An almost perfect long weekend . . . chocolate, lazy days on the beach, lots of sleep and picnics by the sea; and a disappearing child.
Easter Bunny found us in our holiday apartment.
We just had five nights at my extended family’s shared apartment at Sunrise Beach, near Noosa on the Sunshine Coast. I love staying there. It’s a large seventies styles apartment that once belonged to my great uncle Jack Alvey. He was a passionate fisherman, and when he wasn’t running his company Alvey Fishing Reels, he could be found here. The apartment is not too dissimilar to when he and his late wife Freida holidayed here. Most of the crockery was theirs, and I love serving snacks in the heavy, decorated glassware they used. There is an old dead turtle, somehow preserved, which lives on a high shelf so my children don’t break him in their enthusiasm to play with him. The towel racks in the bathrooms are vintage seventies brown plastic. Even the shagpile bath mats remind me of another era. The pegs that we use to hang out our wet bathers are kept in an original ice-cream bucket, circa 1975. It’s so cool staying there! It’s across a quiet road from the beach, and the view is spectacular. At night, we leave the windows open and the sea breeze rushes through the rooms all night long.
Scarlett and Miles love the beach – here they are practicing handstands. Every day I make a picnic lunch – sandwiches, biscuits, fruit and cold water – and we set up our umbrella somewhere on main beach at Noosa. There are some waves, so it’s not bad for surfing, but importantly the water is quite calm so my runaway children are as safe as is possible. Scarlett cried when I made her wear her brother’s boardshorts. She usually likes to wear a string bikini but the sun is too harsh and I worry she’ll get sunburned. My husband William was with us for most of the long weekend, but he had to urgently return to Brisbane for work without us. He works for a property developer and something stressful and potentially exciting was happening in his office!
It is hard looking after two children on the beach – especially two children who like to wander. After a long morning at the beach, the kids like to jump off the jetty into Noosa River. I don’t jump. Depsite it being a popular swimming spot, there are rumours of bull sharks circulating. I’m sure it’s safe – I let my kids swim there! – but I can’t relax in the river. At one point, I was talking to Scarlett, who was trying to steal a stranger’s lilo, when I turned around and Miles had disappeared. I’d seen him only twenty seconds before doing his dog-paddle toward the jetty. I looked for him everywhere – on the jetty, under the jetty, in the park. Frantic, I ordered two teenage boys to jump in and dive under the jetty, looking for Miles. I imagined he must have gotten trapped under there. It was so scary. I was teary and calling out to him and about to dial the emergency number triple zero. About two minutes later I saw Miles, laughing and hiding from me in the trees. I was too relieved to be cross with him. Mind you, there was no frozen slushie drink that afternoon for their usual post-beach treat!
