ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS A REAL GOOD TAN

Georgie and Ben entertaining us on Christmas Eve, singing Jingle Bells

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE CORAL TREKKER!

Dinnertime on Christmas Eve

Teresa and Mark

Audrey and Mark

Wes and Kasey overlooking Whitehaven Beach

We couldn't get over all the shades of blue in the water!

Yennick and Julie

Yennick, Pierre and Ben

"Stinger suits" were required any time we went into the water, due

to the chance encounter with a deadly jellyfish

Overlooking Whitehaven Beach

"ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS A REAL GOOD TAN"! Have you heard that song by Kenny Chesney? It was our theme song for this trip! Wednesday December 24, Christmas Eve found us at Whitehaven Beach and also Mantaray Bay on Hook Island. The sand was white and soft, and believe it or not, cool to the touch! The water was warm, with so many shades of blue-just like a postcard. We kept pinching ourselves and couldn't believe we were snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef! The snorkeling was unbelievable-there are over 1500 different kinds of tropical fish in the waters here, and we saw so many colorful fish including rainbow fish and clown fish, green sea turtles, even a huge maori wrasse! I personally found the different kinds of coral to be as beautiful as the fish. Christmas Eve was fun - we all wore Santa hats and listened to Christmas music, and were entertained by Georgie and Ben waiting for "Father Christmas".

THE CORAL TREKKER

On Tuesday December 23 we boarded the Coral Trekker for a three night sailing trip thru the islands of the Great Barrier Reef. The Coral Trekker is what they call an Australian "Tallship", which I fondly referred to as the pirate ship. :) The Coral Trekker is an old wooden sailboat with eight sails and holds up to eighteen passengers. It was a bit on the primitive side - no air conditioning or hot showers - but that is exactly what gave this part of our trip a more adventurous touch! Shelby said it felt like "camping on a boat". He and the kids chose to sleep up on deck each night, while I preferred to sweat down below. We've never seen so many stars in the sky as we did those three nights! The weather was perfect, both night and day. We were allowed to help raise the sails if we wanted to, or we could just sit back and watch. There were 14 passengers and 4 crew: Julie and Yennick from France were on their honeymoon, Teresa and Mark from Ireland, Audrey and Mark from England, Amanda and Paul with their two children,Georgie(7) and Ben(5) from England, our skipper Ian from Australia, cook Tanya from New Zealand, crewmember Houka from Germany and crewmember Pierre from Belgium. What a wonderful group of people to spend the Christmas holiday with! We truly enjoyed getting to know one another, and Wesley and Kasey especially liked the late night UNO games with Pierre, Houka, Yennick and Julie. Wesley was doing his best to learn conversational French in three days! The plan was to sail in and around the islands of the Great Barrier Reef, most of which are uninhabited. The first day we stopped at Hook Island and went on a cave walk (see above group pic).

AIRLIE BEACH

On Monday December 22 we flew from Brisbane to Proserpine in the Whitsunday Islands.

We stayed the night at the Whitsunday Moorings Bed and Breakfast in Airlie Beach, overlooking the Airlie Beach marina where we would board our sailboat the next day. Airlie Beach is just that - a beach town full of tourist shops and surfer dudes everywhere, all wearing Santa hats! We had a gorgeous view of the marina down below, and awakened to the sound of dozens of lorakeets feeding just outside our window.

G'DAY MATE!

We found this HUGE beautiful Christmas tree along one of the outdoor shopping centers in Brisbane. Christmas music was playing, and I swear I even had chill bumps for the first time in six months!

Is this tree big or what?

Wesley is sending a last-minute Christmas letter to Santa Claus!

Looks like this little guy scared someone right off the bench!

Merry Christmas from Brisbane!

Kasey and I were overjoyed to find a Target store in Brisbane. It wasn't exactly the same Target as in the U.S., but we loved it just the same! We definitely got in a lot of shopping at the local mall. There was even a Krispy Kreme doughnut store in the mall, which made Wesley very very happy!

This is a pretty good-sized lizard, huh?


First stop on our Australian adventure was Brisbane. We absolutely loved it and wish we had more time here. The dry weather was a welcome change from humid Singapore. We loved the food (Australian beef was great), the friendly people, and the Australian accent! Within 24 hours we were all begging Shelby to move us to Australia. So pretty! So much to do and see! Wesley picked up the Aussie accent pretty quickly and was soon driving us crazy with "G'day mate" and "no worries" and Shelby saying "crikey!" all the time; haha!

KOALAS AND KANGAROOS AND LORAKEETS, OH MY!!!

On Saturday December 20th we headed down under and flew to Brisbane Australia. First stop was the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. I couldn't wait to get my hands on a koala bear! They also had kangaroos that we could feed, and the most beautiful tropical birds I've ever seen - the lorakeets. I must have taken a hundred pictures of the birds and the koalas and roos. They were so darn cute!

Can you believe the colors on these birds?

Ok I got a little carried away with the koala pictures.

Koala bears sleep around 20 hours a day!!! They look so cute when they are sleeping, and it amazes me they can sleep in the most uncomfortable looking positions in the trees!

Nighty-night!

What are you staring at?

This little guy kept posing for the cameras.....

Sweet dreams!!!

Koala bears don't drink very much water, because they get plenty of water from all the eucalyptus leaves they eat each day.

The kangaroos were fun to feed, although they were very lazy!

Here we see Kasey with her new friend. Notice the straight hair! (Kasey's, not the kangaroos!) We LOVED the dry air in Australia and every day was a good hair day! :)

We never saw any babies in the pouches

This kangaroo reminded us of Sugar-very laid back

When Wesley quit chasing the wallaby it decided to make friends

Believe it or not, the koala did not want to go to Kasey or to me either. They had to call in a replacement! ha!

This koala bear was digging his claws into my shoulder and making me nervous!

Wesley is all smiles in this photo - that is, until the koala pooped on him!