Aussie Bob and Aussie Beth on Australia Day

This year for Australian Day, January 26, we went to Coolum, the town just 3 kms north of us. We hurried to get to the parade that I thought began at 1030 but when we got there it was over. It started at 10 am. There were plenty of activities going on. They had rides for the kids and the young at heart, the market was in town and they welcomed a lot of new Australian citizens.In the afternoon all the big events took place.  

The main event was the toad races. We had looked forward to that the entire week.

They have 20 toads that they raffle off to the highest bidder. The winning bid owns the toad for the race. They raised $800 which 1/2 goes to the first three toads to cross the finish line

. The

 winner gets $200, second $150 and third $100. All toads are numbered and placed in the compartment of the circular box. On the count of three the starting box is lifted and 20 toads hop around. The toad that reaches the outside black ring of the toad course is the winner.

Great excitement.

However the next day on the TV we saw a cockroach race. We will have to check that out next year.

The rest of the day had tug of wars, thong throwing, and the Iron Man competition. In the

 iron man they had toeat a meat pie run around a post and return and drink a beer, run around a post and then carry a bale of hay around the

 post. 

Fireworks lit up the night sky.

We only have two more days here at Peregian Beach on the Sunshine Coast. We enjoyed out time here but we are ready to move on. 

In Australia there are a few signs that you may not to ignore.

Our local village had a nice town square with lots of restaurants and shops.

Crikey What a Ripper.

Yes you guessed it. Beth and I went to the Australian Zoo yesterday. This zoo is the creation of the famous crocodile hunter, Steve Crikey Irvin. The only day of rain we have e

xperienced so far was yesterday. We got soaked and left early b

ut we managed to see most of what we wanted.

Over the years I put off going as I thought I had seen all the animals of Australia during all our previous visits. It was not until my good mate Dave told me he thought the zoo was

 very well done that I thought we should go.

The zoo is about 2 hrs by four lane highway from the Gold Coast, maybe 2.5 hrs. It is well worth making this day trip, especially for first time visitors to Australia.

We found the park very attractive, well laid out, with lots of shows, wild life, and tropica

l vegetation. It was one of the cleanest and greenest parks I have visited. Our day c

onsisted of walking around and viewing the many different animals, reptiles, birds and shops. We took in the croc show, elephant show and the tiger show.

It was also very neat that the Irwin family presented the croc show. That Robert is going to be

a character just like his dad

Everyone knows Australia is different, Australians do things differently. The water in the toilet goes down the opposite way, light switches operate the opposite of ours, the sun is in

 the north but the other day we saw another thing that was backwards.

We were walking the beach to town and we saw two people fishing for worms. Ye

s fishing

 for worms. They were using fish for bait and tyring to catch some worms that were about a metre long. They filled a bag full of dead fish and then mopped the wet sand with the bag leaving behind the smell of the fish. The worms would come up to eat. When they arched their backs the worm fisher would grasp it and a tug of war began. Finally after a minute the worm lost and was stuffed in their worm container. Later that day the poor worm became bait for the fish. What

goes around comes around.

The worms are about 1cm in diameter as the picture of their hole indicates.

The Beach is Back.

   

Yesterday we found that our beach was back from the King Tides so we went for a long walk towards Coolum. There were a lot of people on the beach when we got to town. Along the way we pasted walkers and most of them had  dogs with them.

That afternoon we were invited for lunch at the neighbors across the street. They have a very nice beach home where they spend their holidays. They live in Canberra which is a two day drive south. They served the Australian national dish, prawns.

They closed a beach in Noosa on the weekend because a number of stingers had been blowen into the swimming area. The picture shows one that was on the beach. They can give you a good sting. If hit by them you are supposed to go to the life guards and they put ice on area. A couple of years ago we were at a surf carnival when a couple of the young girls swam through them and got stung. They came out of the water screaming.

While in Mooloolabah we stopped into the David Hart Art Gallery and purchased a  picture, Tangled Flowers. We now have one by Pro Hart, David Hart (Pro's son) and Julie Hart (one of his daughters). They had on display one of his grand daughters (Cloie) works. The whole family paints. Pro Hart is one of the art icons from Australia.

A Great Weekend of Golf

   

Since my last report we played on three of the best courses in Australia.  The Golf Guide ranks Club Pelican at #16, Hyatt Regency Coolum at #18 and Twin Waters at #43. Each course was different even though they are just a few kilometres apart. Club Pelican is a very tough course designed by Greg Norman. The Hyatt is a mature, attractive course, groomed very well and designed by Robert Trent Jones. Twin Waters is carved out of Paper Bark trees with lots of birds and wildlife. All three have resorts associated with the courses.

We did take Saturday off for some shopping. We went to the Eumundi Markets.

 They claim to be the biggest and best in Australia. Who am I to dispute that. We also went into Noosa and checked out some of Beth's favorite stores. We had a bite to eat at the Tewantin

 Wharf and watched the ferries come and go. When in Noosa make sure you stop at the Yatch Club and the Surf Club for food and drinks. They both have great views of the water and you can just sit and enjoy all the goings on.

.  

Returning to the golf aspect of this blog I have to show you a few photos of Mt Coolum and the wild life that we see as we play these courses. Mt Coolum is the second largest monolith in Australia. Ayers Rock is the largest one. The variety of birds is outstanding and it is always nice to see a kangaroo or two.

Odds and Ends

When we arrived we had a great walk on the beach. Then we went to the Gold Coast for three days. During those three days we had a full moon, King Tide and winds from off shore. We  decided to walk the beach on returning but here was no beach, it had been sweep away by the King Tide. All the sand had been washed away and the sea had cut into the bank on the dunes. They (Australians) said it was the highest King Tide in 25 years. 

Yesterday we went to Caboolture, a 

city one hour south. It is a 

very attractive city inland about 45 minutes 

from the sea. We went there for golf as it may be the cheapest place in Queensland. Midweek, 18 holes, walking, with 2 for 1 book, only $9 each. That's right 50 cents a hole. Course is O

K and it scored about 72 on

  www.golfincanada.ca scale.

Petrol prices are around $1 a litre. 

A few questions I have about Australia.

Why can a country produce excellent meat pies and sausage rolls but can not  make a decent plate of chips (French Fries). They all seem to be made in the same factory.

Why do Aussies have such a fascination for green frogs? We have three statues of frogs on our little patio.

Why can I sit on the pool deck and watch the automatic pool vacuum clean the pool?

Why have Aussies never bought into the concept of chain restaurants? Yes they have MacDonald's, KFC, and Hungary Jacks but nothing like Boston Pizza, Swiss Chateau, Moxies, Earls or Denny's. They have Sizzlers but that is about it.

Why is Australia reluctant to slope their golf courses and join, Canada, USA, NZ and a few other countries? Since they do not have this system I can not record my scores from here for my Canadian handicap.

Busy Start

Since arriving at our very nice exchange home here on the Sunshine Coast we have been very busy.

Our accommodation is in a 3 bedroom bungalow, with a

ir con, 

tile floors, double garage and a wonderful yard. We have a  nice pool at the back and we love to sit out there for meals, happy hour and at other times. It is very relaxing watching 

the water. So far I have been in each 

day for a brief period of time.

We are just a few hundred metres from the beach we have to walk across the road and down a little 

path through the dunes. The beach stretches for about 8kms in each dire

ction. We have managed one walk on the beach for an hour the first day.

Two days after arriving we had to go to the Gold Coast to do some work and pick up our golf clubs from Darryl. It takes about 2.5 hrs to reach the south end of the Gold Coast. We p

icked up the remaining membership cards from Twin Towns, Coolangatta Tweed and Tweed Bowls.

For the golfers arriving the first week of February please remember to ask Darryl for your membership cards and your golf book when you 

pick up your rental car.

We also meet with our new real estate agent as we will be replacing Kingscliff  next year. This way we will have everyone in the Coolangatta area. The name of the new agent is Stringham Real Estate. They have some excellent basic condos , some good intermediate and some outstanding high priced ones. We will still do the Hill and Twin Towns as our major resorts.

We spent two night with Darryl and Denise. They have put in a good size pool with all the trimmings. It is very nice.

The second day our first golfers of 2009 arrived. They landed at 0955 and got on the 1115 shuttle. They arrive at 1400 at the car rental agency. We expected them about 1245 so I called to see where they were and if they had got the shuttle. It turns out that the bus was full and they had to stop at a lot of other hotels prior to reaching us. The clients did not mind as the weather was warm, the bus had AC and they got a tour. 

The weather has been warm around 28 to 29 but the last two days were very windy. Today the wind stopped and Beth and I went and played our first round since October first. We played at Mount Coolum.

It is a good course and we have always enjoyed it when we have played there in the past.

We use the www.golfincanada.ca format for evaluation courses. There are 10 categories each worth 10 pts. The main ones are Greens, Fairways, Tees, Design, Difficulty, Value, Scenic with Club House, Staff and Others rounding out the 10. 

Mt Coolum scored well on greens, fairways, difficulty, design, value and scenic categories but lower on tees, club house, staff and others. I gave it a 74. We paid $37 each with the discount book and $32 for the power cart. 

Most non resort courses only offer blue and white tees for men and red for the ladies. Blue tees are only used by members and club completions. This limits your choices of which tees to play as we always have to play from the white. Because of this tee boxes are limited and not a lot of effort goes into making them attractive. Also all score cards give the distance in metres from the blue tees and red tees. 

If you have not purchased a golf gps system it is not too late. Go on the www.golfincanada.ca website and get one. Then you can down load all the course in Australia that you are going to play. If in doubt write me and I will give you list. Having a Gps really helps as it gives you distance to the front, center, and back of greens as well as some custom points. The distance is in yardage and it makes it a lot easier then trying to convert from metres to yards. Also you do not have to look for metre stakes and pace off the distances so you play faster. I recommend them to you.

I was happy with the first round since it was over three months since I last swung a club.

Coming home last night we were fortunate to see the Fruit Bats. There were heaps of them. If you are wondering about the Fruit Bats have a look in the archives as there is one blog about them.

Since I collect special Australian words and I like to let you know what some of them are so you can understand the language here. The word is sparkie. Sparkie is an electrician. If you would like to see a larger list again check in the archives for a blog on how the Aussies shorten the words and but an IE on the end.

It is a Long Way Mate

The aircraft was fixed and we left two hours late. There was no mention by United about the reason or that they were sorry. 

The flight was smooth and we were in a 747. They seemed to have upgrade the business and first class sections but the only upgrade in the back was a plasma TV on the wall for the cabin to watch. Yes that is correct we had no individual TVs and we could not select our own entertainment. Very old fashion. 

The seat of course were close together so it was very difficult for me to sleep. Beth did sleep a lot but looked very uncomfortable.

The other bad news about the flight was you had to purchase beer and wine. Needless to say we did not.

However the meals were OK and the crew were fine. I would have to place United near the bottom of the list of all the airlines we have used to get to Australia. Of course Singapore is the best by a very large margin.

Since we left 2 hours late we were two hours late arriving. Good thing I have an excellent travel agent who predicted this and left us lots of time to make our Virgin Blue flight to Brisbane. We are travelling on a Virgin Blue Air pass and that got us to a line called International Passengers. No waiting.

When entering Australia in Sydney you have to change terminals from the International to the Domestic. This is done by bus and costs $5.50. Since we arrived late there was no line up for Customs and Immigration. 

VB flight was short and we were in a brand new plane, very nice. I did break down and purchase a beer, Victorian Bitter. They to charge for all drinks including soda, and juice.

In Brisbane we transferred to a coach for the trip up to the Sunshine Coast. Oh by the way it is 30 degrees. Does it ever feel nice.

Coach trip was fine and we arrived on time after 6 hrs wait in LAX, 14 hour flight, 2 hours in Sydney, 1 hour in Brisbane and 1.5 hrs driving. This I think totals 24.5 hrs from arriving at LAX to setting foot in our house.

Next post will be about our accommodations for the month of January and our trip to the Gold Coast to do some last minute work and pick up our rental clubs.

The City of Angles.

Beth and I had good 3 hour flight to LA with United. Service was good with lots of offers of soft drinks and juices. No in flight entertainment.

No problems arriving and getting the shuttle to the Sheraton Gateway Hotel. This is one of the closest hotels to the airport with not much around it but other hotels and office buildings. We had a very nice room and then went for a little walk so we could w

ork up an appetite for dinner. Got back in time for happy hour

 and a great pasta meal. 

The next day we were up bright and early for our morning tour of LA. We were picked up at the hotel at 0815 and taken to Santa Monica where we joined a small group of tourists for the

 city tour. The tour took us to Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Hollywood and the walk of stars, Sunset strip and Mulholland Drive.

We saw some very fancy shops on Rodeo Drive. One was a men's clothing store. You shop by appointment and then they close the blinds so tourists can not look in to see who is shopping. You must pay $1500 for the privilege to shop there. You do get it back

 if you purchase more then $1500 worth of clothes. If you decide you do not like anything - too bad you loose the $1500.

After the tour we spend 4 hours in Santa Monica on the pi

er and shopping (window only) The day was warm, the sky was clear but it cooled right off as soon as the sun was starting to set. Santa Monica is a very nice district with good shops, large beach and a very interesting pier.

Some organization had set up a memorial to the USA soldiers that had been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. As you can see in the picture there have been a lot of them. One item that hit home was their death rate in Afghanistan was 6 times that of our Cana

dian death rate.

 By population they should have been 10 times more deaths then ours. It showed me what a dangerous place our troops are working in.

We were then taken back to the hotel where we picked up our luggage and caught the van to the airport. We were 4 hrs early and when we arrived we found out our flight was delayed 2 hrs for repairs. That was a long 6 hrs but we found a nice little bar and meet an interesting Australian who works in Montana on a ranch that takes the wealthy elk, deer, and moose hunting. He spends about 4 months a year working there then goes home and works on his farm in New South Wales. 

Departing Canada

We are sitting in the Vancouver Airport writing this portion of my blog. We left Edmonton with the temperature at -39 degrees. December has been a cold month and we are glad we are heading south. We stayed in Langley BC for two nights. They have a lot of snow here, more then we have in Edmonton. For our stay in Langley we always stay at the Cascade Coast Hotel, casino and convention center. It is located right in the heart of Langley and is  a very good hotel. We had the buffet breakfast today and it only cost $4.99 each. If you are going to stay in the lower mainland then I recommend you stay at this hotel. The hotel also has freen internet service. You can always try and win some money in the casino.

Today we had a snowy drive to airport but we did it in 45 minutes. The only hold up is still the security area after you clear US Customs.  It just seems to be too small and cramped compared to other security areas we go through on these annual trips. Oh well what can I do as we are here early and have 1.5 hrs left before we leave.

Even though there is a lot of snow here it was around +2 yesterday which is way better then -39 in Edmonton. 

We have been to Langley many times over the years and this is the first time I have seen snow.

One nice thing about YVR is they have free Internet which is very nice. It means I can get some work done while we are waiting. Unlike Edmonton that wanted $7 for an hour of use. Way to go YVR.