Day 11 - The Pea - shop or starve


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Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Maroochydore
November 19th 2008
Published: November 19th 2008
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The PeaThe PeaThe Pea

This is the atomic green car that Hertz thought we would like and I thought we would get a nice white Toyota
Gosh today has been a big day for me and Andy, we finally get mobile and leave Brisbane to head North to Alexandra Headland.

After breakfast we hopped onto the City “Kitty” Cat to Riverside just a few stops down the Brisbane River, to the post office.
It was raining, not very heavily, but still, it was raining, we had borrowed an umbrella from the Rydges Hotel and needed to get in to town, to collect the hire car from Hertz.

Caroline loves the “City Cat” a sleek powerful ferry that works on the river. You just hop on pay, to your destination, then get of.
We were pondering over the signage to the stop, where we were going to get off, a lady asks if she can be of assistance, and we ask here does the on coming ferry take us to Eagle Pier, yes she say’s, she wants to engage us in conversation, that’s fine, I’m a champion at that it turns out that she is originally from Renfrewshire and has been over in Oz for over 30years after a (4) four year stint in the British army.

Once city side, we didn’t dawdle but as
The PeaThe PeaThe Pea

This car really can be seen from space!
we had entered the (CBD) Central Business District, a different way, and were getting our bearings we were twice asked by local people if we were lost, and needed help, we weren’t, but just wanted to look around for some familiar sight from our previous visit to Brisbane. We accepted their help graciously anyway.

In the post office we happened to see the very cheerful Michael again, a guy whom we had met the previous day, when we were trying to see if any mail had arrived for us. It was a pleasure to have a laugh and joke with someone that we had only met the day before, people like this make our transition into Australia much easier and more pleasurable, because lets face it today the weather isn’t doing it.

Bank cards now in hand we really felt that we were getting everything together. Again only such a small step but another thing achieved.

A quick walk back down Queen Street Mall, a coffee and a cake, then onto Hertz to get our car. We went in and spoke to Jenny Miller, who I have to say was exceptionally nice and exceptionally helpful, we have
Headland GardensHeadland GardensHeadland Gardens

This is a view of the living area in our rented apartment. Before we trashed it with all of our belongings.
been very lucky to find such helpful people so far on this adventure. Jenny was, cheerful and joked around with us both as if she had known us for years, and lets face it with Andy’s jokes it is great to have a whole new audience. They were particularly amused by our address on the driving licences and asked if we owned the Rydges Hotel; We wish.

Jenny herself was a New Zealander and her family were Dutch East Indies, lived in England (Chichester) for 2½ years before coming to Australia and strangely enough married an Englishman from Nottingham. (Jenny if you are reading this feel free to correct me with the detail). Jenny’s daughter has just married an English guy, from Nottingham.

Our hire car for 3 weeks is a Holden Commodore 3 ltre. During our conversation with Jenny and her colleagues, I looked outside the door and I saw a green car appear, surely not I thought, they could not possibly be serious? I think they must have looked down the list and saw the only British couple and decided to play a joke, now when I say green I do mean green, it somewhat resembles
Headland GardensHeadland GardensHeadland Gardens

The kitchen, just off the living area.
the colour of a bright coloured Pea. So we have called it “The Pea”. Apparently it is actually atomic green and previously owned by a Ninja Turtle.

We debated over the cost of the car and whether to increase the rental charge to go for the zero option on the excess. Andy asked the question about the golf ball size hailstones that came down in the storm 2 nights ago, would we be liable if the car was demolished by ‘force majeur’? Well the simple answer to that is yes, bearing this in mind we increased the daily rental to ensure that we had the zero option, with the current weather conditions we felt that it was not worth digging out the Aus $3300 excess should the worst happen.

Back at the hotel we checked out, took our box from storage at the hotel and hit the road, it felt great to suddenly be mobile and have that freedom again.

The car is now loaded and we are off, it does feel good to be moving again. As much as we like the hotel gig, it’s the adventure we are after and we are not going to
Headleand GardensHeadleand GardensHeadleand Gardens

The other view of the lounge before our gear was all over the place!
find it stuck in a hotel in Brisbane.

As you are well aware, Caroline’s sense of direction is superb, she is like a human GPS, and just loves maps. In 1997 she navigated us across British Columbia, and Alberta in Canada, and I truly trust her abilities. We get out of town, the traffic is not that heavy, turn here, stay in this lane, as we will be turning soon, I obey, its foolish to try to fight this person with so much power. (Knowledge is power) she knows where she is going and is on a mission.

It's still raining, the windscreen wipers are on intermittent. We are getting used to the car, fortunately its a semi auto box, I love that I’m a lazy driver. I go to flash a driver out, but all I get is a wet windscreen. We see some traffics signs 80 Kilometres to Noosa, 160 Kilometres to Gympie, 1690 to Cairns. (HOW MANY!!!) speaking to the Auzzie’s, this is just around the corner.

We drop in to Caloundra to an address where Del and Karen live, Karen used to work at Norwich union with Caroline In Chandlers Ford.
They both lived in Bournemouth and emigrated to Australia in 2006 and came back to get married in June 2007, that was the last time we saw them. There is a Ford Falcon on the drive, we have a note ready written, if they were not in but Del answers and an Old English Sheepdog bounds out.

Its good to see him, no change really except a couple of extra pounds .

We have to keep moving, we need to get to Alexandra Headlands by 5.00pm, as we have an appointment, with an agent at Headland Gardens, which is a property we have rented for a month.

Got the keys, a nice two bedroom apartment, with an Ocean view, with a large living room, and kitchen. These apartments are all owned by individuals and managed by a company who are a husband and wife team. Its still raining, but the complex has a huge underground car park.

The cupboards are bare, either shop or starve, we have a map of the local area, so we set off for the supermarket. We know trolley etiquette, honed by years of practise in Asda, I think we could have done with two trolleys. $247.00 dollars later we load the car, its hurling it down, we are soaked to the skin, we load and go.

The cupboards are no longer bare.

The apartment is nice, very clean, but dated. We settle in for the evening, too tired to venture out again.


GETTING Our DRIVING LICENCE’S

When we applied for our driving licence they (The Department of Transport for Queensland) asked us for our permanent address !! we don’t have one.

Q. Were are you staying !

A. Rydges Hotel Southbank.

Q. Oh ! will they give you an invoice to stay you have stayed there.

A. I guess so, I will ask

The Rydges Southbank, gave us an invoice for one (1) nights accommodation, as that was all we had stayed at the time, and we proudly handed it in to The Department of Transport for Queensland, and they accepted it.

Our driving licences actually have our address as Rydges Southbank, 9 Glenelg Street Brisbane 4101.

And we live in a secure world !!

Love and miss you all

Caroline and Andy
xx




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