Happy Birthday!

I had a wonderful birthday and was incredibly spoilt, with the highlight being a surprise trip in a helicopter around Caloundra and up the coast to Mooloolaba.

It was a huge surprise and truly fabulous - Rob and I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to all!

A friend of the pilot's came along - she's a professional photographer soooooo........

consequently between her and Rob a million photo's were taken.

They're all really good and show off our little Caloundra just perfectly.

The above is the entrance to the Pumicestone passage. It's Caloundra on the left hand side (Bulcock beach) and Bribie Island on the right. That is where we go canoeing - up and down the passage, with a rest stop and swim off Bribie. It's really beautiful.

More of the passage and Bribie - at the bottom of the photo is pretty much where Rob and I "launch" the canoe's and where we paddle past a fair few stingrays (yikes).

Looking all the way down south which is Bribie's coastline and of course the passage which meanders for about 60km's to Bribie coastal village.

How is that for clear water! This is part of Bulcock beach, behind the beach is a lovely family park called Happy Valley. It's such a great spot for families to gather, play a bit of cricket with plenty of little BBQ spots. Over the years we have had many gatherings in that park. In the alter afternoon just as the sun goes down all the lorrikeets gather in the Norfolk Pines. The noise of the parrots all twittering is quite deafening! It's such fun and of course not a bad spot to have a few beers watching the sun go down over the Glass House Mountains. Of course there are also a few little restaurants and one or two coffee shops to sit and relax in too!

The above is Shelley Beach (not much of a beach- wonderful little rock pools to explore) but that is the street that we 'live' in! just 500m down that street, on the left hand side is our block of units.

There is a pathway all along the beachfront which is to the left. It goes all the way around to where the 'clear water' is and of course passes Kings beach along the way(which is also only 500m from the unit). It's not an unpleasant walk at all!! In fact it's really lovely to head off for that walk early in the morning and stop off at Kings beach for a swim with the local swim team. They call themselves the "stunned mullets". A whole heap of retired men (only seen 1 woman), they all wear these little blue speedo's with the stunned mullet logo written on the back! But you have to get up really early to swim with them. They're usually in the water between 6 and 6:30am! They're all quite serious body surfers! But the fabulous thing about them is that their claim to fame is that they swim every morning no matter what - all year round, rain or shine, summer or winter! I often think that Bryan would've loved it! Heading out into the surf with his flippers at age 70ish!!!!

This is Moffat Beach, the next beach down from Shelley. The pathway also travels north all the way to this beach. It's a slightly more strenous walk - a little hill to go over! But this is the spot where Cait had her 21st. You can see it's a gentle sort of lagoon place to swim but where the waves break on the left is one of the more popular spots for the surfers.

You can also see (if you really concentrate alot) the tips of the glass house mountains in the background.

This is Currumndi Lake, which is another 500 metres north of Moffat beach. It's a lovely spot to wallow in the water or canoe, also great for young families. The surf beach is also a popular surfing spot.

Ok this is all the way north to Point Cartwright and around the corner to the left is Mooloolaba!