Dear Kate,
In your last letter you asked about where I live now and what it’s like to live in Victoria Point in the beautiful sunshine state of Queensland. In this letter I’ll tell you all about it. It has been 3 months since we moved here from Melbourne, so we are still adjusting and it seriously feels like we live in a different country sometimes. It’s always sunny with blue skies and summer felt extremely hot for me – I couldn’t seem to stop sweating.
We get to spend most of our day in the pool or down at the beach. Dad has bought a boat and it’s awesome! It’s so much fun to go out on, and we have even taken it over to Coochiemudlo Island (one of the nearby islands) and had a picnic. It felt like our own private island. You HAVE to come up and go for a ride on it.
Our house is literally a five minute walk to the bay at Thompson’s Beach, or if you walk in the other direction it’s a five minute walk to Point O’Halloran, or if you walk in the other direction it’s a five minute walk to the boat ramp. These are three of my favourite places to go for walks, bike rides or picnics. I absolutely love going for big long walks to Point O’Halloran and back. All along the walking path there are huge palm trees and it just feels like paradise. At sunset it is unbelievably pretty – all the colours go through their different stages of whimsical pastels through to bright pinks and reds above the calm water ripples, with all the little boats anchored all over the water. It is stunning.
The boat ramp is also one of my favourite places. I love just going for a walk or bike ride down there and on the corner there is a ridiculously good fish & chips shop that also do really good ice creams. It’s the best going down there and getting an ice cream and then sitting by the water while eating it.
Thompson’s Beach is the main swimming area that we go to for picnics and walks. When it is high tide it is stunning, with crystal-clear sparkling water and trees and soft, calm ripples through the water. It’s perfect for me to swim in because it doesn’t get too deep until a fair way out and it’s quite clear at high tide so you can see the bottom. The photo below shows a perfect day we had at Thompson’s Beach – the water was crystal clear, blue, sparkling and the sun was out but that beautiful tree provided shade for us. Perfect for swimming. The other photo shows a crazy sunset at Thompson’s.
One of my other absolute favourite places ever – probably even on this planet – is the Cleveland Lighthouse. It’s a café out on the point at Cleveland, so it sits out on the water and you can see the islands and beautiful water all around you. It is especially stunning at high tide with water splashing up on the walls of the café. I feel like I am living the Queensland dream when I go there. Sometimes I sit there for hours reading a book and drinking a milkshake. It’s our family’s favourite place to go and relax when we all have a day off together. It’s so cute because there’s actually a small lighthouse on the other side of the café. It’s so cool!
So, as you have probably already been able to gather from everything I’ve raved to you about, I LOVE living here. I would even go so far as to say I ADORE this place. It has given me the best lifestyle, we are able to be outdoors most of the time and as a result we are so much more active and healthy. If you hadn’t noticed already I am obsessed with the beautiful water around us and the unbelievable sunsets we get every day! It’s amazing. Moving here has been the best decision we made. I can’t wait until you can come up and I can show you all around and you can experience it all for yourself! It is seriously like living in paradise all the time and sometimes feels like I’m on a movie because of how fun and beautiful it is, and everything is just a short walk from us. It doesn’t get any better.
I look forward to hearing from you – or you could come up and see it for yourself!
Yours truly,
Elli.
