EMU PARK'S FESTIVAL OF THE WIND...

 It's great that the "Festival of the Wind" is a goer this year after being cancelled last year because of Covid.

Steve still wasn't feeling a hundred precent, so we decided that a little more sea air might be good for us all and decided that we would take the children down to Emu Park for the "Festival of the Wind"to see all the amazing kites.

The Festival of the Wind is ont of the original and most popular family kite festivals in Australia and is usually held around Easter when the winds are favourable and the large ties with the full moon lay bare large stretches of sand.  This makes more exposed sandy expanses for both kite flying and beach activities.

The festival began in 1999 and now attracts internationally recognized kite designers from Tasmania, New South Wales and Canberra.  These experienced kite flyers are also supported by enthusiastic members of Kites Qld from the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Hervey Bay and Gladstone.

Usually many hundreds of kites are launched from Fisherman’s Beach, and they fill the sky  and provide quite a thrilling spectacle. 

Parents, grandparents and thousands of others each year are transported back to memories of childhood, flying kites when technology was simpler.

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We left home just after 9am and took our time driving down, singing and play games.  Max initially wasn't that keen on going down for it but that is only because he had no real ideas of what kites were.  

There were heaps of people down there and getting a park was a little difficult initially.  In the end we managed to get a car park in from of the local IGA and then headed off to walk down to Bell Park where the bulk of the activities were happening...

Unfortunately there weren't too many kites up flying when we got there.  Unbelievably there was very little wind, so definitely not good flying conditions...

After wandering around the headlands, we headed down to the beach to see if there was any action there.  Not a lot was happening because there was very little wind.  At this stage there were none of the larger kites up in the air, so we decided to wander back towards the markets..

Willow loved this Unicorn Kite..

As we headed back towards the markets we noticed that a lot of kids were flying kites that they had made, so we went looking for the areas where they were making the kites.  It was pretty reasonable, for $5 we were able to buy a kite and then decorate it.  We were given crayons so the children could colour in their kites.  They were pretty excited and spent a god 40 minutes decorating their kites...

After making their kites, we headed down onto the beach to try and fly them...

It was also around this time that some of the bigger kites were being lifted into the air....  The wind was finally starting to come up although it still wasn't really that strong...

Not only were they flying kites on the beach but they also had some beach games and competitions happening.  The first we came across was tug of war competitions.  They also had sand castle competitions and beach art...  There were lots of folk down on the beach,,, This festival has become very popular..

We had trouble flying them.  Steve had to modify them quite a bit eg, tie their tails together to get them to stay up in the air, but in the end they were up in the air and the children loved it. 

Finally the big kites were starting to rise up up into the sky.  Some of them were massive, but such a great sight for the children, as this is not something you would see on the beach on any given day..

There were sand castle and sand sculpture competitions going on..

It was almost lunch time by the time we finished flying the kite and Max was getting pretty hungry and wanting to g to the toilet.  He and I decided to walk back towards the car  which was parked just outside of Drakes in Emu Park

He was getting quite whingy by the time Steve and Willow arrived back so we headed into Drakes to grab some lunch and a drink for the children and then headed around to the playground near the SLSC on the beach at Emu Park for a picnic lunch.  

Once we had food in our tummies and had a toilet break, the kids were happy to play in the park for a while.

Before heading home, we decided to take the children back to Yeppoon for a swim in the Yeppoon Lagoon.  The day was pretty warm and the children were pretty keen for that swim.

 

We were enjoying our swim when suddenly there was a large clap of thunder.  Storm clouds had been brewing on the horizon from the time we got into the pool.  Next minute we were advised that there had been a lightening strike lest than 8kms away so we were all ordered out of the pool.  This was a little disappointing for the kids as they were really enjoying their swim.

Appartently not only did we have to hop out of the pool but we also had to shelter under cover which made it a little more difficult and we had to be out of the water for 20 minutes before we could hop back in again, that was provided there were no more lightening strikes, if there was another one, than that 20 minute time would start from scratch again.  In light of this and the fact that the clouds were getting blacker, we decided that it was probably time to head for home. 

We headed to the change rooms to get changed and by the time we got out the sky seemed to have cleared.  We probably could have got back into the pool again, but by now we were ready to head for home...

It has been a full day out for us, we arrived home after 5pm, so it was time to get the kids bathed and fed and I didn't really want a late night for them.  We had more fun planned for the following day..