We're back!
We had a great time, and I think this will be one big blog post. I was going to post last night, but it took me all night just to go through all the pictures. There is a little stash enhancement involved, but it's mostly beaches and touristy type stuff, despite the fact that we were visiting David's hometown. (It's still touristy for Em and I!)

Day 1. Did you all know that they do a 4.30 in the morning now?!? It was a rude awakening, let me tell you, and not a good start for the trip, considering that I am not at my best on a normal morning, let alone at hours I've only seen from the other side.
All packed and ready to go we got to Sydney airport.

That's a pic for the Lost fans. Although that's the domestic terminal, not the International one.
We flew Jetstar, and it's definitely a budget option. You have to walk out on the tarmac to board the plane.

And they're not big on leg room.

I've eaten sardines that weren't packed in as tightly.
I didn't take a Saturday sky pic this time around, so here's a Friday sky.

We got to Hervey Bay, and I wanted to make sure that we did the important things first, so we headed to Wagtail Yarns immediately.
We were greeted by the stars of the show.

Got mohair?

300 mohair goats in this field. The baby goats are pastured near the house.

Emily made new friends. They were very friendly little things, but then again, they thought we had food.

They had very cute little tails to go with their gorgeous curls, but this picture doesn't show the wagging that was going on.

They were dyeing in the huge outdoor vat, but I have no idea what colour.

But there was blue yarn drying on the line.

Their yarn is gorgeous. There is a choice of 100% mohair, 80% mohair/20% merino and 60% mohair/40% merino, in a variety of weights. Despite planning ahead to go there, I still had no idea what to buy once I was gazing at and stroking all that gorgeous yarn.
But I managed.

The dark purple is sportweight (5ply) 80% mohir/20% merino, everything else is fingering (4ply) pure mohair. She had a tiny hank of pink laceweight pure mohair, but I resisted that, becuase it wasn't really enough to do anything with. She mentioned that she'd had 6 cones of laceweight, but they'd been sold. Lucky, or I may have had to grab them all.

There was a farewell commitee at the gate.

That was the first morning of the trip. Nice way to start, huh?
We then headed into Bundaberg. We saw some sugar cane.

Em, as usual, jumped into the pool as soon as she could. The family dog helped.

We did some sightseeing. There was baby sugar cane.

We went to the Bundaberg Rum Distillery, where the sugar cane byproducts are processed into Rum.

I had plans to kidnap the Bundy Rum Bear, but they were thwarted by a locked cabinet.

Someone must've warned them I was coming.
Right next door is the Sugar Processing plant. Are you getting the picture yet that Bundaberg is a sugar town?

On New Year's Eve, we headed to Mon Repos beach.

We'd hoped to book in for the turtle watching, but more on that later.
New Years Day was spent here.

Not a bad start to the year. Although, as a result of all this beachgoing, there has been sunburn.

Unfortunately, it got worse. By Tuesday evening, I was glowing.
Tuesday we went to another beach.

Em learned to boogie board.

I love that pic!
Tuesday night was the highlight of the trip. We headed back to Mon Repos for turtle watching.
Every year, marine turtles return to Mon Repos to lay their eggs. It's primarily Loggerhead turtles. The Queensland Government has turned it in a conservation park, and you can only get to the beach at night by booking in and going out with a tour guide.
The turtles come ashore at night, dig a hole and lay their eggs, then depart, never to lay eyes on their babies.
We were lucky, we only had a short wait before we were taken down to the beach to see it all happen.

The turtle we saw was a first time mother. It was just amazing to watch her dig a hole, lay her eggs, cover the hole, and then head back out to sea, all by instinct.
The tour guides are very protective of the turtles, and you are very restricted in when you may take pictures and where you may go on the beach. I loved every minute of it, exept for the rude people who refused to listen to the tour guides, and pushed in front of everyone and tried to hog thewhole thing for themselves, but there's always some of those about.
Absolutely the highlight of the trip, closely followed by Wagtail yarns.

There was a little knitting done.
I started the plain cardigan from Jo Sharp Knit 2 the night before we left, and worked on it in bits and pieces. Here's a picture I took while waiting for the turtles.

I had also taken along a lace scarf kit, sent to me by Tammy with all good intentions, but lace knitting and holidays don't really work together, I discovered. I just didn't get time to sit down and read the chart - easy knitting is much more convenient for holidays.
I have started a sock on my gorgeous new needles and got a little bit done on that, but failed miserably to take a picture. At least I'll have blog fodder for next time!