The Avenue of Giants is aptly named. It is home to a large number of redwood trees, proclaimed to be the ‘highest’ of trees all across the world. All of them had grown well and are currently situated in Northern California.

These trees had survived natural disasters and man-made disasters alike; for those that had survived the ages, they now stand majestic and proud. Though they can’t help it if something happens to their base trunks. Which there was.

Four of those ‘hollow’ trees still stand, and are tourist traps in the Avenue of Giants. Why people think its worth spending money over going through the tree trunks (probably to satisfy a morbid desire of getting squashed by tons and tons of wood, rot, and leaves) is beyond me. But money is money. Welcome to the Drive-Through Trees of California.

The best two I could offer are the ‘Tour Thru Tree’ and the Shrine Drive Thru Tree. The former being one of the better drive through trees out there (you have a nice spot with the other people who also took the drive through) with added photo-opportunities and quiet lunches (they have a good lunch spot). The other one, is an almost-natural drive through, thanks to an ‘opening’ (encouraged, but not created) that existed probably decades back. They also have tree houses that leave kids wanting to live in them (just don’t leave them behind, kid traps are probably more dangerous than tourist traps).

Speaking of tourist traps, there are many to encounter after all that work with the drive throughs. Gift shops (like the Eternal Tree House) are here and there, and attractions (speak Hobbiton, that old Hobbit attraction) are abound. There’s oddities too, like the One-Log House (just one redwood log!) and the Wood Clocks (more like crosscut sections of giant redwoods); they’re nice things to see.

Hopefully, all this wood gets you inspired for some woodworking.

Being a former gold mining town, Gympie is covered in old mine shafts that have never been thoroughly documented, or for that matter, properly sealed.

Recipe – take one old mine shaft, add a couple of inches of soaking rain – and hey presto, instant hole in your backyard. This hole took out water pipes – which of course added to the problem, water meter and an outdoor table and chairs setting. The hole, measured around 30 feet in diameter and was 12 feet deep. This picture shows just one corner of the hole. The fence in the corner is dangling over the middle of the hole.

An interesting side note  – the property is owned by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s uncle whom he was named after.

The hole is expected to be filled and sealed by the end of this weekend.

A nice surprise to wake up to. I wonder what other interesting surprises all this rain will uncover.

Tin Can Bay is actually a taken from the Aboriginal word, Tuncanbar, which means Sea Cow (there once where an abundance of dugongs in the waterways).

Tin Can Bay is known as a fishing and boating paradise and also for the rare indo-pacific dolphins which frequent the area. Tin Can Bay is one of only three places in Australia where hand feeding of dolphins in their natural state is allowed.

Tin Can Bay is a very sheltered area just south east of Fraser Island. Fraser Island provides a degree of protection to the area from some of the storms that hit the east coast.

Tin Can Bay has only a small population, however the population quadruples during the peak holiday periods, particularly those with boats who are looking to do a spot of fishing. One of the feature attractions each year is the Sea Food Festival.

Rainbow Beach

To south of Tin Can Bay lies the busy seaside town of Rainbow Beach. Where Tin Can Bay is fairly quite and relaxed, Rainbow Beach is busy and full of tourists. Rainbow Beach has several claims to fame. First, it is named for the colored sand cliffs that line the beach. Rainbow Beach is also one of the access point for those visiting Fraser Island. Rainbow Beach is also novel as it is one of the few places in the world where the beach itself is actually a declared road. The beach road connects Rainbow Beach with the Noosa district on the Sunshine Coast.

Between Tin Can Bay and Rainbow Beach lies Cooloola Cove. A beatiful almost untouched stretch of coastline and beaches. Cooloola Cove is only now starting to grow as a popular residential area being only 30 minutes from Gympie, 10 minutes from Tin Can Bay and 20 minutes from Rainbow Beach – the best of all worlds.

As a footnote – many thanks to all who have left messages – for some reason they were all put into a moderation queue and the theme didn’t notify me. That has been fixed – again many thanks.