Sunday on the Sunshine Coast

Heading out to the Sunshine Coast on a lovely Sunday morning!

A lovely day was had by all! We brought back a tan!

A slow Saturday in Brisbane

Regent enjoying a cigar on the boardwalk!

A Brisbane River cruise and Devonshire Tea down the Brisbane River to Moreton Bay.

Regent on the Boardwalk with Story Bridge in the background on Saturday afternoon.

Regent and Gabiele and a very odd tree!

Gabriele in Bisbane.

Regent in front of Church in Brisbane. Right after this picture was taken, we continued down Ann Street and came upon the Freemasons of Queensland

Grand Lodge - Masonic Memorial Centre just as the members where arriving for the induction ceremony of new member. We were then invited in and introduced to the members as guests from Canada and where given a tour. I think they had an eye on Regent as a viable future brother in the fraternity! Very interesting!!!

The Good Food and Wine Show in Brisbane

I spent a lovely day on Friday at the Brisbane Good Food and Wine show!

And the first exhibitor is none other than Jacob's Creek Wines...of course!

A lovely day of testing new foods and lovely wines!

Fabulous!

The only other thing to say is Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!

Pictures

Sunday in Broadbeach...having a nice cold VB !

The Medina Hotel in Brisbane.

This is Ivory street... Our hotel is at the top of this street. It looks innocent enough does it not?

For my family members, may I just say that SOB Hill in Kelowna had nothing on this hill!

The Story Bridge in Brisbane.

Ummmmm...an Aussie beer on tap!

How much is that pumpkin in the window?!???!!!

On our first day back in town we went grocery shopping and where surprised to come across the following sight in a country where pumpkins are a staple of life !

What a scary sight! Pumpkins on sale for $22.00 just in time for Halloween!

The Aussie $ is currently pretty much at par with the US $, so that pumpkin pie will cost you here!!!

Thank goodness we are not squash enthousiasts!

During our first week here, all the news was concentrated on the 150 th running of the Melbourne Cup, affectionately referred to as the Race that stops a Nation (the sport of Kings)! Mostly, we heard about the fashion and the entertainment that would be leading up to race day and then the race occured last Tuesday at 2 pm (when all the little signs showed up on shop windows indicating shop closed; will be back in an hour!). Finally, the horse that was expected to win and was owned and trained by an Australian (named "So you think")came in second and the Cup went to an American bred horse, that was trained by a French trainer and ridden by a French Jockey and owned by an Australian named "Americain". You might say the whole affair was French Kissed much to the thrill of all concerned! The fashions and hats and flowing champagne made things exciting even for those who did not have any money riding on the great race!

On the weekend, Regent and I rented a car and took a little drive to Broadbeach, our old stomping ground and we were happy to note that not much had changed since we left last March!

A "Lovers" weekend in broadbeach

After a long walk on the beach and a short dip in the pool, is there anything sweeter than a beer and a Cuban cigar on the balcony?



Saturday night dinner at Mama Roma's in Broadbeach...yummmm.
The food was great and the company was hot!




Weiss bier, Aussie Wine and a couple of coolers from Dan Murphy's and we are all set for the weekend.

Getting our weekend supplies at Dan Murphy's in Mermaid Waters! If Dan doesn't have the beer, spirit or wine that you are looking for at the best price in town; then it does not exist!

Look at the satisfied smile on the customer's face! He has a basket full of his favorite Hefe Weiss bier, namely Weinhenstephaner! Yessir, he cant get that one in Canada!!!

Kite boarders on the Gold Coast. Love to see them flip, flop and fly!

Do these thongs make my butt look big?

Zoe and Jessica in Oz

My sister in law, Zoe and her daughter, (my niece) Jessica arrived in the GoldCoast at Coolangatta Airport on Sunday February 7th in the afternoon on Jet Star. As Murphy's law dictates, the 45 minute flight arrived one hour late! No worries!

At least, by the time they arrived, the sun finally came back out after quite a few days of rain because of the King Tides. The weather mate was finally forecasting a gradual clearing over the next few days. WoooooHoooooo!



So, we got to spend some time on the beach, where Jessica tried her hand at boogie boarding announcing that she would be spectacular at it !

Jessica finally concluded that boogie boarding is not as easy as it looks and that Ocean water is mighty salty!




We also spent some quality time at the pool, which we had to ourselves a lot of time!





I never realised how much that "Calgary girl" of a sister in law of mine loooooooooooooooooooooooves water!
Zoe can swim and float; now that's impressive to me as to my knowledge, none of the Winkler clan (including me!) can float to save our lives! We are buoyancy challenged... must be our heavy big bones!








We took a trek to Surfers Paradise one afternoon and enjoyed a day at the Spa!








...but I think that the highlight for Jess was our day at Currumbin Sanctuary. Every animal there that could be fed, held, hugged or otherwise loved was granted an audience with Jessica...she stopped short at the salt water crocodile as he just did not look like he was in a very loving mood!

What looks like a green field in back of ladies is actually a billabong (stagnant lake attached to a waterway), where the crocodiles enjoy hiding out. Salt water crocs can hold their breath under water for as long as three hours, and are the fastest moving reptiles so one toe stuck into that water can make you lunch!

A baby crocodile that has succumbed to Jessica's charms!

This lizard, lizard stalked out through the park all day! Sometimes he was in disguise, but we recognised him!

A Red Tree Kangaroo!

Zoe and Gabriele caught on film!

There is our stalking lizard lizard again!

Jessica snake girl of the wild, wild east!

Oh man, said the Koala bear, I'm so tired!

Jessica feeding a Roo!

As the girls slept with the window open at night, they heard strange noises in the trees outside their room. We started watching the next sundown and soon realised the tree was the local night time hang out for the Black Flying Fox bats. Firstly, they are very big, with a wide wing span...they cannot see, so they emit a type of squeaking sound to locate a tree to not so much land on a branch as fall into the foliage! Once a branch is found, they hang upside down in the tree until they feel danger approaching! They are so cool!