Rainbow Beach

Hi, my name is Kirra and if you haven’t read any of my blog posts already, I am 10 years old and my family is traveling Australia for a year.  In this post, you will learn all about our adventure to the AMAZING Colored Sands in Rainbow Beach, QLD, Australia.  I hope you enjoy reading!  

While our friends, the Byrnes, were here from the States, we went to a place called Rainbow Beach in Queensland.  We had never been there before (well, my dad had, but when he was a kid) and we all thought it would be an incredible adventure to go on with our buddies. (All twelve of us!!) We all had an amazing time getting dirty and laughing, so I’m going to share our adventure with you throughout this blog post. Listen carefully and you will hear some incredible facts about Rainbow Beach and the Colored Sands.

When we arrived at the holiday park where we were staying for the night, all the kids’ eyes went to a big red, yellow, and blue bouncy pillow surrounded by sand. First, we had to help unpack the cars. We took our pillows and blankets and put them in our cabins. The cabins were small, but they were very cozy and clean. The best part was that the kids’ room had two bunk beds! We put our stuff on our bunks and then headed out to the bouncy pillow. It was cloudy and had clearly rained before we had gotten there because the sand and the pillow were wet. All the sand stuck to our clothes and our hair. It was very annoying because every time I would try to wipe it off, it would just stick to my hand instead! 🙁 We all headed in for dinner and ate hot dogs that my Dad and Randy cooked. We also had some really yummy fresh salad and some chips. We were all so ravenous because we had not had anything to eat for a few hours. After a good dinner, we headed to bed because we had to wake up at 6 am to get on the road to the Colored Sands (that’s why they call it Rainbow Beach…it’s covered in colored sand). I snuggled into my bed and talked with Norah for a little while. We both got tired and wanted to go to bed, but unfortunately, we were all bit by sand fleas when we were on the pillow so we were itching all night. I felt like I was going to scratch my arms and legs to the point that in the morning, I’d be bleeding.

We had to wake up at 6 am, but I woke up at 5 am because I heard all the parents talking about which car the kids were going in and how we were going to fit all the luggage in the boot (trunk). I tiredly got up and went to the bathroom to wash up. No other kids were awake so I had to be extra quiet. I got dressed, brushed my teeth and brushed my hair. “Good morning Kirra,” my Dad whispered, “Can you go grab the yogurts and hand them out to Ellie, Quinn, and Niyah please?” “Sure,” I said. By now it was 5:30 am and only our whole family was awake. I handed the yogurts to Ellie, Quinn, and Niyah who were in the back of our 4 wheel drive. We were planning to leave around 6 am since most people were awake now. The Byrnes’ kids woke up at around 5:45 am and got ready. We all hopped in the 4 wheel drives that we had rented the day before so we could drive on the beach. (There are no other roads and the beach is considered the highway!) My Dad was driving our car and he missed the turn we were supposed to go to. “Dad!” we all groaned. We were so eager to see the different colors! He turned around and Randy’s car followed us. As we turned onto the dirt road it got super bumpy and we were bouncing all over. Everyone was falling over in our seats and Niyah was laughing and she looked like a bobblehead. We were an hour into the drive and I was starting to feel sick. “Mom,” I said, “I don’t feel too good.” “Oh, um, do you want to come sit up in the front?” she asked. “No, I’m OK,” I said, “Can I just have some water?” My Mom handed back a water bottle and I took a few sips. We finally got to a clearing and rolled onto the sand. “Yay!” we all shouted. Next thing I knew, I saw colored cliffs, gorgeous white-capped waves, and miles of white sandy beaches. We had arrived.                                          

We drove past miles of colored cliffs along the Pacific shores. The colors weren’t actually on the ground. They were in cliffs behind the luscious beaches. We stopped at the red and yellow sand first. They were towering over us and the colors looked so artificial. We all jumped out of the car and ran to the yellow sand. It felt chalky at first, but when we started to climb the cliffs, it started to feel more like sand. I stopped about halfway up the cliff and took my glass bottle that my dad gave me. We brought a bunch of bottles to fill and make sand art as souvenirs. I put a bunch of yellow sand in the bottle and packed it tight. “Mom,” I yelled, “Here’s some yellow sand.” I ran down the cliff as fast as I could. “Thanks, Kirra,” she said. Norah and I ran over to the red sand. “Come on Norah,” I yelled as I started to climb the cliff, “We don’t have all day!” Norah laughed, “Yes we do,” she yelled back, “We’re here all day!” I laughed, “Right.” The two of us ran up the red cliff and because it was steep, we could only get about a quarter way up. Norah had a large Bundaberg bottle that we could fill with the sand. When two bottles were filled with red and yellow sand, we dusted our feet off and hopped back in the 4 wheel drives. Driving on the sand was so fun because some parts are really bumpy and make our heads bob around like bobbleheads. Some parts are really hard to drive through because of the tides and when the water splashes up, it gets us all wet. We smell very fishy afterward.

The next color we went to was grey, black, and white. The cliff had all three of these colors in one little part. There was a ginormous hill of black, white, and grey sand. Norah, Sydney, Ellie, and I started climbing the hill while the parents collected the different colors. When we finally made it to the top, the view was INCREDIBLE!!! “Wow,” I said, “You can see every color from up here!” We all ran down the two-hundred-foot hill. “WOOOOHOOOO!” shouted Ellie. I ran into the water and cleaned my feet off in the waves. The last color we went to was a mix and melt of yellow, pink, purple, and blue. Literally, it looked like a crayon had melted on these white cliffs. It was beautiful! The kids collected yellow and blue, while the parents collected the pink and purple colors. Norah and I ran down to the ocean and washed off. We had had the best day EVER, and could definitely tell why they called it the Colored Sands/Rainbow Beach. We couldn’t believe there were 72 different colors! But we were tired and really ready to go home.

Well, I hope you enjoyed hearing about the adventures of Rainbow Beach, I’ll be sure to write more about our adventures in Australia! Bye!!