The Bunya Long Weekend May 22-25

After much concern about all the rain we had on Tuesday and Wednesday – we checked that all the roads where open – thankfully they all where.

So we headed up to Bunya Mountains (about 3hours north west of Brisbane), it was a nice day thankfully – we had hired a big cabin for the weekend.

Mark, Sue, Nick, Dionne and Phil joined us there on Friday afternoon. While the girls unpacked and made beds, the boys chopped up some wood for the weekend (like real men do when they are drinking West Coast Coolers!!) I got the fire going and opened the Baileys.

We had a booking for dinner at the local restaurant Cider Gum at 6pm – even though it was a little more expensive than what we normally pay – it was well worth it! Excellent service and food, we all had something different and we all enjoyed it (that is quite a feat!!) the desserts where to die for and we all went back over the weekend, to taste the rest of them at some point! I would put this food experience as one of my top 10 in my life!!!!

We all staggered back home, to have a port or two in front of the fire.

We all woke up to thick fog in the morning and very cool – it was very beautiful (except for the sound of the screaming kids next door!), I had a bit of a walk around with the camera, it was very cold and the wallabies where out and about eating the dewy grass – they are quite use to the visitors so you can within a couple of metres of them. As it is going into winter, the trees where all changing colours and shedding their leaves, which we never get to see in Brisbane. We got word from Kelly that she was flooded in at Dalby and couldn’t make it, which was a real shame. Rob arrived and made himself comfortable in the singles quarters (lots of bunk beds). I had a quick look around the shops and then settled in next to the fire with a good book and cuppa and some handmade chocolates (from the shop) whilst everyone went to the games room to play pool and table tennis (which I hear can get quite violent!!!) The boys then played Frisbee golf. Mark and Sue got us all in a sing a long for the afternoon.

Phil made soup for entrée, then we had slow cooked lamb and roast veg and Rob brought a special Cadbury Turkish delight and choc moose (wink). We all settled in for a night of Balderdash.


Sunday – no fog this morning, but very windy. Mark and Sue made breakfast for us all, before Nick and Dionne headed off. The rest of us had lunch at the Cider Gum, then said goodbye to Phil and Rob. The cabin was quite quiet with just the four of us left, so we watched Twilight, then Sue and I settled down with a wine, cheese and crackers in front of the fire, and we all caught up on the news from the outside world.

Monday – pack up and clean up morning and headed home via Toowoomba, found a great little country store for shirts and boots and stopped for lunch in the shopping centre.


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Hens and Bucks Parties

2nd May

Hen’s Party x 2!!!!

I was in for a big day – two Hen’s Parties.

The first being for Dionne, who is marrying Nick in August for which we are a part of the bridal party. This was Phase 1 of the 3 part Hens party.

High Tea at Versace Hotel down the Gold Coast. We all had a lovely time and lots of little food that was wonderful! All very civilised!!! We all walked next door (passing Bonnie Lithgo from “so you think you can dance, on the way) to Fishes Bar to meet up with the Bucks party – not so civilised!!!

The boys had, had lunch at the Hogs breath and continued to the Bar – they had all tried their best to get Nick as drunk as possible!!!

The photo’s explain it all!!!

Then we hopped in the car home for a quick clothes change and reapply the make up, downed a scotch, then we headed into West End. Mark and Mikey dropped us off and they headed to the Footy. Sue and I headed to the wonderful (but not cheap) lavish bar to catch up with Vicki (the Hen) and the rest of the party before going to the Indian across the road. We had a great time of drinking, chatting, playing hens games and eating wonderful food (great price, very clean restaurant, not very hot though). It was a great night!!! Sue and I got a bit of exercise, by walking to the cultural centre for the bus and meet the boys on the other side of the footy grounds to go home.

What a great day!!!!

Photos from Nicks Buck's party can be seen here

Baz's 40th

April 19th - Baz's 40th party

David (Baz) invited a few close friends and family to the Southport Sharks Football club to celebrate his 40th birthday (later in the week).

A good night was had by all, and it was great to catch up with some old friends.

Gallery, Slide show

Mt Maroon - April 2009

Good Friday, 10-04-09

The weather is starting to cool down so its the start of our bush walking season. We all enjoyed climbing Mt Maroon last year that this was an obvious choice for my first walk of the year. Mt Maroon is located around 1 hrs drive south of Brisbane and is located in the Mt Barney national Park.

The bush walking group this time consisted o Nick, Dionne, Phil, Rob, Mark, myself and Richard who is visiting from Aberdeen, Scotland.

Richard enjoying the heat.

View looking North from around half way up.

The temperature was still warm, and the clouds looked threatening, but lucky the rain seemed to go around us all day. The scenery was was great as always and we were treated to numerous rock orchids in flower along the top half of the walk.

Nick at the summit

View towards Mt Barney

Rock Orchid

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WA Trip

Tuesday 31st March

After a 5 ½ hour flight to Perth we grabbed the little Getz hire car and started our trip south to the Margaret River it is a 3 1/2 hour drive without stops.

So as you can imagine it was a very long day and we where exhausted by the time we got there.

Booked into the Basildene Manor – absolutely beautiful!!! The staff recommend the Settlers Tavern for dinner, so that’s where we headed 5 minute drive up the road – a good mix of tourist and locals. The temp was dropping, so we where both wrapped up for dinner about 12 degree’s. We had a great couple of meals and a local beer and wine. Back to the Manor to crash – the two hour time difference didn’t help much either!

Flowers at the manor

1st April

We drove down to Augusta to visit Cape Leeuwin Light house (tallest in Australia) where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet. A lovely spot, a bit cool and breezy!!!

We then started our trip back for the day heading north to Jewel Cave for an hour guided tour. The cave was very scenic and very deep (64metres).

We then drove to Hamelin Bay – where a couple of weeks ago over 50 whales and dolphins beached themselves, it is a gorgeous spot, not much there but a caravan park. We managed to get pretty close to a couple of massive rays in the surf!!!

We continued north to Boranup Gallery for lunch, then continued to Lake cave for another guided cave tour. Whist we where waiting the guide pointed out a Bandicoot (I had never seen one before). This tour lasted around 50 minutes and the cave was still very active, unlike Jewel cave. As the name suggests this cave contained a large lake which provided spectacular photo opportunities of reflecting stalactites.

Bandicoot


Lake Cave entrance


Lake Cave


Notice that the stalactite base is flat, old water level

After a quick ice-cream we decided it was time to try some wines.

First up Leeuwin Estate – a beautiful winery with a good wine (service not too good though), and slightly expensive by our standards.

Next up Xanadu Winery for some wonderful wines. We enjoyed every wine that we tasted, good on pricing and service (this place would be great for a wedding).

We then had a quick look at Prevelly where the Margaret River ProAm Surf Carnival was being held. We headed back to the Manor changed and went back to Settlers Tavern for another good meal.

2nd April

Today was for the north side – Headed to mammoth Caves (named for the size) the biggest of the caves – a self guided walk, but due to the exposure and human contamination. It is the least impressive of the them all. We then headed to Gracetown a small seaside town – lots of rocks.

Cavern


Gracetown

Then headed to the Chocolate factory – Yummy! Then next door to the Providore – for jams and chutney tasting – lovely spot to have a lunch – by the look of it. Then up the road for the Nuts and Cereals tasting. Then the special request from Mikey the Bootleg Brewery for the beer tasting – 7 different beers! We grabbed lunch next to the lake whilst we where there.

Frog at Bootleg Brewery


Beer Samples

After lunch we headed to Yallinup and a quick look at the beaches – Up to Cape Natraliste. We drove to the lighthouse next but due to the recent bush fires all the walking tracks were closed. So we headed to Bunker Bay – had afternoon tea at the wonderful Bunker Bay Café.

Bunker Beach

Back in the car to Dunsborough and onto Simmo’s Ice creams – where Mikey had to have a Jaffa Ice cream!!!!

We had a quick look at Annebrook Wines and Flower Emporium (Mikey was disappointed – they where plastic flowers).

Then to Island Brook Estate for a wine tasting – Great service – average wine.

Then the last hope skip and jump home via the Margaret River Dairy co for Cheese and the Candy Cow for some Fudge and Lollies.

We decided to have a small dinner in tonight and grabbed supplies from Coles – Had a glass of red on the balcony watching the sun go down.


3rd April

We packed up and said a sad goodbye to the Manor and jumped in the car for the long drive back to Perth. We took our time getting back up there as Michael and Lesley wern’t back home till 4pm, so we organised to spend a good couple of hours at Busselton to walk the two mile jetty and spend time down in the underwater observatory. Unfortunately the Jetty has just been closed for major renovations – which was a big disappointment!!!

Brusselton Jetty

We heard some major race car racing up the road, so we had a nice walk up the beach and had a quick look – they where doing heats in the park for the forest racing carnival.

Rally practice


Bunbury

We made it to Michael and Lesley’s new place on time (thanks to the GPS unit) had a quick drink and catch up and got changed. Grabbed a taxi and headed out to the grooviest place in Perth…. Devilles. Awesome place – 30’s – 70’s music, with clips from the same era screened on the wall. We had a great table reserved for dinner and the band, it was great to just look around – just about everyone dresses up in some era or good going out clothes has a great feel to it. It was really great to catch up with Lesley and Michael. Unfortunately the kitchen was having an off night and the food wasn’t as good as normal – which was a little disappointing (but the buffalo wings where great!).

The band Rocket to Memphis where Awesome we all loved them - really sleazy Rockabilly! Also there where two Go Go Dancer cages, the girls in matching hot pants suits doing there 60’s strut. Very cool! We all called it a day and grabbed a cab home about 12 – all buggered!


Saturday 4th April

We all headed down to Hillary’s Boat Harbour for an ice-cream and a look around. Had a quick look at an antique shop near Lesley’s work, Then to Subiaco. Jumped in the car and headed to Mt Lawley for lunch and a look around – Found a great shop – Planet books. Grabbed a video and some drinks and chilled out with Lesley and Michael.

View from Hillarys Boat Harbour

Sunday 5h April

It was a beautiful day – we caught the Thornlie train to Perth, walked through a very quite city (doesn’t open till 12 on a Sunday) – jumped on the Captain Cook at the Perth Terminal at the Swan River.

For just $22 we got a great information cruise up the River. Got to see some beautiful houses. Iv’e never seen so many jelly fish – you won’t see me jumping in the Swan River any time soon!

Swan River

We docked at Fremantle and headed to E Block markets for a look around. Then down the main road of Fremantle which is lovely. We then had a wonderful lunch at the Mexican Kitchen – great food and Service. Tehn went and had a look at the Fremantle markets – some great antique shops etc. There was an interesting busker outside a Leather clad and peierced punk bag piper!!!)

Fremantle

We had a quick look at the jail, but didn’t have enough time to do the tour. Jumped back on the train that took us all the way back to Thornlie. Back to Michael and Lesley’s to shower and pack, had a couple of drinks and Michael made some wonderful fajitas. We said our teary goodbyes and off to the airport for the very very long red eye flight home!!!!!


Gallery, Slideshow