Australia: Coolum Beach, Noosaville, Surfing, Op Shop

January 29 - February 5, 2013  Sunshine Coast in Australia

While we stayed on Coolum Beach, we spent most of our time in Noosaville which was about a 20 minute drive north.  

Our last days in New Zealand we served at an Op Shop connected with Norman & Bo's church.  Grant Turner ran that Op Shop and told us that we should be able to find an Op Shop Australia to serve in as well.  And we did!

The Noosa Community Outreach Church has an Op Shop and we served there 3 days during our time on the Sunshine Coast.  Jane, the director of the Op Shop, put us to work and we had a fantastic time.   The girls did a lot of work inside the shop....

...and I worked outside looking for things to do that I felt otherwise wouldn't get done anytime soon like cleaning up the area to the side of shop

and renting what Aussies call a 'whipper snipper' to knock down high weeds in various parts of the property.  

Meanwhile, the girls became fashion queens setting up displays....

while AJ served as 'quality control' and toy checker...

This particular Op Shop serves the poor in this community.  There is a wonderful coffee shop and food store attached to the gift shop which provide low cost food and drinks to people in the community who are on public assistance.  The girls primarily worked in the gift shop part of the operation....

Jane, the director, and our family....

Noosaville's beaches were open and the surfers enjoyed the rough seas & big waves....

In the parking lot of Noosa National Park (where the surfers above parked), we saw this koala bear climb down a tree, walk around the parking lot (with us following) and then climb up another tree.  To be close enough to a wild koala bear to actually 'pet' the thing was pretty amazing!

Goofing off at the little putt putt golf course at the apartment where we stayed...

Next door to our apartment was the Coolum Beach library.  So, we took advantage and the girls did their home school assignments researching things about the Great Barrier Reef (which we visited a few days later)

A few favorite pictures from the week...

Our physical activity for the week was surfing!   As a family, we took 4 lessons + rented boards one day on our own and we actually learned how to surf.  The girls were all 'naturals' and even AJ got up on a board once

Jamo Porter was our surf instructor, and he did a great job.

Jamo's friend, Harriett, hung out with AJ while we surfed.

But AJ had his surfing moment as well.... (direct link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-75xRm7KxI8 )



Pictures from our day of surfing on our own.  Unfortunately, the ocean was pretty rough on that day so I wouldn't say we were as successful as we would have liked.

Our final day on the Sunshine Coast we took jet skis out on the ocean.  So. Much. Fun!   We were able to jump huge waves and get these machines fully airborne.  It was AWESOME!

Another favorite of mine....V and I after finishing our jet ski ride.  She looks radiant after being fully terrified by our ride ;)

The next day we drove 4 1/2 hours north (actually a little longer because there were still closed roads from the previous week's flooding).  This trip north was for one reason....we wanted to explore the Great Barrier Reef, and one of the southernmost coral islands of the reef, Lady Musgrave Island, was in that area.  That day and our return to Sydney will be the topic of the next post....

http://tsfga.blogspot.com/2013/08/australia-great-barrier-reef-sydney.html

Til then,

God Bless