Mother's Day Weekend

Last weekend was Mother’s Day here in Australia. It is celebrated on the same date as Canada, but different to the UK, where Mother’s Day falls in March. We ended up having a very full weekend, which kicked off on Friday night.

Andy’s friend Pete was visiting from England with his wife. Andy and Pete went to university together, and Pete was actually living in Melbourne when we first arrived in Australia way back in 2013. Pete and his family have since moved back to England, but Pete’s younger brother is (the other) Andy, who lives here on the Gold Coast and who we see quite often. On Friday night Pete, his wife, and Andy and his family all came over for dinner and a swim.

The pool is definitely getting chilly at this time of year (I think it’s sitting at around 21 degrees now) but we heated up the spa, which made for a very nice evening. It was really lovely catching up with Pete and his wife and hearing all about life back in England. It’s so nice how easy it is to fall back into conversation with old friends, even when it's been a few years since you last saw them.

Saturday morning we headed to the Queensland Cross Country Championships, which Ollie had qualified for through his school cross country race. The event was held in Ipswich, southwest of Brisbane, a little over an hour away from us. It meant the kids missed their usual soccer and netball games, but honestly, it was quite nice to have a slower Saturday morning for once and not have to leave the house by 7am!

Ollie has done Junior Parkrun a few times (the 2km version for kids), and most weeks he also joins his school running club once or twice before school. He’s a solid little runner for his age, but when we arrived at the Queensland championships there were definitely some kids there who looked like they’d been training seriously for years already. We really had no expectations for Ollie - it was more about the experience than anything else - but when the race started and Ollie was in second last place after the first hundred metres, I did briefly think, oh dear…

The race combined the 8- and 9-year-olds, so it was impossible to know exactly who he was competing against, but regardless, second last isn’t usually where you want to be. Thankfully, he settled into the race and gradually started overtaking people throughout the 1km course. In the end, he finished 14th out of 29 runners, including a very impressive sprint finish where he passed about six kids in the final 100 metres. His final time was 5 minutes exactly, and we were all really proud of him for giving it a go.

Warming up with his school mates

Finished! A very proud Ollie.

Afterwards, we decided to make the most of being out that way and looked for something nearby to do before heading home. That’s how we ended up discovering Summer Land Camel Farm, about twenty minutes away from where the cross country race was held. Although we don't see camels where we live, Australia is home to the largest population of feral camels in the world. They are considered pests in the outback, and culling is used to control their population. This is very complex issue, and the goal for Summer Land Camel Farm is to create a solution to what is seen as a problem as a sustainable model for managing wild camel populations. They partner with Indigenous communities and farmers and produce goods such as camel milk and skin care products, made from camel by-products.

At the farm you can feed camels, eat at the cafe (tasting camel milk, ice cream and even vodka!) and go on a camel ride. We did all three, starting with some food at the cafe as we were all hungry after the morning at Ollie's run. We didn't actually sample any products with camel milk in them so I can't tell you how they were! 

After eating the kids went on a short, 10-minute camel ride, which they seemed to enjoy. The camel behind theirs was a bit close to Ella, the look on her face as it did a bit of weird camel chewing was priceless! But by the end of the ride Ella had her hand on this camel's head permanently, giving it a good rub. That girl sure loves her animals.

After the ride the kids fed the camels, which reminded me of all the petting farms we used to take them when they were younger. They still seemed to enjoy it!

Ella was desperate for the camels to eat out of her hands, instead of the bag. However whenever she tried to offer her hand, they would just look away... a camel snub! They would only look towards her again if she offered up the bag full of food.

 

On the way home we stopped at the Eagle Heights Hotel in Tamborine Mountain, where we met Andy and Jo for a drink. The hotel has an outdoor pub garden with a fantastic view all the way to the coast. There was also a small wedding taking place on the grounds when we arrived.

Trying to sneak a peak at the wedding

The white buildings in the distance are the skyscrapers of the Gold Coast skyline

This was one of those afternoons that was just meant to be a quick drink, but then ended up being a few drinks, and then some snacks, and then some more snacks, and then it was time to go home and get ready for bed. Those are the best times! 

When you give your tween your phone to take pictures, you are always going to get a selfie!

The next morning was mother's day, so I got to have a leisurely coffee in bed, along with lots of nice snuggles.

We didn't have much planned as the day before had been so busy, and all I really wanted to do was get in a long run. So in the afternoon we all went down to the Peninsula Playground on the broadwater. We picked up one of Ella's friends on the way, and the three kids played happily for over an hour while I went on my run. 

I managed to get in just over 11km - good, but I was pretty tired afterwards! I am starting to think that maybe I can't be bothered doing the Gold Coast Half Marathon this year, and perhaps I'll just go for the 10km race. I am just not sure I want to do any longer runs, or that I have time to devote to this for the next two months. 

Anyway, for my run I downloaded Prince Harry's audiobook 'Spare' to listen to. I'm not much of an audiobook person, but I can just about manage it for an autobiography - it's pretty cool that he is actually reading it. The first part is all about his childhood and thinking about how young he was, and what he had to deal with when his mother died, is quite sad.

Here are a few pictures from my run - I still sometimes need to pinch myself when I get to run along such a beautiful coastline and think to myself "we actually live here!"