BIRTHDAY BEAR LOVES RAINBOW BAY

It was Birthday Bear celebration time again. This time it was Ann's Birthday. Birthday Bear came dressed ready to go to Rainbow Bay on the Gold Coast for a School Reunion. Every year Ann and George hire an apartment on the 14th floor overlooking the beach. While there, Ann organises a reunion for the Staff of Kuraby School where we all used to work in the 90's. We have a delicious seafood spread for lunch. See bear is holding his plate of seafood. The Teddies in the apartment represent us having a feast. Helen dressed Bear this time.

  Happy Birthday Ann

Here are the real Teddies in the real apartment. Staff and spouses of Kuraby School from the 90's.

 The seafood spread

 dessert too

The view from the apartment looking south.

 Whale watching

The view looking north to Surfer's paradise.

 We had a nice lunch at the Glen Hotel. I didn't take many photos. It was very crowded. Helen took this for me. I didn't get one of Helen with the bear she dressed for Ann. So here is one from when it was her birthday.

Bear is going home with Chris so she can dress her for next time.

WINTER AT RAINBOW BAY

Every winter good friends of ours, Ann and George, rent an apartment for a month at Rainbow Bay. While there they organise a staff reunion of the 90's era of Kuraby School. So we drove down to Rainbow Bay at the southern end of the Gold Coast. It takes about an hour. 

 It was a beautiful winter's day with the sun shining. The view looking south from the 14th floor was magic.

 Looking straight out across the bay we could see Surfer's Paradise in the far distance. I used a telephoto lens to bring it closer.

 Looking left around the bay was beautiful too.

We ate, drank, talked and relaxed all day with our old friends from working days. That night TOH and I were invited to stay overnight.

 In the morning the sea was calm and very clear and there were people swimming ....brrrrr too cold for me.

We came down from our tower and our friends, Ann and George took us for a walk around the rocks. It was quite warm. We didn't need sweaters.

 We returned to the apartment for lunch and some exciting whale watching. 

These paddle board riders were in for some fun. They spotted the whales and paddled towards them.

 They were a long way off and my zoom wasn't powerful enough but hopefully you can see the back of the whale poking out and the dark shadow underneath.

The whales turned around and swam back towards the paddle boarders, who flopped down onto their boards , put their legs up and paddled like mad. There is a boat behind the whales and the board rider is to the left  sorry he is just a dot.

REUNION in RAINBOW BAY

One of the reasons for going to the coast last weekend was to attend  reunion of some staff members of the school where I taught in the early 90's, when it was a small semi rural school and there were only 5 teachers. The secretary then was Ann, she arranged the little party at her rented holiday apartment in Rainbow Bay. We all took along some food.

Bill baked these cheese and spinach pielets.

Others bought lots of yummy food and these desserts.

Ann and George did well to accommodate us all in a small unit. We gorged ourselves on food and stories. 

It was great to see everyone all looking a wee bit older but all less frazzled except maybe the beautiful, young Lisa, who is the only one not retired. Here we have The principal (far right), teachers, admin staff, teacher aide and spouses. 

We stayed on that night as we had another function in the area the next day. It was very windy and rainy during the night but the next morning was fine and we went for a walk to NSW.

We are near the border of QLD and NSW looking south to the mouth of the Tweed River. The brown silted water coming from the river is due to the many rainy days we have been having.

Ann is in NSW, Bill has a leg in both states and George is in QLD. They are inside the border monument.

We walked down to the Tweed River where there were many fishermen.

Looking up river towards Mt Warning. It is about 9k away and is 1,156 m /3,793ft high. It is where the sun first hits Australia of a morning. It is the core of a huge volcano which was twice as high and 80k across. It was active 23 million years ago. The weathered caldera is one of the oldest and biggest in the world. It is in the Wollumbin National Park which has rainforests and mountain walks.

RAINBOW BAY

Friends asked us to spend a few days with them in their rented holiday apartment at Rainbow Bay, which is a beach at the southern end of the Gold Coast near the border of NSW.

We had a great view from the 14th floor, looking north towards Surfer's Paradise.

It was cold and windy, as a winter's day returned to interrupt our Spring. The wind flattened the surf and the surfers are forever sitting and waiting for a good wave.

They were having fun so we went down to get a closer look.

This area is called Snapper Rocks and the dare devil surfers jump off the rocks and paddle out to behind the rollers. These fellows are trying to pluck up the courage.

Some more come to give support. (C'mon jump I want a photo!)

They are taking a long time to decide.

In the end they think better of it maybe next time.