Where have I been?

June 9, 2009 at 5:45 pm | In Family, Holiday, Weather | Leave a Comment
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Back in March, I wrote this post, all about my birthday and how I was going to celebrate it. Then I went and celebrated, came home, C7 got sick (and while getting better, is still not fully recovered – but he is back at school) and life just kept happening. So where did I go to celebrate turning 40-ish? I whisked the kidlets and ACW off to the Gold Coast in Queensland.

We flew out of Adelaide on what was a chilly and damp Wednesday morning. We arrived at the airport just in time to find a spot in the long term carpark, check in and grab some breaky to nom on the plane. God bless Virgin Blue for having internet check in. Not only did it speed things up, but we got a whole row of 6 seats for the 4 of us! Yay!!

After arriving at Coolangatta, we caught the shuttle to our resort – and our apartment wasn’t ready. We checked our baggage and went for a walk to discover the local eateries. There were quite a few within spitting distance so we had lunch then found a really nice bakery where we were able to order our lunch for the next day. In fact, they were so good, they made our lunch nearly every day!

Once we had settled in and unpacked, we spent some time exploring the resort and then we decided to go find a few geocaches that were just up the road at Nobbys beach. We rolled up our jeans and walked the 4 kms along the beach at sunset. Having the sun set over the land and not the water was mildly disorientating for this west coast girl, but it was a really pleasant evening – and I didn’t mind the walk one bit.

We made it back in time to have wood fired pizza for tea at the resort. I had no idea that Queenslanders put the sun to bed so early! It was probably only 7pm, but it was dark! An early night was in store for us, which was just as well, because the next morning I found out why all those banana benders go to bed so early….. 

My World – Fishing

March 16, 2009 at 4:59 pm | In Holiday, My World Tuesday, Weather | 11 Comments
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A visit to Port Lincoln isn’t complete without a walk down the main wharf. It is situated in Boston Bay which is more than 3 times the size of Sydney Harbour. Don’t mistake this wharf for the nearby jetties. This is a serious working wharf. A majority of Eyre Peninsula’s grain is exported from this facility, as well as it being home to Australia’s largest fishing fleet.  Colin Thiele wrote the novel “Bluefin” about the Port Lincoln tuna industry, but the subsequent movie was filmed in Streaky Bay.

I love looking at the fishing boats along the wharf. Sitting all day on the jetty just to get a feed of fish, I find it hard to imagine the giant catches that these boats manage. But catch fish they do, and the fish finds it’s way to markets all over the world.

The Kiana has berthed at Port Lincoln for as long as I can remember. The Silver Phoenix was new to my eyes, and I don’t think that Port Lincoln is its “home” port. Both of these boats are ocean going, typically catching herring, mackerel and sardines.

The Lukina and the Lukina2 are owned by Dinko Lukin, one of the pioneers of tuna fishing in the region. His son Dean rose to fame following the 1984 Olympic where he became the only Australian to win a weightlifting gold medal  in the Super Heavyweight division. The Lukin family now farm tuna in huge pens out at sea almost exclusively for the Japanese market. These boats are prawn trawlers. (and a tugboat for good measure). Love or hate the Lukins, they have survived and prospered where many have failed and have brought a great deal of prosperity to the region.

The weather has been exceptionally pleasant this week. I’m pretty sure that the long hot days of summer are over and the cooler milder autumn weather is here with us for a while. Rainfall has been patchy. Some farmers are reporting a variation of up to an inch from one end of their property to the other. Our farm (less than 100km away as the crow flies) received about 2 inches of rain last week, but we haven’t had any to speak of. A friend (about 40km away) has had 4 inches. Very patchy.

The February weather windup looks like this: In the month of February we had 2/100ths 0f an inch of rain. Our hottest day was 44.5C (112F) and our coldest day was 22C (72F). The average maximum temp was 32.5C (90F)

2009_03_16

 Monday 16th March. Max Temp: 23C, Min Temp: 12C,
Rainfall: 0mm, Days since rain: 13

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