Life Down Under: Surf Sisters

Cylinder Beach, Mooloomba

Minjerribah, Queensland

This weekend we took the train from Brisbane to a ferry bound for Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island)—rumoured to have the best surfing in Queensland.

*I prefer the aboriginal names for the island and beaches and have included them in this post.

Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) is half nature reserve (Naree Budjong Djara National Park). There are wild birds, koalas (found one high in a tree by the ferry dock), kangaroos and wallabies that roam free and its also a great place to whale watch, spot dolphins, sea turtles and dugongs.

The Quandamooka people have lived on the island for at least 21,000 years (North Stradbroke Island Visitor guide, 2017).

Cylinder Beach,of Mooloomba (Point Lookout) on the northern tip, is amazing—a sheltered cove with an endless soft sand beach, surrounded by magnificent Australian trees : blue gum eucalyptus, mangroves,pink and red bloodwoods, cypress pines and more.

Surf School, dry land training–Life Down Under: Surf Sisters

The girls decided they wanted to surf. Thank you to North Stradbroke Island Surf School for making that happen!

Cylinder Beach opens to the Coral Sea. The Coral Sea is also home to the Great Barrier Reef.

The surf sisters:

Mist

Pip

Tabs

Peter and I snapped pictures this time around as I wanted to give my foot a little more rest before surfing and also, we wanted to concentrate on watching the girls.

Pippi heading for the stars! Life Down Under: Surf Sisters

I feared the surf was a little too high for Pip but she is fearless! Mist and Tabs are expert swimmers and also quite fearless so I felt confident that they’d have more skills out there in the Australian surf than their parents.