We're all going on a summer holiday....

Summer - a time for holidays.

Unfortunately, the more grown-up you get, the less holidays you're allowed. Except, of course, for uni students. Undergrads get more holidays than even school kids. Unfortunately, I'm no longer an undergrad. This summer my holidays were only just a week long over Christmas. And Christmas seems a long time ago now.

So I've had to fit all my holidaying around my uni work and try to get as much of the important summer holiday activities in as possible. Summer holidays should involve some of each of these activities: swimming, fishing, boating, camping, snorkeling, beach combing, roadtrips, and bbqs. I am now happy to say that I have managed to fit in some of each.

I have been well over the required amount of beach combing for quite some time now, as that is all I have spent my summer doing - walking along beaches, sitting down and watching birds. The others have all been a bit more of a problem to fit in. I am still not satisfied with the amount of snorkeling, but everything else I am very proud to say I have managed to achieve (although, I would most definitely not complain if I got to do more of any of them). Roadtripping has also not been hard to fit in as I have been carting various friends and relations all around the east coast to go beaching with me, and, of course, I have had plenty of bbqs as well, so its really swimming, fishing, boating, and camping that have been the challenge.

The last two weekends have been fabulous for crossing off my list of summer activities. The weekend before last, I joined my family down the peninsula visiting my extended family. My Uncle Charlie had already taken Dad fishing in Fortescue that morning which was apparently spectacular with dolphins and seals, but they decided to go out again a bit closer to home and try for some flathead. So I tagged along (surprising Uncle Charlie slightly as he was expecting Rob to want to come instead) and went with them and my cousin Dain (Uncle Charlie's youngest son). Uncle Charlie's boat is exactly the sort of boat I like - not huge, but big enough that you can stand up and move around easily. I always love just being out on the water in any sort of boat so I enjoyed it immensely. Uncle Charlie even slowed down as we went past the Cormorants so I could have a look (we were going quite fast. I like going fast). Uncle Charlie caught the first fish and it was an absolutely tiny little white bait, but they got much bigger after that. I caught 11 flathead and Dad and Dion and caught some each as well. Uncle Charlie spent most of his time cleaning the fish we caught so we didn't have to stop and do it on the way home. The sunset was really beautiful as we went back to the jetty, too.

Last weekend, I saw my family again. This time we went camping at Lagoons Beach north of Bicheno. I was already up the coast doing fieldwork so I spent the Friday on the beach at Swansea and then went up to meet Mum and Dad and set up camp. Rob and Clinton came too, but they didn't get there until bedtime. We went for a walk on the beach on Friday night while we were waiting for the boys to arrive and found (much to my delight) that the microbes in the sand were luminescing (glowing in the dark). Bioluminescence is a natural phenomena that I have now been lucky enough to see twice, although the first time was much more impressive because there was much more. The microbes luminesce when they are disturbed so at the edge of the swash where the waves are hitting the shore it glows. You can also get them to glow by disturbing the wet sand by running along it and jumping and dancing. That was the highlight of our walk along the beach. The lowlight (for me, Mum has a different lowlight) was when I dropped my phone in the water. Thankfully, my wonderful Daddy was on hand to help dry it out and it survived the ordeal.

On Saturday we went for a drive into Bicheno to go for a swim at the beach where I have wanted to swim all summer (Mum and I had gone swimming there a couple of days before when she was beaching with me, but it wasn't enough). The waves were awesome for body surfing and we all had an amazing time. Rob, Clinton, and I went back on Sunday after we had packed up camp.

(picture of the beach we went swimming at stolen from Rob)

Unfortunately, the waves that were so awesome for bodysurfing in the sheltered bay, were not very cooperative for surf fishing in the much more exposed Lagoons Beach where we were camping, but we still had a go. The waves also meant it was too rough to snorkel around the rocks between Diamond Island and Denison Beach :(

The only other uncooperative things were the fire nazis who wouldn't let us have a campfire and the possum who decided to piddle on Clinton's tent and Mum's leg because it was sick of me shining my torch in its eyes.

So, there you are - my summer holidays. I promise my next post will have lots of lovely pictures to look at and not so many pesky words to read.