Blogs from Coolangatta, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 3

Went to the beach cricket this weekend at Coolangatta on the Gold Coast. That's right on the border between Queensland and New South Wales, about an hours train ride from Brisbane. Some of the best Ex England, Australia & New Zealand Players took part. The captains were Alan Border, Graham Gooch & Martin Crowe. Was a fantastic feeling to see some of my childhood heroes playing in such close proximity? I got to the coast early Saturday morning to find a massive queue all the way down the esplanade. Surprisingly once it started to move I was in the ground pretty quickly and moved towards the beer tent. The first game was Australia vs. England which both needed to win to qualify for Sundays final. I decided to make myself comfortable for an afternoon of cricket ... read more

On 17th Dec we not only said goodbye to N Z but Aileen and Tony as well. Then following our not without delays flight to OZ, picked up our hire care and drove to Peggy's for more fond farewells to her and Sydney. We began our drive north to Grafton on the East Coast Highway and arrived on 22nd Dec just in time to help with the Christmas festivities. Driving on the East Coast was a lot busier than NZ and for the most part was single lane. The first day we visited the Hunter valley which is famous for its vineyards and Pinot Noir and spent the following few day enjoying a slow drive along the coast stopping for extra days when we found places especially interesting. We were very priviliged when visiting a lighthouse ... read more

20-10-07. Early surfside. Light clouds mean fine day. Maleny malarky. Gathered bamboo. Spruiked successfully maleny. Restored faith fight goes on. Swapped sticker for coffee buzzed in the street. Maybe its about taking the time to wonder wander through the labrynth of existance. Green grass and elm trees kids on swings, asian student contingent black hair packs and cycles. Here bridge obi obi lightly trafficked saturday. Jacaranda bliss springing lightly purple on the scene. Lotus eaters and locusts. Red wine in the park looks good. I must speak to them all. Strolled obi where whispers distant elders and large lizard observed me intently, our predator the asteroid obliterated. Hugh bamboo stand many meters tall. Retaining walls and carparks. I won't shop woolies excellent rejeneration. Two pumping jumping bunyas out of the ground. Enthusiastic supporters. A family getting ... read more

We had an early night after our full day at SeaWorld, and so we were up early again on Tuesday morning for our Whale Watching adventure. We were joined by 3 people from Montana, and 2 old blokes from Oz. Our skipper was a hilarious bloke, and we had a really entertaining morning. Skipper John said he loves to watch people's faces when they first see the boat, and I can understand why. It looked like a big dingy! It was surprising stable once you get on board (it's actually the kind of boat they use for rescues), but it wasn't much to look at. The whales were being a little bit shy. For a while, it looked like we would have to be content with the single flying fish that we saw. The water was ... read more

We went to the beach this morning until about 12:45 then we came home packed our stuff and got back on the road by 3:10!we were on our way to bargara and we arrived there about 5 hours later at about 8:30. When we got to the apartment we had a look around and had a drink at the poolside bar. We were all tired by this point so we came home and went to bed in our two separate houses.... read more