Candice & Trevor's Blog: Working, Siteseeing and Beach (July 1-Aug 31)

We started July off with some good ole Poutine and Rye & Ginger on Canada Day. We were surprised by how many Canada Day parties were being held on the Gold Coast; guess there's lots of us here! :) Anyway, after being away for 8 months we savoured every last bite!

A couple of days later we celebrated Trev and Rachael's Birthdays with a delicious Teppanyaki dinner.

The birthday-boy and birthday-girl, Trev and Rach

The chef tossed the guys a raw egg each and a bowl of rice. Not everyone caught the food!

Salt on the grill at the end of dinner

Trev's Bday gift from his cousins! Can you guess what it is?

Mid-July we decided to take another trip out to Cairns (Great Barrier Reef). We decided to take a boat out again so Trevor could do a dive and I could do some snorkeling. It was a little windy but we decided to take the trip out anyhow. With 3ft swell it was a rough trip out to the reef and back and although the reef is protected it was still too rough to enjoy a snorkel. I ended up sitting on the boat for the day while Trevor did a couple dives. He wasn't affected by the poor weather under the water and managed to see a turtle and the large and colorful Wrasse fish. Thanks to my motion sickness tablets I didn't end up feeling queasy until the return trip to Cairns and spent my time whale watching.

We also rented a car and did a day trip up to the holiday town of Port Douglas. It was a beautiful drive along the ocean and next to the sugar cane fields. Unfortunately we got sea water in another "underwater" camera so we don't have many pic's from this little trip.

Trev returning from one of the 3 dives he did when we were out at the reef.

Rex lookout - on our drive from Cairns to Port Douglas

Bird with strange yellow mask-like face

Ship in Cairns river mouth

Early August we finally got together for a visit with Trev's family friends from Canada, Doug and his wife Sheryl, who oddly enough also live in the Q1, just one floor above us. We met in the lobby and had thought we were just meeting for a coffee or drink nearby but Doug and Sheryl surprised us with an awesome BBQ out at 'The Spit' with views of the Broadwater and downtown. As the sun set we were lucky to spot wild dolphins swimming just a few meters away; didn't manage to get any photos of them though.

View from our BBQ spot

Our next stop on a warm August evening was Southbank, Brisbane which had a outdoor market on. The area is also full of trendy restaurants, chocolate cafes, pools and gardens on the river bank.

For some reason I didn't take many photos when we were in Southbank so I borrowed these two from the web. The above photo is a man-made beach and pool on the edge of the river with views of downtown. The below photo is views of downtown from the boardwalk.

Trevor enjoyed an extremely overpriced but tasty Nitrogenie Icecream. They put flavored cream into a mixer, add nitrogen and mix until it is a creamy frozen delicious consistency

Trev's Uncle Gary and Aunt Sarah came from N.Z. came to Aussie to visit and site see.

Gary, Sarah, Trev, me and Dave

Mid-August Trevor and I had a day and a half off together so Trevor surprised me with a trip up to Hervey Bay for a night. We had a nice time exploring the town, beach and giant pier (868 meters long). He also arranged a picnic lunch with the hotel so we had a lovely picnic at the beach.

Old whale harpoon :(

The pier stretches out to nearly the end of the photo in the distance

Photo of pier (from the internet)

We ended August with a family trip to the Warriors (New Zealand) and Titans (Gold Coast, Australia) game. I have never been to any "home" game where half the fans are Kiwi's and all you can hear is boo-ing everytime the home team scores... haha entertaining!