensuite..

We are really spoilt this holiday and have got a site with our own ensuite... It is very rare that we do this, but it was only a few dollars extra a day, and we are members of Top Tourist, so with our discount it wasn't any extra at all... Loving that we just walk out the back of the van and this is all ours..

Our Ensuite...

The nice part about it is that you can leave all your toiletries and towels set up there.  We have even put our dirty clothes basket in there and it leaves a lot more room in the van...

Toilet area,  All our stuff is just left in there...Nice....

We have done this a few times before, but these ensuites are really lovely.  Well kept and very clean...

Ensuite building directly behind our van...

We are staying at the Happy Wanderer Caravan Park at Torquay.  It is a lovely park... A Top Tourist Park which is one of the reasons we picked here.  It meant that we get a decent discount when staying...
The park is clean, green, and very tidy.  The office staff were very helpful so this has made this experience pleasant for us. 

Happy Wanderer Village Caravan Park...

 They have lots of amenities for folk to enjoy including a pool

Pool area.

 Haven't tested out the waters yet.... bit cool today...

A bit of a camp kitchen. 

 This outdoor eating area is one of the areas that you can use in the park.. This is very close to our van, and there is a lovely lagoon situated behind it...

Photos of the Lagoon. 

The park is well laid out and nice and green with lovely gardens....

We are situated down the end of the park.... nice and quiet....

Some of the flowering gardens around our van..

Not sure what they are but they had beautiful dragonflies in them this morning...

Very pretty - hard to take a photo though as they were swaying in the breeze. 

 It is nice to stop for a few days.... We had our first real sleep in of the holidays this morning and on Day 2 we have just spent the morning chilling out in the van... Reading magazines, watching a bit of tele... facebook and pinterest.... Nice to have time to do some of these things without having to think about the other things we should be doing... We are just about to have some lunch now and head off on a little exploring around the Bay...