daydream believer

"my daughter says you have the cutest baby in the world, and you know what? she's right". the lady in the deckchair at daydream island resort & spa is making baby allards father all proud.
daydream island is only 15 minutes by boat from the mainland and one of the first islands of the whitsunday islands. you completely forget you're in australia. it feels more like a tropical island temperature wise and because the area is mountainous, it looks like new zealands bay of islands.

the family decided to take a vacation within a vacation.

how great it is
* to sleep in a proper bed, nicely made up
* to have brekkie (aussie word) with an endless choice of goodies
* to sit by the pool or snorkel seeing the island's own coral reef and marine life during the day
* to do afternoon naps with the kids
* to see the islands wildlife. with only 1km long and 400 meters wide, daydream island has lizards, curlews (dutch: wulpen), wallaby's and cockatoos but no mosquito's!
* to have dinner in a high quality restaurant
* to work out in the gym every day after 4 months of no sports. this was done between 9pm and 10pm, yes, after the restaurant and no, no alcohol, which is quite good after 4 months of drinking new zealand whites and aussie reds
* to work out twitter finally. if you like facebook status updates, twitter is the next generation
* to get a marble of wallaby poo out of your 7 months old sons mouth with your finger

the highlight of the trip was a visit to the great barrier reef. as described in the previous update, the trip to great barrier reef takes a little less than an hour from town of 1770 and port douglas but 2.5 hours from daydream island. this would maybe be too much for the children so mette and allard went to the full fledged daydream daycare and laurian and tom went by themselves. and they went by helicopter to not be away too long.
the scenic flight included a view of beautiful 6km long whitehaven beach and of heart reef, named like this because of its shape.
at the snorkelspot, there was a pontoon that could house 6 guests overnight (reefsleep) with a 5 persons crew. laurian and tom saw a turtle and a shark and plenty of beautiful other fish and corals. after the snorkel tour, there was a trip in a semi-submersable submarine (like a glass bottom boat but here you sit inside shielded from the sun and it has slanting windows on the lower half of the walls).
check out the pictures that laurian took.

tonight back in the camper van. the fridge had mold because the battery had gone dead. allard cried for more than an hour because he preferred daydream. tom lightly touched a wreck in the parking lot and left his phone number and 100 dollars. mette spilled a bottle of milk. and it's been the hottest day in two weeks.
but laurian cooked a great meal and it's good to be home again.

ps here are mettes quotes
* zijn mijn tepeltjes ook ingesmeerd?/is there also sunscreen on my nipples?
* laurian: er is hier een kangoeroe/look, here's a kangaroo
mette: eigenlijk is het een wallaby/actually, it's a wallaby
* (throws her box with lego on the floor with a big bang) dat was hard/that was loud
* de meneer zit in een kinderwagen/the man is in a stroller (the stroller was in fact a wheelchair)
* die mevrouw heeft grote benen/that lady has big legs (about the huge woman in a bathing suit by the pool)
* hier mammie/here mommy (mette hands laurian the lonely planet to make her feel better after laurian hits her head. this is just like her parents give her a toy for distraction if she needs to get cheered up)
* mette wil graag schoenen aan. mette deed een beetje gek/mette does want to wear shoes. mette was acting a bit funny (after laurian tells her she has to stay behind if she still refuses to wear shoes)
* mette to tom: hey
tom: hey krokodil
mette: hey grote mensen. je bent een grote mensen/hey big people. you are a big people
* ik krijg nog stickers trouwens/i still get stickers by the way
* die grote ligt te tukken/that big one lies there napping (about one of the stingrays in the lagoon by the resort. at first she was so scared that she ran away screaming)
* daddy, zing eens daydream/daddy, please sing daydream (ok then: cheer up sleepy jean, oh what can it mean, to a daydream believer, and a homecoming queen - original by the monkeys)