Hi Everyone
We thought we’d do a blog entry in recognition that tomorrow (7 March 2011) it will be a year since our big trip came to an end. The time has gone so fast and has been quite eventful.
As some of you know we had some trouble settling in Canberra and decided to make a seachange. It didn’t take us long to start yearning for somewhere closer to the sea, warmer weather and to be away from the rat race (not that Canberra is really a rat race compared to other big cities). We had always planned to move to Queensland at some stage to be closer to Michael’s family as he had joined the Navy at 17 and moved away. We quite fancied Hervey Bay because of its location and size as well as the fact that you can buy a property close to the beach for much less than the average price of a house in Canberra.
By May we were making it happen. We had a weekend in Hervey Bay to look around and by Sunday night we had decided where we wanted to live and had an offer on our house. We were very lucky that the house sold to a neighbour’s sister without putting it on the market. Michael arrived here in August and I got here in September after completing some work commitments and visiting Laura in Cairns for the birth of her second baby – a little girl called Leila. Here is Laura with Leila less than a day old and Leila last December.
I’ve had a few trips to Cairns over the last 12 months. One was for Ebby’s first birthday when I made him a Wiggles Big Red Car cake as he is mad about the Wiggles.
We have bought a house in a seaside village called Toogoom (said ‘tg um’) which is 15 mins out of Hervey Bay. Here’s our new house. We didn’t like the anchor at first as its pretty tacky but we have got used to it now (and I have given up asking Michael to take it down).
We are 600m from the beach which we walk on almost every day. Its like being on holidays everyday. Here’s a photo of the beach.
This is the pier. There’s a pub on one side of the pier and boat ramp on the other side.
The fishing is pretty good. We have caught quite few fish. Michael also has his much wanted boat now. Its a 4.55m Quintrex Escape. Here is the boat anchored on the beach at Moon Point on Fraser Island.
While we’ve had some lovely trips on the boat we have had far more success fishing off the beach where we catch flathead and whiting. Here’s the 51cm flathead Michael caught this morning. Its a bit bigger than the one he caught yesterday.
Michael is enjoying life not working but has recently started looking for work. There’s not much going here so it may take him a while to find something. I have been very fortunate to have kept my job with the same consulting firm in Canberra. I do a mix of work from home, interstate and back in Canberra. I go to Canberra about once a month for about a week which is terrific as I get to catch up with famil ywhile I am there, including my daughter Sarah who recently got her Grad Dip in Midwifery and is loving being a midwife. I have just signed up as a volunteer at the Hervey Bay Regional Gallery to do a couple of hours a fortnight on the reception desk.
We frequently reminisce about our trip and we both agree that we would head off at the drop of a hat if we could. The poor old camper hasn’t been used at all since we got home. We have plans to do some short trips within only a few hours from here once the summer heat and rain has left us. We are not far from places like Agnes Waters and 1770 (to the north) and Rainbow Beach and Tin Can Bay (to the south) and of course its just a ferry ride to Fraser Island.
We love having visitors and showing them around the area which we already feel is our home. Michael’s parents and sister, both of my girls and my mum and step-dad have all been to stay. Mum and Tom will be moving here shortly as they have just sold their house in Canberra.
Anyway as you can probably gather we are very grateful that we had the chance to have our big trip and that it led us to the wonderful place that we live now.
Take care everyone. I’m sure this will be our last blog until we head off on our next big adventure which is not likely to be for quite a few years.
Karen and Michael.
Karen and Michael's Blog 
