SATURDAY, MAY 17

Lazy day today. We checked out a “garage sale” (don’t fall over Karen!) at the Caloundra refuse site – kind of like the “free store” at our landfill. This one was run by the air cadet association and had everything you might possibly be looking for. No, we didn’t buy anything *s*

Then it was off to the Holden car dealership (the same as GM in Canada and the States) to find out what the car-type truck we see everywhere down here was.

This is a Holden Ute – and John wants one. Apparently, they’re starting production of these in the States soon.

Next stop was the mall – we hadn’t done any shopping other than for groceries so we wanted to see if there was anything we desperately needed (there wasn’t). While we were there, we saw a shop called “Baaz, Mooz and Oinkz” – would you believe it was a butcher shop?

That was about it for the day – we went back to enjoy the balcony and some good-sized beers.

John after a few too many of these beer

Temperature: 23 C – sunny but windy

SUNDAY, MAY 18

The first thing we heard this morning was the sound of a helicopter very close to the condo. Turned out that it was a search and rescue team and they were searching Pumicestone Passage before moving off. There was a terrific windstorm last night – and when we went to bed at 10:30, there were still pleasure boats fishing out in the passage. We didn’t hear what the team was searching for but hopefully they found their target safe and sound.

Since we were up so early, we finished packing up and then headed south. On the way, there were more wild kangaroos – only I didn’t realize that was what they were at first (thinking it was cows grazing) so I didn’t mention them to John in time to stop for a photo. Oops….. Our first stop was

Iceworld at Boondall.

This is the rink that Justin used to play at (and where the Brisbane Blue Tongues played last year) so of course we had to stop. There was a figure skating competition taking place and no hockey scheduled until late in the afternoon. We were surprised at how small the seating area was but the rink was nice and bright. They have netting that is pulled around during hockey games and this sign

was on the end boards

Off south again, we found ourselves on the Gateway Toll Bridge – luckily the toll was only $2.60 which we had in our pockets. Soon we were at our next stop

Iceland at Bundall.

This is where the Blue Tongues are playing this season – if we thought the rink at Boondall was small this one is tiny. There are only 3 rows of seating (on benches that make the old ones at the Cowichan rink look wonderful) and the seating is only on one side and it doesn’t go all the way down. The seating stops at the player benches (at least as far as I could tell – there wasn’t anyone sitting further down and I think they’d have to walk through the player benches to get there).

It was public skate when we arrived ($15 for adults/$14 for students – with ID/$12 for children. Of course, these prices do include the skate rental). We discovered that there was a Divison III hockey game on at 5 before the Blue Tongues scrimmage at 6:50 so we headed for Kirra Beach to check into the condo. Of course it was too early to do that, so we decided to

explore the coast a bit and find some lunch (which ended up being Pizza Hut). We came back to the timeshare and spent some time sitting in the pool area until our room was ready. John had noticed the number 125 as our room number and we were disappointed that we wouldn’t have an ocean view – to our surprise, 125 means apartment 5 on the 12th floor.

We have a fantastic view.

Once checked in, it was back to the ice rink at Bundall to watch some hockey. What better way to celebrate an anniversary than to do something you both love, right?  We arrived at 4:45 and the players arrived just after us! Guess they don’t get to the rink 2 hours early – the game started at about 5:10 and was quickly a blowout for the visiting team. There were only a handful of people watching – parents, grandparents and a few friends. The home team had only 6 players dressed so no one got a rest and the time between periods is only 1 minute (no ice cleaning until the game is over) so they were pretty exhausted when the game finished.

Then it was time for the

Blue Tongues scrimmage game. It was a pretty good game (although you could tell it was not as intense as a game against a rival team would be). The blue team dominated the game – guess they were making up for losing the week before. There weren’t many fans (or curious people) there and it was a pretty quiet crowd. The periods were 15 minutes long with 1 minute between periods (again, ice clean only after the game was over – if then!). After the game, we met up with Wendy (secretary of the Blue Tongues booster club) and her husband, Sam. They are hockey nuts and we really enjoyed meeting them and their friends (sorry can’t remember the names). All too soon, it was time to head back to the condo as Wendy and Sam had a 90 minute drive back home. See, I told you they were hockey nuts!

I can’t imagine how a professional team can make ends meet playing in such small rinks. The rinks we saw today make Fullers Lake and Lake Cowichan Arenas look huge.

MONDAY, MAY 19

John was up early and went for a walk on the beach – he got some wonderful pictures of the sunrise and saw about 50 people doing this:

Looks like a great place to use walking poles. When he was on his way back, he spotted me on the balcony of our apartment.

It’s the 3rd from the top on the left hand side of the front section.

Weren’t sure what we wanted to do today so we spent the morning on the deck soaking up some wonderful sun. Unlike yesterday, there was no wind at all. We’ve kind of planned a couple of trips we want to do in the next few days – one of the things we were hoping to do was to go into Brisbane but we really are not fond of driving in cities (especially since it’s difficult to find a road “map” – most of the ones you can find are either very basic or they are in huge books like a telephone directory). We looked at the brochures in the lobby and found a day trip to Brisbane that covers what we wanted to do – so the tour is booked for tomorrow (Tuesday) and we get picked up at 6:45 here at the condo.

We drove to Tweed Heads and found a grocery store and

a Big W (better known to us as a Walmart). We spotted a few other signs that made us think we’re in an area that drinks a lot – there was a Liquor Barn, a Liquor Warehouse and this:

After leaving the groceries at the condo, we drove up the Gold Coast Highway in the opposite direction (from Tweed Heads) and found a surfing beach where we could watch the surfers. There were quite a few surfers as well as two kayakers and a jet ski. They all seemed to be having fun.

Temperature: 25 C – sunny