Spring School Holidays in Australia: Things To Do

Actually, not really things to do, but things that were done.

Yesterday my daughter Elizabeth went back to school after having two weeks and one day off for the spring school holidays. The two weeks were for the spring school holidays, the one day was for Labour Day which was on Monday.

Spring school holidays here, especially this latest one, have been so different to how I remember them in England, not least because of the weather. Every day the temperatures have been between 30°C to 35°C here in Brisbane and it only rained twice throughout the whole holidays, both times during the night.

But what’s really been different are the kind of things Elizabeth and her friends have been up to along with Mrs Bobinoz and I’ve got a bit of a photo-fest coming up to run you through it.

Spring school holiday fun

This may not excite too many of you, but it’s certainly excited Elizabeth, a lot. She went to see the One Direction movie…. Gold Class! Not only was it Gold Class, but it was a very quiet Gold Class…

Gold Class

And outside Elizabeth posed with the band… sort of…

One Direction

Next up Elizabeth went horseriding in Dayboro again…

Horse riding in Dayboro

You’ll remember she went there earlier in the year, I wrote about it in my post called More Things To Do During the School Holidays.

Next she went to Kangaroo Point, a suburb south side of the river opposite the city of Brisbane. There she had a go at what is called Segway or “Surf the City”. As their website says “Glide, spin and twist on the self-balancing vehicle engineered to take you places that a car or bicycle can’t.

Segway or "Surf the City"

Segway or "Surf the City"

Of course, that’s not real surfing, but this is…

Surfing lessons in Caloundra

Probably the highlight of her two weeks off was going to a birthday party in Caloundra, which is on the Sunshine Coast. She was sad when one of her best friends left school to move out of Brisbane, but cheered up a good deal when she found out that this friend had moved to a house right opposite the beach.

Visiting has and will continue to be great fun for Elizabeth, but not too many visits will be as much fun as her friend’s birthday party during these holidays.

No bouncy castle, no clown, no magic act, no party games even, but they did have their first ever surfing lesson. To start, they needed to drag their boards down to the beach…

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Then listen intently to the instructions…

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 Pay close attention now…

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This is how you stand up on the board…

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You start by laying on the board like this…

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And then you spring up…

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Okay, let’s hit the waves…

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And in they went…

September Hols (13) September Hols (14)

Within minutes and at different points, each of the girls managed to stand up on their boards and do a bit of surfing…

September Hols (15) September Hols (16) September Hols (17) September Hols (18)

Of course though, I’m only going to show you a close-up of Elizabeth (in the pink on the right) cutting through the waves like a champ…

September Hols (19)

So Elizabeth, aged nine, is now a surfer dude!

It may have been the highlight, but the fun didn’t stop there. For the final weekend of the two-week break, Mrs Bobinoz and her best friend Stacey took off to Stradbroke Island staying over for a couple of days.

Straddie, as its known, is one of our favourite destinations for a short break. I wrote about it quite a lot in my post called It’s North Stradbroke Island Week Here on BobinOz and a few other posts during that week.

They saw a real live koala in a really big tree and took a really bad photo…

Koala

Luckily, when I was last there, I also saw a koala in a tree and took a slightly better video which you can see on my page North Stradbroke Island Day Two.

As you can imagine, after so much fun Elizabeth was glad to get back to school yesterday for a bit of a rest.

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{ 4 comments… add one }
  • Lorraine October 13, 2013, 5:04 am |

    Hey bob looks like a brilliant school holiday for Elizabeth! My future children are definately a consideration for coming to Australia (as well as all the other stuff). I can’t bear the thought of my kids growing up in England where the American influence and gang mentality is so strong. What’s crime like out there when you have kids because over here I seem to read about online bullying, sexting in schools, abductions and lots of other scary things. Australia in my head is a lot safer for kids, am I right?

    • BobinOz October 15, 2013, 12:37 am |

      Hi Lorraine

      We have scary things happen here as well, we are not free from bullying, sexting or any of the other scary things you mention that can happen to kids, but in my view this is a much safer place to bring up your children than the UK. I am so much happier seeing Elizabeth grow up here than I would have been in England, we came here so that she could have a better and safer childhood and I honestly believe she is getting that.

      So yes, I say you are right.

  • Geraldine October 10, 2013, 2:57 pm |

    Hey Bob, its a bit good isnt it, we moved up to the Sunny Coast a couple of months ago, I get to walk to the beach each day……..in a t -shirt. Lived near the sea in the UK and went to the beach about 5 times in 10 years. The weather has been glorious and they call this spring…fantastic !!!

    • BobinOz October 11, 2013, 6:27 pm |

      Yes, springs here are what UK summers dream of 🙂 A bit good? It sure is!

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