Thursday, February 3, 2011

We Don't Want Your Money Honey We Want Your Love.!!!

G'day to all, just a quick update on how we are travelling in The Whitsundays.


We had a couple of very interesting houseguests in the last week here. Last Sunday we had Tropical Cyclone Anthony come to stay the night, brought baggage with him 120kmh winds and a little rain. He didn't stay too long and made way for our next big name visitor Tropical Cyclone Yasi

You can see Anthony on our coast then look east and you see Yasi, big bugger
Yasi was all Anthonys big brothers put together, one of the biggest Cyclones to hit Queenslands Coast ever. We were spared his full onslaught of Yasi in The Whitsundays, but different story further north.


Anthony moving inland and Yasi coming at us

We took the prudent step of evacuating our island resorts. Hamilton, Daydream, Hayman, and the rest were left with emergency staff only, 2 cyclones in a week make it hard and better safe than sorry and as a decision had to be made once we were seeing the scale of Yasi, no normal wind this one.


Yasi in full bore heading to Nth Qld


Two days after this we realised we were not going to be in the direct path but still playing with unknown quantities as this was one big system, comparisons to other Aussie cyclones showed this was the big one, there were comparisons to Hurricane Katrina but He was his own Man our Yasi, made his own rules.
Wind speeds of 300kmh spun around his massive eye and he had set his eyes on our brothers further north.


Hey Mum no hands lol

Tully, Mission Beach about 500kms north of us were his target and hit them head on. Bloody hard people up that way and they stood and fought for their land, they listened to advice and watched as TC Yasi pulled their houses, businesses and posessions out from under them, their roofs from above them and their hopes from beneath them.


Might look normal but check the surfers, we don't get surf in Airlie Beach do we??? Boat in background feeling the motion of the ocean.

We prayed for our mates up north while we copped some wind and rain equivalent to what we got from Anthony 3 nights before but from a system based 500kms away, absolutely amazing. Sitting here lost some windows but my thoughts were with them because if I was getting this here imagine what those poor buggers were copping.

We got in trouble for this Aussie wide Local kids playing in the surge over the breakwall. That is what I love about this place our kids aren't wrapped in cotton wool, they grow up to be tough and respect the forces Mother Nature has, but we have fun as well. This photo doesn't show my "boss" in the background kite surfing with his 12 year old hehe


It is funny now, Aussies are funny buggers we laugh at strange things.
TC  Anthony would have scared the crap out of most people we prepared and referred to this storm as a little bit of blow, we knew what was behind him, wasn't too much laughing about TC Yasi that was a worry.


Surfs up dude, in Airlie Beach what the??
dust the cobwebs off the boards lol
Bright notes.
No serious injuries or deaths due to Yasi (at time of writing) incredible considering the damage it caused. Credit to the people and their preparation and to the authorities who would be our guiding light.

3 babies born in the affected area the night Yassi arrived, 2 in Innisfail hospital in the direct line of Yasi. One was born in a school used as an evacuation centre, special thanks to the midwife, holidaying on her 26th wedding anniversary from The UK that did such a great job. Couldn't imagine how MUM felt in a packed evac centre 1000 people and bub wants to check out the scenery. And yes we do have a baby called Yasi.

Lots of stories coming out about what people did to survive.


A woman of strength and substance


Big wrap to our Commander and Chief premier of QLD Anna Bligh, this woman has had to endure more in a month than most political leaders do in their entire terms of office. She has had to deal with floods through regional South East Queensland that devestataed whole communities and took many lives and then hit her capital Brisbane to get the worst floods there in nearly 40 years and then Yasi. Through all of these events she has handled herself with dignity, compassion and shown extraordinary leadership. I am not into pollies but she is one tough bloody woman, the emotional strain on her must be incredible but she stands tall for her fellow Queenslanders, amazing stuff.


WE DON'T WANT YOUR MONEY HONEY WE WANT YOUR LOVE!!!!
Now this is where we are at. We are ready to rock and roll. Nth Qld is back up on it's feet and running, we don't want donations, we don't want sympathy, WE WANT YOU.

As most will know tourism is our lifeblood up here, and with our brothers in the agricultural side of things decimated (90% of Austarlias banana crop lost, sugar industry trashed) our income is zilch.
Most of us don't earn a motza anyway. we choose to be here becasue we love the place, we want you to come and see why.
Why we live in a place that throws such bloody big hurdles at us, the answer is easy, it is absolutely bloody beautiful, simple.
Come and see what I mean, see the sights, experience the natural wonders we have here, and meet the people that laconically refer to cat 2 cyclones as a bit of blow lol
Our people are our natural wonders as well, come and see why.
cheers bob

Just as a ps as I was writng this a young fella was found deceased, possible poisoning from generator bugger