Myella for My Family

So what the heck does the title mean? It’s in reference to an experience we had as a family that was truly all that we had hoped for here in Australia. We are continually amazed with this country but Myella has topped all our experiences so far. It was the ultimate family holiday. Myella is a 2600 acre ‘hobby’ farm, run by the Eather family. The farm is about 200 km off the coast, west of Rockhampton. Peter and Olive own the farm and, at 75 and 65 respectively, are still going concerns. Their daughter Lyn decided to start a farmstay program about 15 years ago and it has blossomed so that they have 4 other full time staff besides themselves. On the farm we rode and rigged our horses, mustered cattle, fed calves, milked cows, fed chickens, collected eggs, learned to crack a whip, lasso, cook on an open fire and swam in the pool.

The farm has a ridge running through the middle of the property that allows for superb views as you stroll about through the paddocks on your daily 2 hour rides. Marnie actually walked her horse over a python by accident one day! The red earth of Australia is on full view everywhere too. We sat up swapping stories with a pilot and his girlfriend from Amsterdam, a family from Sweden, a girl from Hong Kong, a bloke from Newcastle with his Norwegian girlfriend, a lady from England, two girls from Ireland that were great to the girls, and us. Olive made us three beautiful country meals every day, we had snacks whenever we wanted to make them, Trevor (the lead hand) served us home brew every night before dinner and Peter even took us out in the pitch black to teach us all about the stars of the southern skies. Sunsets on (appropriately named) Sunset Ridge were well worth the 1km walk as the sun dropped over a far reaching western ridge highlighting the Brahma cattle grazing in the paddocks, the incredibly shaped Bottle Trees and that ‘oh so red’ dirt!

We decided to stay at Myella for 5 nights and 5 full days. In that time we did do it all. I must mention the motorbikes, the bikes, the hammocks, the cards and the reading. As busy as it may sound we did have lots of time to relax each day, kilometres from anything, it was dead quiet. Desperately quiet times. Quiet we just don’t get in our daily lives. We commented time and again that Myella felt like a ‘vacation from our vacation’. I certainly won’t do our experience justice with my writing but take my word for it, we all loved our time on the farm!

Check out our photos for Myella Farmstay HERE.

I will have another post ready to go in the next day or so too on more adventures – take care everyone. Best wishes to you all.

New Years, new places, faces and Steve Irwin

I never met Steve Irwin. Not that that is a big deal. Most people didn’t meet him. But, I can honestly say that we got a huge taste of him in the last while. I read Terri Irwin’s book called My Steve, which tells some great stories about him, relates a bit of their life together and describes what her and her children went and have gone through in his death. He was so larger than life and by all accounts, what you saw on the screen was indeed him off the screen. We were able to live Steve’s dream a bit as we made it to Australia Zoo for a day. It was incredibly hot, there were way too many people but I for one couldn’t escape the fact that it felt like he was still a big part of the place. We saw the big Croc show in the ‘Crocosseum’ and were delighted when Terri Irwin and her two children Bindi (10, and quite a star here in Australia) and Robert (5, a spitting image of his Dad) along with Steve’s best mate Wes were doing the show. Wes and Steve had been friends for years and had literally saved each others lives’ on a couple of occasions – Wes has the bite marks on his rump from a Croc to prove it. The Crocs are huge. It is quite the production, with big sound and theatrics all encompassed in a venue that seats something like 4000 people. Steve the showman designed and built it all – he was very hands on, down to even doing the concrete work on much of the zoo- all at a pace that, Terri Irwin describes, would some days make him vomit from exhaustion. When she actually caught him being sick he would always simply say ‘too much tea this morning babe.” It does seem so tragic that he isn’t there, but for now, his dream seems alive and well. As for us it was a good day that finished up great with almost a private audience with a group of red kangaroos. I’ve put a bunch of Zoo photos and most tell there own story but you really don’t get a feel for the power of a Croc until you hear the jaws slam shut. It makes an incredible noise that has to be heard in person to understand – their sheer size is awfully scary too. We arrived back in Coolum after a long day at the zoo trying to decide what to eat when Marnie spied a big sign in the park that was advertising a ‘Free BBQ’. Can’t pass that up. Dinner, done.

We were also very fortunate in our second week in Coolum to meet an awesome family from Melbourne. The Radtke’s are an American couple that moved here two years ago with their daughter Maddie. She is the same age as Sophie and they hit it off fabulously. They were vacationing in Coolum for the holidays and we just happened to stay right next door to them. In just two days we did the pool, hit the beach, shared meals, sat up talking on the verandah while the girls coloured (sorry Radtke’s but it is a Canadian spelling), drew, and played. It was really great. Unfortunately they were moving on and we were neighbours for only a short while but we will definitely be looking them up when we head South toward Melbourne.

See our Coolum and Australia Zoo photos HERE

We stayed in Coolum until after New Years, which we got to spend with Todd and Leanne and kids again. Great night: great people, good food, good fireworks, cricket on the beach – can’t ask for much more! When we finally left Coolum we decided to head North into the tropics – hard for a Canadian to write that as I want to head ‘South’ to the tropics. We had decided before we left Canada that we wanted to get to at least the Whitsundays. They are a group of 74 islands in the Coral Sea. The staging town is called Airlie Beach, on the mainland, and we have made ourselves at home here for a bit to see the sights. Airlie Beach has a lagoon in the middle of town that is bigger that two Olympic sized pools complete with shade coverings, tables, lifeguards and bbq’s. Australia is littered with free electric bbq’s. They are EVERYWHERE. It is so cool. As we enjoyed the sun one day we had our first official foray into cooking one. You’ll see from the pictures that is not a bad place to dine. We are in the mid section of the Great Barrier Reef. Cairns is the spot to hit the reef but heavy rains are flooding major areas around here and we are going to have to turn around and head South again. So we decided to get out in the islands and did a day cruise that visited three different areas in the Whitsundays. We snorkeled – it was fantastic. Saw a huge Wrasse that Marnie got to touch even. It scared the girls back on the boat but they had a glass bottom Zodiac that they got out in to see what we were seeing. Literally 1000’s of fish and as Ayden chucked food on me from the Zodiac I was overrun at one point – incredible. We also stopped on Whitehaven Beach. Voted one of the top 5 beaches in the world by National Geographic and voted #2 cleanest beach in Oz for something like the past ten years. It is made up of 98% silica – hard on the eyes white and squeaks under your feet when you walk. The whole day was well, well worth it.

To see our Airlie Beach Photos click HERE

I know it has been quite some time since I posted anything here or emailed many of you but the last couple places we have been at haven’t had any ‘net. Sorry about that but we hope you enjoy this and don’t be afraid to make a comment here too – we love getting feedback… take care everyone.