Departure from OZ

We played our final round of golf at Robina Woods yesterday. This is a very good course and is sort of like playing a mountain course as it has lots of up hills and down and is heavily treed.

We depart tomorrow morning for Auckland where we will over over night at the Oakwood Manor. We have stayed there before and it is OK. Not much but as good as you can find for$99 a night. There are not many quality hotels around the airport, just a lot of old motels.

The last month has been very good in Australia. No rain to speak of and temperatures around 27.

We have 4 bowlers and 4 golfers left. They will be here for one more week. All 8 are staying in Twin Towns.

Went up to Tambourine Mt the other day to check on the wine situation. There are about 14 different cellar doors on the mountain. They do grow grapes there but they are mainly for show as all the wine sold up there is from the Granite Belt about 2 hours south. They use Tambourine for their outlet as there are lots of tourist up there. They have some nice restaurants and the wine from the Granite Belt is good. This is a good place for the wine drinkers to explore next year.

The golf course up there is very pretty but hill and tough to walk. Now that we have played it once we will not do it again but if you are going there and want a hit check it out.

From Auckland we head to Fiji for 8 days. Will stay at a golf resort for 4 nights then take a two night cruise and spend 2 nights at the airport. During the time there we will GPS and review the two main courses as we play them. It is in preparation for next year when we will offer 3, 7 and 14 day packages. They could be the final destination or could be stop overs for those coming and going to Australia and NZ.

Each year we are sad when we have to leave OZ. The living is easy here and we like the area a lot. We have our places lined up for next year with a return to the Sunshine Coast and then back to Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast. We are also thinking of a side trip for 2 nights to the Granite Belt for wine tasting and maybe 3night at Crains.

Next report should be from Fiji.

Coff's Harbour

Eight of us took a two night three day trip to Coff's Harbour. It is about 4 hours south of here. Coff's is a large town on the ocean and in a tropical region. This area is famous for their bananas. We of course went there to golf their world famous golf course, Bonville. This course may have the most senic 18 holes of any course we have played. The goast gums and wonderfull and the vegeation and gardens are also very nice. The course did lack the service quality that you would expect of top notch course. The following day we played the town course and found it to be as good as any course rated say in the 90 to 100 range of courses in Australia. We like the area and thought it would be a good retirment area.

Lights Landing Condos

In Adelaide we are going to use Lights Landings Condos which are on the marina and the ocean. They are very nice as you can see from the photos. The views are excellent as well. We will offer two weeks in Adelaide and 2 weeks in Coolangatta. For the wine tours we will start in Adelaide, then move to the Gold Coast and then to Sydney. This way the wine lovers and explore SA and then relax on the tropical coast in Queensland and then to Sydney where they can spend a day or two in the Hunter. While on the Gold Coast they can visit Tambourine Mt and the vineyards there. This will give them three areas of Australia to compare and contrast the different wines.

Glenelg

Glenelg is maybe the best suburb in Adelaide. It is on the beach and they have a very good walkway that goes for miles along the ocean front. Our condos are on the water with very good views. The town has lots of stores for good shopping and a great deal of restaurants for eating. They have a world class beach volley ball site for coaching on the beach. Here are some views of the area.

Adelaide

Beth and I flew over to Adelaide to check out the city and the accommodations where our clients will stay next year if they choose the two locations golf tour or the wine tour. We found the area to be very similar to Coolangatta in Queensland. A nice town feeling, good beach, good condos and easy to get to the various wine areas. Barossa is about 1.5 hours and McLaren Vale about 45 minutes. There are enough golf courses in Adelaide and in the wine regions to please the golfers. The area is very close to the airport so coming and going is very easy. The condos have good views of the ocean and the marina. South Australia is the wine state in Australia and Adelaide is the wine capital. We did not have enough time to enjoy all the area has to offer but we did get around and see a lot. We shipped back a dozen good bottles of wine so we could enjoy them on the Gold Coast.

Opera in the Park

Each year we always try to take in the free Opera in the Park. The last two years it has been held at The Salt in Kingscliff. It is a great time as everyone takes their wine, and most take a picnic. Australian's are a very cultured group. They like their movies, music, dance, opera and all other forms of culture. These pictures show the gathering and the various set ups the people bring.