Rain Rain go away!

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It looks like we left and got out of Goondiwindi at the right time, since unfortunately a week after we left and more rain and rivers and creeks swelling it was added to the list of more and more Queensland towns that were flooding. Luckily Brett's cousin Mick and his wife Nicky and daughter Maddy's house (where we were for 4 days over New Years) made out ok, but the water came up to a foot below their house and back porch, which was raised off the ground about 4 feet. They were lucky, but they were evacuated for several days and lost a few of their chooks (chickens).

Meanwhile Brett's other cousin Corey and his family who we were with at New Years, had made it back to their house in Chinchilla, a few hours from Gundy, and were starting the clean up from the floods that hit at Christmas. Little did they or so many other people know that there was more to come, and some of the worst flooding in Australia's history. And unfortunately for them, and so many other people, this second time around they lost alot more and water got into their house. Brett's Aunty Shell and Uncle Dennis who had all of their belongings from their house stored on Corey's property in a container, and lost almost everything they owned in that first flood, photos and all, now got hit again were sorting through what was left, which unfortunately wasn't much.

We were really lucky we were back in Byron and managed to miss all of this craziness that Mother Nature was throwing out there. Byron Bay is only about hour and half south of Brisbane, but somehow this area managed to be ok. Can't say the same for so much of South East Queensland. It really was heartbreaking to watch it all on tv and also know people that have been affected by it. Thankfully everyone is ok, and in the true Aussie spirit there were still cold beers flowing at the local pubs. We did get quite a bit of rain, but then also some sunny days thrown in there, so we were trying to make the most of our last couple weeks of our 2 months in Byron. Where did the time go?! And before we knew it we were making our way down to Sydney with this idea of something called "work"....

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