Last Blog, time to go home

I have been in trouble with Glen because I have not "blogged" in awhile, so here I am, finally, getting caught up.  From the Gold Coast we travelled north thru Brisbane, just stopped for the day and walked along the river walk, to the Sunshine Coast.  This is our favorite area in Australia...the beaches are great and it is quieter than than the Gold Coast.  We stayed in Mooloolaba for 2 weeks, first in a condo on the river and then in a condo across from the ocean.  The first week we were here, this area experienced the worst rain storm they have ever experienced with massive flooding.  I have never seen it rain like that.  The road in front of our condo was completely underwater and we had to move our car out from the underground parking.  The water receeded as fast it came and in a couple of days you would not know that it had happened.  We visited the Australian Zoo, Steve Irwin's legacy, hence the pictures above of me petting the koala & kangaroo.  Spent our time doing long walks, time at the beach or pool and just generally being lazy.  From here we travelled north through Noosa Head, which is a very quaint community, toured Fraser Island and Rainbow Beach.  Spent time in Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands, which are absolutely gorgeous.  Took a rafting tour out to Whitehaven Beach and then did some snorkelling.  Blue, blue waters and white sandy beaches.  Loved it.  Then we travelled north to Cairns where we spent 4 nights.  We did a snorkelling tour on the Great Barrier Reef, which was awesome.  A 6 ft white tipped reef shark swam right below me as I was snorkelling, that was a bit creepy.  Saw stingrays, sea turtles, nemo fish and beautiful coral.  We also took the skyrail up to the little town of Kurunda and then took a heritage train ride back into Cairns.  It was very nice.  In Cairns we met lots of other Canadians travelling, which we have not encountered anywhere else in OZ.  One of the downsides of the Cairns area and north is that you can't swim in the ocean because of crocodiles and stingers.  From Cairns we travelled north through Palm Cove which is a gorgeous little ocean town just north of Cairns.  We headed to Port Douglas where we stayed for 4 nights in the Rydges resort which was awesome.  However, we were thinking of extending our stay there to up to a week, but on the 4th day it started to rain and the forecast was it was going to continue for awhile.  So we packed up and headed back to the Sunshine Coast, where we are presently.  We are here till Saturday, then we will head to Port Macquarie and stay over night in our favorite B & B there and then head to Sydney on Sunday, to fly back to Phoenix on Monday.  Can not believe we are in our last week, it has gone by so fast.  Have really enjoyed the trip and would definitely consider coming back again.  Only downside is it is along way from home and the family.