Renth's Eastern States Odyssey Part 2
Jan 19th 2007, 8:06 pm
#1
(It's not my real name)
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2002
Location: Ilukapool. WA
Posts: 12,467
Renth's Eastern States Odyssey Part 2
We arrived in Hervey Bay after a bit of a mad drive up from Surfers to get the noon ferry.
The Great Sandy Strait was beautiful, calm, blue, the sun was shining and as the ferry approached the Kingfisher Bay Resort - http://www.kingfisherbay.com/ we were all getting excited about spending Christmas on the World Heritage listed paradise that is Fraser Island.
The accommodation was expensive though $350 a night. The villa we had was a bit scruffy, dusty, old appliances etc... Then I saw a little notice "these villas are privately owned and all breakages must be paid for" - so a bit like a Perth rental property then - overpriced and scruffy with the owners spending the absolute minimum to maximise their return. Understandable in an investment property but not in a so called 5 star resort.
The rest of the resort wasn't too bad though, a lovely setting, great pool, lots of organised "ranger" activities. The boy and I went on an interesting walk about the indigenous people of Fraser and the next day a birdwatching walk. The "ranger" taking us on the bird walk was the likable but seemingly always stoned surfer dude from the beach hut shop. He didn't know his birds (feathered) though. I had to help him out when we spotted the very common Willy Wagtail, he had a bird book and we saw a good number of different species and when we got to the beach we saw a dugong swimming just off shore.
Christmas arrived and santa remembered to visit and the 3 kids got their presents in the morning.
Christmas day lunch in the Maheno restaurant was good, a huge buffet - we kicked off with 2 goes at the seafood - crabs, bugs, prawns - yum. Next up the roasts - I went round here twice too but each time there was NO TURKEY! they had just run out and would have some more in 5 minutes. I'm not complaining though, by this time I was stuffed like Mr Creosote, it was bye bye belt time.
It should have been nice - $370 for the 5 of us.
Boxing day we hired a 4x4 and spent the day exploring the island. It was amazing to be belting around the rainforest tracks in a mighty Landcruiser, you just can't beat these vehicles in the rough. We came across a wally in one of those "All wheel drive" slightly raised road cars totally stranded in the middle of the rainforest. The driver was missing, gone for help, but there was a mightily pissed off wife in the passenger seat.
Fraser looked different to the pictures in the brochures, the reason? most of the time we were there it was overcast or raining, but hey, they don't call it "rainforest" for nothing do they - it didn't detract from the magic of the place.
We met up wit our friends from Perth who arrived the day before we left. They were not happy with their accommodation either. Like ours, not terrible but no way up to the standard it should be for the price. The four of us went to a wine appreciation evening leaving our kids in the kids club, which was being run by guess who? - the stoned surfer dude.
We then had a meal in the gourmet restaurant Seabelle, the food arrived on cold plates and they got the bill wrong, in their favour - natch. $200 dollars later we had to hit the vending machine as we were still hungry despite having had a starter and a main course.
Christ I'm rambling, is anyone reading this shit?
After 4 days we returned to Hervey Bay, the place we were ostensibly looking to move to. We loved Fraser Island and the resort wasn't that bad, we even got to see a dingo on the beach too, which was nice.
Now, Hervey Bay is a nice enough place but in my wife's mind she had confused Airlie Beach with Hervey Bay - that's the place she had wanted to move to when we came to Australia and I heartlessly forced her to move to Perth
On the night of the 30th we drove up to Bundaberg to visit the Mon Repos turtle beach - http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/projects/p...id=83&noback=1
This is where you can watch turtles laying their eggs and the little turtles hatching and scuttling to the sea - it came highly recommended from a friend in Perth.
Well, I can highly dis-recommend it. The rangers were arrogant dickheads, they've got a dumb system where your get allocated a numbered turtle and there are 6 groups so group 1 sees the first turtle when/if it comes out down to group 6. This is never made clear when you book. The turtle number you get is based on how long ago you booked, so if you had booked a month ago you'll be seeing turtle number one, if you booked that day - it's turtle 6 - basically highly unlikely, but you will have a long wait until the early hours with tired kids before the disappointment of not seeing a turtle.
We were group 4. Only 1 turtle turned up that night and the 20 people in group 1 got to spend 3 hours with it whilst 180 people had to wait in the turtle centre to no avail. There was very little for the kids to to apart form a bit of colouring in with a few broken crayons.
An absolute disgrace. The Mrs had a good old rant about their system whilst the ranger parroted out the (well rehearsed and used it seems) you are not guaranteed to see a turtle line.
We should have gone the following night - just like our friend did, on the one night they are closed - new years eve and watch the turtles without the dickhead rangers.
You don't get that shit at WA's Jurabi turtle centre at Ningaloo http://www.ningalooturtles.org.au/.
Next stop Noosa, that will come in part three. I should get some photos going shouldn't I?
The Great Sandy Strait was beautiful, calm, blue, the sun was shining and as the ferry approached the Kingfisher Bay Resort - http://www.kingfisherbay.com/ we were all getting excited about spending Christmas on the World Heritage listed paradise that is Fraser Island.
The accommodation was expensive though $350 a night. The villa we had was a bit scruffy, dusty, old appliances etc... Then I saw a little notice "these villas are privately owned and all breakages must be paid for" - so a bit like a Perth rental property then - overpriced and scruffy with the owners spending the absolute minimum to maximise their return. Understandable in an investment property but not in a so called 5 star resort.
The rest of the resort wasn't too bad though, a lovely setting, great pool, lots of organised "ranger" activities. The boy and I went on an interesting walk about the indigenous people of Fraser and the next day a birdwatching walk. The "ranger" taking us on the bird walk was the likable but seemingly always stoned surfer dude from the beach hut shop. He didn't know his birds (feathered) though. I had to help him out when we spotted the very common Willy Wagtail, he had a bird book and we saw a good number of different species and when we got to the beach we saw a dugong swimming just off shore.
Christmas arrived and santa remembered to visit and the 3 kids got their presents in the morning.
Christmas day lunch in the Maheno restaurant was good, a huge buffet - we kicked off with 2 goes at the seafood - crabs, bugs, prawns - yum. Next up the roasts - I went round here twice too but each time there was NO TURKEY! they had just run out and would have some more in 5 minutes. I'm not complaining though, by this time I was stuffed like Mr Creosote, it was bye bye belt time.
It should have been nice - $370 for the 5 of us.
Boxing day we hired a 4x4 and spent the day exploring the island. It was amazing to be belting around the rainforest tracks in a mighty Landcruiser, you just can't beat these vehicles in the rough. We came across a wally in one of those "All wheel drive" slightly raised road cars totally stranded in the middle of the rainforest. The driver was missing, gone for help, but there was a mightily pissed off wife in the passenger seat.
Fraser looked different to the pictures in the brochures, the reason? most of the time we were there it was overcast or raining, but hey, they don't call it "rainforest" for nothing do they - it didn't detract from the magic of the place.
We met up wit our friends from Perth who arrived the day before we left. They were not happy with their accommodation either. Like ours, not terrible but no way up to the standard it should be for the price. The four of us went to a wine appreciation evening leaving our kids in the kids club, which was being run by guess who? - the stoned surfer dude.
We then had a meal in the gourmet restaurant Seabelle, the food arrived on cold plates and they got the bill wrong, in their favour - natch. $200 dollars later we had to hit the vending machine as we were still hungry despite having had a starter and a main course.
Christ I'm rambling, is anyone reading this shit?
After 4 days we returned to Hervey Bay, the place we were ostensibly looking to move to. We loved Fraser Island and the resort wasn't that bad, we even got to see a dingo on the beach too, which was nice.
Now, Hervey Bay is a nice enough place but in my wife's mind she had confused Airlie Beach with Hervey Bay - that's the place she had wanted to move to when we came to Australia and I heartlessly forced her to move to Perth
On the night of the 30th we drove up to Bundaberg to visit the Mon Repos turtle beach - http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/projects/p...id=83&noback=1
This is where you can watch turtles laying their eggs and the little turtles hatching and scuttling to the sea - it came highly recommended from a friend in Perth.
Well, I can highly dis-recommend it. The rangers were arrogant dickheads, they've got a dumb system where your get allocated a numbered turtle and there are 6 groups so group 1 sees the first turtle when/if it comes out down to group 6. This is never made clear when you book. The turtle number you get is based on how long ago you booked, so if you had booked a month ago you'll be seeing turtle number one, if you booked that day - it's turtle 6 - basically highly unlikely, but you will have a long wait until the early hours with tired kids before the disappointment of not seeing a turtle.
We were group 4. Only 1 turtle turned up that night and the 20 people in group 1 got to spend 3 hours with it whilst 180 people had to wait in the turtle centre to no avail. There was very little for the kids to to apart form a bit of colouring in with a few broken crayons.
An absolute disgrace. The Mrs had a good old rant about their system whilst the ranger parroted out the (well rehearsed and used it seems) you are not guaranteed to see a turtle line.
We should have gone the following night - just like our friend did, on the one night they are closed - new years eve and watch the turtles without the dickhead rangers.
You don't get that shit at WA's Jurabi turtle centre at Ningaloo http://www.ningalooturtles.org.au/.
Next stop Noosa, that will come in part three. I should get some photos going shouldn't I?
Jan 19th 2007, 8:56 pm
#2
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jun 2004
Location: Mountain Creek, Sunshine Coast
Posts: 1,643
Re: Renth's Eastern States Odyssey Part 2
Excellent post, I'll make sure we stay away from that Turtle place!!
I'm sure you'll love Noosa, we went there last week and it was gorgeous
I'm sure you'll love Noosa, we went there last week and it was gorgeous
Jan 19th 2007, 9:04 pm
#3
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 12,063
Re: Renth's Eastern States Odyssey Part 2
PMSL are you just over for a holiday or thinking of moving sides?
very funny update
very funny update
Jan 19th 2007, 9:11 pm
#4
(It's not my real name)
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2002
Location: Ilukapool. WA
Posts: 12,467
Jan 19th 2007, 10:46 pm
#5
Former Resident Visa
Joined: Nov 2005
Location: Mornington Peninsula
Posts: 2,887
Re: Renth's Eastern States Odyssey Part 2
Hey! I'm reading this shit Renth so bring on part 3!! (AND MAKE IT QUICK!!)
J x
...and don't forget some photos
J x
...and don't forget some photos
Jan 20th 2007, 12:08 am
#7
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Oct 2005
Location: Hill overlooking the SE Melbourne suburbs
Posts: 16,622
Re: Renth's Eastern States Odyssey Part 2
Looking forward to hearing about any decision on a move (yes?) or info on living there.
Jan 20th 2007, 4:08 am
#8
Banned
Joined: Jan 2006
Location: Godzone, utopia, Paradise Island under the sun.
Posts: 1,177
Re: Renth's Eastern States Odyssey Part 2
We arrived in Hervey Bay after a bit of a mad drive up from Surfers to get the noon ferry.
The Great Sandy Strait was beautiful, calm, blue, the sun was shining and as the ferry approached the Kingfisher Bay Resort - http://www.kingfisherbay.com/ we were all getting excited about spending Christmas on the World Heritage listed paradise that is Fraser Island.
The accommodation was expensive though $350 a night. The villa we had was a bit scruffy, dusty, old appliances etc... Then I saw a little notice "these villas are privately owned and all breakages must be paid for" - so a bit like a Perth rental property then - overpriced and scruffy with the owners spending the absolute minimum to maximise their return. Understandable in an investment property but not in a so called 5 star resort.
The rest of the resort wasn't too bad though, a lovely setting, great pool, lots of organised "ranger" activities. The boy and I went on an interesting walk about the indigenous people of Fraser and the next day a birdwatching walk. The "ranger" taking us on the bird walk was the likable but seemingly always stoned surfer dude from the beach hut shop. He didn't know his birds (feathered) though. I had to help him out when we spotted the very common Willy Wagtail, he had a bird book and we saw a good number of different species and when we got to the beach we saw a dugong swimming just off shore.
Christmas arrived and santa remembered to visit and the 3 kids got their presents in the morning.
Christmas day lunch in the Maheno restaurant was good, a huge buffet - we kicked off with 2 goes at the seafood - crabs, bugs, prawns - yum. Next up the roasts - I went round here twice too but each time there was NO TURKEY! they had just run out and would have some more in 5 minutes. I'm not complaining though, by this time I was stuffed like Mr Creosote, it was bye bye belt time.
It should have been nice - $370 for the 5 of us.
Boxing day we hired a 4x4 and spent the day exploring the island. It was amazing to be belting around the rainforest tracks in a mighty Landcruiser, you just can't beat these vehicles in the rough. We came across a wally in one of those "All wheel drive" slightly raised road cars totally stranded in the middle of the rainforest. The driver was missing, gone for help, but there was a mightily pissed off wife in the passenger seat.
Fraser looked different to the pictures in the brochures, the reason? most of the time we were there it was overcast or raining, but hey, they don't call it "rainforest" for nothing do they - it didn't detract from the magic of the place.
We met up wit our friends from Perth who arrived the day before we left. They were not happy with their accommodation either. Like ours, not terrible but no way up to the standard it should be for the price. The four of us went to a wine appreciation evening leaving our kids in the kids club, which was being run by guess who? - the stoned surfer dude.
We then had a meal in the gourmet restaurant Seabelle, the food arrived on cold plates and they got the bill wrong, in their favour - natch. $200 dollars later we had to hit the vending machine as we were still hungry despite having had a starter and a main course.
Christ I'm rambling, is anyone reading this shit?
After 4 days we returned to Hervey Bay, the place we were ostensibly looking to move to. We loved Fraser Island and the resort wasn't that bad, we even got to see a dingo on the beach too, which was nice.
Now, Hervey Bay is a nice enough place but in my wife's mind she had confused Airlie Beach with Hervey Bay - that's the place she had wanted to move to when we came to Australia and I heartlessly forced her to move to Perth
On the night of the 30th we drove up to Bundaberg to visit the Mon Repos turtle beach - http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/projects/p...id=83&noback=1
This is where you can watch turtles laying their eggs and the little turtles hatching and scuttling to the sea - it came highly recommended from a friend in Perth.
Well, I can highly dis-recommend it. The rangers were arrogant dickheads, they've got a dumb system where your get allocated a numbered turtle and there are 6 groups so group 1 sees the first turtle when/if it comes out down to group 6. This is never made clear when you book. The turtle number you get is based on how long ago you booked, so if you had booked a month ago you'll be seeing turtle number one, if you booked that day - it's turtle 6 - basically highly unlikely, but you will have a long wait until the early hours with tired kids before the disappointment of not seeing a turtle.
We were group 4. Only 1 turtle turned up that night and the 20 people in group 1 got to spend 3 hours with it whilst 180 people had to wait in the turtle centre to no avail. There was very little for the kids to to apart form a bit of colouring in with a few broken crayons.
An absolute disgrace. The Mrs had a good old rant about their system whilst the ranger parroted out the (well rehearsed and used it seems) you are not guaranteed to see a turtle line.
We should have gone the following night - just like our friend did, on the one night they are closed - new years eve and watch the turtles without the dickhead rangers.
You don't get that shit at WA's Jurabi turtle centre at Ningaloo http://www.ningalooturtles.org.au/.
Next stop Noosa, that will come in part three. I should get some photos going shouldn't I?
The Great Sandy Strait was beautiful, calm, blue, the sun was shining and as the ferry approached the Kingfisher Bay Resort - http://www.kingfisherbay.com/ we were all getting excited about spending Christmas on the World Heritage listed paradise that is Fraser Island.
The accommodation was expensive though $350 a night. The villa we had was a bit scruffy, dusty, old appliances etc... Then I saw a little notice "these villas are privately owned and all breakages must be paid for" - so a bit like a Perth rental property then - overpriced and scruffy with the owners spending the absolute minimum to maximise their return. Understandable in an investment property but not in a so called 5 star resort.
The rest of the resort wasn't too bad though, a lovely setting, great pool, lots of organised "ranger" activities. The boy and I went on an interesting walk about the indigenous people of Fraser and the next day a birdwatching walk. The "ranger" taking us on the bird walk was the likable but seemingly always stoned surfer dude from the beach hut shop. He didn't know his birds (feathered) though. I had to help him out when we spotted the very common Willy Wagtail, he had a bird book and we saw a good number of different species and when we got to the beach we saw a dugong swimming just off shore.
Christmas arrived and santa remembered to visit and the 3 kids got their presents in the morning.
Christmas day lunch in the Maheno restaurant was good, a huge buffet - we kicked off with 2 goes at the seafood - crabs, bugs, prawns - yum. Next up the roasts - I went round here twice too but each time there was NO TURKEY! they had just run out and would have some more in 5 minutes. I'm not complaining though, by this time I was stuffed like Mr Creosote, it was bye bye belt time.
It should have been nice - $370 for the 5 of us.
Boxing day we hired a 4x4 and spent the day exploring the island. It was amazing to be belting around the rainforest tracks in a mighty Landcruiser, you just can't beat these vehicles in the rough. We came across a wally in one of those "All wheel drive" slightly raised road cars totally stranded in the middle of the rainforest. The driver was missing, gone for help, but there was a mightily pissed off wife in the passenger seat.
Fraser looked different to the pictures in the brochures, the reason? most of the time we were there it was overcast or raining, but hey, they don't call it "rainforest" for nothing do they - it didn't detract from the magic of the place.
We met up wit our friends from Perth who arrived the day before we left. They were not happy with their accommodation either. Like ours, not terrible but no way up to the standard it should be for the price. The four of us went to a wine appreciation evening leaving our kids in the kids club, which was being run by guess who? - the stoned surfer dude.
We then had a meal in the gourmet restaurant Seabelle, the food arrived on cold plates and they got the bill wrong, in their favour - natch. $200 dollars later we had to hit the vending machine as we were still hungry despite having had a starter and a main course.
Christ I'm rambling, is anyone reading this shit?
After 4 days we returned to Hervey Bay, the place we were ostensibly looking to move to. We loved Fraser Island and the resort wasn't that bad, we even got to see a dingo on the beach too, which was nice.
Now, Hervey Bay is a nice enough place but in my wife's mind she had confused Airlie Beach with Hervey Bay - that's the place she had wanted to move to when we came to Australia and I heartlessly forced her to move to Perth
On the night of the 30th we drove up to Bundaberg to visit the Mon Repos turtle beach - http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/projects/p...id=83&noback=1
This is where you can watch turtles laying their eggs and the little turtles hatching and scuttling to the sea - it came highly recommended from a friend in Perth.
Well, I can highly dis-recommend it. The rangers were arrogant dickheads, they've got a dumb system where your get allocated a numbered turtle and there are 6 groups so group 1 sees the first turtle when/if it comes out down to group 6. This is never made clear when you book. The turtle number you get is based on how long ago you booked, so if you had booked a month ago you'll be seeing turtle number one, if you booked that day - it's turtle 6 - basically highly unlikely, but you will have a long wait until the early hours with tired kids before the disappointment of not seeing a turtle.
We were group 4. Only 1 turtle turned up that night and the 20 people in group 1 got to spend 3 hours with it whilst 180 people had to wait in the turtle centre to no avail. There was very little for the kids to to apart form a bit of colouring in with a few broken crayons.
An absolute disgrace. The Mrs had a good old rant about their system whilst the ranger parroted out the (well rehearsed and used it seems) you are not guaranteed to see a turtle line.
We should have gone the following night - just like our friend did, on the one night they are closed - new years eve and watch the turtles without the dickhead rangers.
You don't get that shit at WA's Jurabi turtle centre at Ningaloo http://www.ningalooturtles.org.au/.
Next stop Noosa, that will come in part three. I should get some photos going shouldn't I?
Jan 20th 2007, 5:26 am
#9
(It's not my real name)
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2002
Location: Ilukapool. WA
Posts: 12,467
Jan 20th 2007, 6:23 am
#10
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Joined: May 2005
Location: In a house very close to the beach
Posts: 984
Re: Renth's Eastern States Odyssey Part 2
When your over next I'll have sorted a house out 
so pop round.
It looks like an offer I made today has been accepted so all good and I bought a car as well
(got a bloody good deal)
so pop round.It looks like an offer I made today has been accepted so all good and I bought a car as well
(got a bloody good deal)
