Big Things of Oz Collection

Let me introduce you to yet another collection - Big Things memorabilia! Currently in it's early stages and surprisingly not as easy to find as I would of thought its still been fun keeping my eyes peeled whilst op shopping.  Below are its humble beginnings...

A fridge magnet of the Big Koala down in Victoria, which I've sadly haven't seen yet...
#bucketlist

I also stumbled upon this amazing vintage tee, which has secret buttons so you can fold your shirt sleeves up!

I think this shirt is actually what started the collection off.  I love it's colour and illustration of  the Big Gumboot in Tully :) I also decided my Big Things Blog needed a good about photo but I dunno, maybe I should of made Ben take this rather than a tripod :P

I live in the same town as the Big Pineapple and to be honest when I picked up this book I was really disappointed that the words out weighed the photos - I really wanted the book to be filled with huge vintage photos but after reading it I'll happy eat my own words because it's awesome! I read it whilst having my back issues and every five minutes would yell out to Ben an exciting fact that popped up through the pages. The Big Pineapple or should I say, Sunshine Plantation (didn't swap names till 1996) has definitely been on a journey of highs and lows and hopefully it's headed back for another high! Also, did you know Macadamia nuts (another famous product of The Big Pineapple) are the only native Australian plant to hit the international market.  Do you guys eat Macadamia nuts?

I also got this (paper weight?!?) of the Big Banana - if someone knows the name of these tourist items let me know, they seem like they want to be a snow dome but without the snow or dome :p

So, yup, humble beginnings but it's only the start - the hunt is on!

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Big things of NSW

I've been blogging over at my Big things blog but thought it would be fun to compile all the Big Things 
I discovered on our trip down to Port Macquarie, into one post here :)

First up the big prawn! 

 Definitely my favourite big thing so far, it was amazing! Recently it under went a facelift - 400,000 dollars later and he finally has a tail and a new paint job :) Well spent coin in my opinion!

I love it most when people around me get on board with my love of Big things 

They get even more points when they want in on the picture!

This guy is Ben's brother, Paul outside the Big Bowls in Lake Cathie

The Big Banana

or as I like to call it the big overhype :P 

It is one of Australia's most famous big things but honestly I've seen better :p 

(oops maybe that's too harsh!)

Kew's Big Axe

(the very small township of Kew seem to be very proud of this axe, so I better watch my words here :P)

 In a more random direction, just before the big prawn we saw this pineapple at a petrol station.  Definitely one of the more bizarre big things finds as it didn't seem to have any purpose and you could also go inside of it! Whilst the windmill on the right unfortunately has a tragic story attached where the original builder died whilst constructing it :(

Full Disclaimer: I didn't know that fact before posing for the photo so I probably wouldn't of looked so happy

(my faux pas)

 Cunningham's Big Bunch of Bananas

Like the big banana, the big bunch of bananas also lives in Coffs Harbour and unfortunately suffers under it's shadow - I still thought it was cool :)

The Big Knight and the Big Avo

both are adjoined to tourist attractions, Macadamia Nut World and Tropical Fruit World which we unfortunately didn't have time to visit :(

And lucky last the Beehive at Urunga

which we did get to stop in and where I picked myself up some yummy local honey!

I'm not sure if I told you guys but Ben and I are roadtrippin' back to Port on the 20th because Ben's brother (the guy on the motorbike above) is getting married - woohoo, it was a bit of a surprise but I'm super excited to go back, I love road trips! This time we're also taking the inland track down rather than the ocean way so I can photograph a few more big things *looks ridiculous excited*

Oh another happy note, Ben is back, *dances like crazy* woohoo!

(forgive me if this blog turns into a ghost town for a while :P)

Catch you on the flip side!

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Day Three - Ulverstone

So Ulverstone was where we thought we would bunker down for the night but there were a lot of "no campervan" parking signs that scared us off, instead we played in their playground, ate some tasty fish n chips and took photos of a giant globe

So that night we drove to Cowries point which was listed in my free campsite print out but was possibly just someones back yard. Never mind we made sure to leave before sunrise deciding to add an extra item to our intinerary, Stanley! Stanley reminded Ben and then me, of the Tim Burton flick, Dark Shadows, so it was definitely a worthy detour!

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Day Two - To the Caves

In our Deloraine sculpture trail pamphlet (which you can get from their info centre or email them beforehand and they'll lovingly send you out one!) there was a cool looking, boat sculpture located at the Ashgrove Cheese Farm. Turns out Ashgrove cheese is pretty big in tas, well, judging by all the times we saw it pop up in shops over the week, also turns out they'd never heard of any boat sculpture. They did however have yummo cheeses and cool painted cows...a worthy detour in my opinion! After indulging in our cheese feast it was onwards to the caves but not before snapping away at a few more Big Things :)

and look at that beast that was our car!

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Day 2 Nth Qld - Tully

So on Christmas Day we woke up and opened gifts, I got the most amazing gift from the Glynn's

Just look at that presentation..gasp!

I was also surprised with a beautiful photo book that Ben put together for me :)

So after getting our Christmas cheer on we knew nothing would be open today but nature so we decided to take advantage of that and headed to Murray Falls which is close to Tully which is a town back from Mission beach *breathes out*

The town of Tully

It just so happens that Tully has a giant gumboot and so begins my mission to photograph all the big things in QLD! Or at least all the big things along the coastline. So why does Tully have a giant golden gumboot you ask? Well a rubber gumboot use to be awarded to the town with the highest rainfall in Australia, Tully is always up there with the winners and thus they took the small rubber gumboot to the extreme! I guess you could say extreme gloating!

What I like about this 7.9 metres high boot is that you can actually go inside of it. Ben and I have constructed a big things rating system and this is one of the scoring musts! More on that later though!

and one for good measure, found this highly amusing, me in gumboots standing in front a giant gumboot :P
amazing, no?

We then drove past the thriving Tully banana trees, at the time I was thinking why on earth was Brisbane's banana prices so high when there was clearly an abundance here and being sold so cheaply (on returning home I found out that banana are cheap everywhere!)

anyhoo we arrived at murray falls

such a lovely place

lots of birds

and butterflies

and the loveliest water to swim in

After exploring and getting wet on this amazingly hot and humid day we headed back into Mission beach to get a snap with Mission's own big thing..why yes the big cassowary

Ben got beeped by some guys in a car whilst posing for this shot :P

We stumbled across some more cassowary action in Mission Beach

but unfortunately no real cassowary sightings :(
The signs get you all excited but then majorly let down when you don't see any

That night we curled up to watch the Bill Murray scrooged film, I had never seen it but it was awesome! We also went on a failed frog mission in Carmen's yard and played with sparklers.

I have to say the perfect way to finish off Christmas!

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