Back on Australia

Our Guadalcanal tour ended on August 9th with a flight back to Brisbane. There we met up with our Australian “mates”, Carol and Greg. We met them in 2012 on our first river cruise. Since then we’ve taken several trips together and keep in contact with Skype. They joined us at the airport hotel in Brisbane.

After spending the night at the airport hotel we headed out to Australia’s Gold Coast. Our first stop was at the waterfront at Main Beach to enjoy the view and buy freshly caught and cooked prawn from a trawler captain on the back of his boat. We chose the medium size and they were pretty big. We stopped at a bakery to buy rolls for our lunch and then walked along the coastal reserve. The coast was beautiful and the skyline was filled with magnificent hotels, condos, and apartments.

Along the waterfront we spotted people in the water in wetsuits. This seemed odd to us because the Australians are definitely warm weather creatures and this is totally out of character. We were further confused by the “NO SPEARFISHING” signs posted along the boardwalk and the wet suited spear fishermen carrying their fins and spear guns and heading to the water. Were those signs posted for the fish?

Carol and Cory waited in the car while the guys checked into the hotel only to discover that their long wait was due to the boys enjoying the champagne they were given when they checked in. The check-in clerk “bon joured “ the gents when they arrived and the gents “ bon jouerd “ them back. After a very short conversation in French: “How are you? Fine. And you. (Their French was poor but their French spelling is worse.), They were rewarded with a glass of champagne by the concierge. They had also exhausted their French.

Greg booked the room and we had an amazing view of the city and ocean. Once settled into our rooms we enjoyed our fresh prawn sandwiches! It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm, so we took a walk along the water, checked out some stores and enjoyed dinner on the waterfront.

On Sunday, we headed out to our next stop in Yamba. We drove to Byron Bay and spotted a wonderful way to transport your puppy. We’ve all seen dogs in cute little outfits, jeweled collars and leashes, phony service dog vests, those ridiculous dog strollers, but we had never seen, until today, a truck modified so that the puppy could look out the side of the truck.

Along the way we stopped at the Cape Byron State Conservation Park. We had lovely views of the ocean and a magnificent lighthouse. From the lighthouse we saw whales breaching off the coast.

We had stopped earlier in the day and brought some more rolls and ate the remainder of the shrimp. We were joined at lunch by a wild turkey. They were all over the coastal area. They are smaller than our turkey, ugly, and they taste horrible per the locals. Our turkey jumped onto the picnic table bench and stole the top half of a roll. As he enjoyed lunch with us several of his birdie friends joined him and so went our lunch. Carol did give us her only turkey recipe. You take a cleaned turkey (they only weigh about 10 pounds), insert a brick in the cavity, put it in a large pot of water and your favorite vegetables and spices. Bring the water to a boil then simmer for 5 hours. Remove the turkey from the pot, throw it out and eat the brick!

We checked into the Angourie Resort in Yamba and caught the sunset over the water before dinner. Dinner was at a local pub. Lucky for us a local band was playing. The music was great and the volume vibrated us off our chairs. That made “happy hour “ even happier. Sadly they stopped playing when our dinner arrived. We found that in Australia, dining, other that table cloth dining (fine dining) requires that you place your order at the bar. There is no wait staff. You take your drinks with you and someone brings your food to the table. That is how they have addressed staffing shortages.

Monday morning was rainy so we headed to Carol and Greg’s house in Bellingen where we spent the next few nights. Tuesday we managed to travel between the rainy times and drive to the Dorrigo Mountains and the Gondwana Rainforest. The walk out to the overlook gave us great views of three rain forests and the mist over the mountains. Along the road we saw a number of waterfalls Which are always a wonder to see. That night we had dinner with “the family”, Sandy, Roz, Lockie, and Olivia and Andrew, Emily and baby Rafi. We had shared so many family stories over the years that it was great to to meet them in person.

The next two days we hung out around Bellingen, checking out some stores and the coffee shop and just relaxing. Thursday we drove to Urunga to see the honey store that Sandy and Roz have. It is such a cute place and Roz makes the best chocolate and honey muffins! Sandy makes the best scones in the area hands down. He protects the recipe like the Swiss Guards protect the Pope. It is believed that he has left out a critical ingredient in the “verbal” recipe he has shared, even with his wife, because no one can come close to his scones. And yes, he refused to share his recipe with us.

From there we walked along the Urunga Lagoon enjoying the sunshine and views. We stopped for lunch by the water and made it home before the rain returned.

On Saturday the four of us set out for our flight to Fiji. It’s the last leg of our trip and we’re looking forward to some fun in the sun and time to relax! Fiji, here we come!😎😎💕