Sunday

Well, it is Monday morning and we seemed to have stepped off the plane from the US and continued a break-necked pace ... until now. I am a bit ill and we are leaving for New Zealand tomorrow so I will need to rest today. I will probably hand my parents a map and show them the door - bad, bad daughter. (They have a phone to call me if they are lost so not so bad ...)

I found an accessory that I am THRILLED with on Saturday. It is called "The Original Australian Bush Hat'. It is leather and folds. It has a scarf around it with aboriginal artwork and it keeps my hair out of my eyes and the sun off my face. I look like an Australian Wannabe but I really don't care all that much ...

We went to the Glass House Mountains - somewhere I have blogged about before, but I had not seen them from this lookout that sort of 'mushes' them together and I made a panorama (it is always hazy - so nothing much I can do but try to fix it a bit):

We then entered into the GPS system a town where there was a dairy and Gary said there was cheese tasting and ice cream to die for. We were excited and headed out. The GPS headed out and took us on a dirt road - seriously. But while we were on it, my dad spotted a Roo - an impossible find - hiding in the bushes.

We took photos of him then routinely moved closer to him to make him move. It was hot and he wanted nothing to do with moving, but we were annoying him. I couldn't get him to move without waving and shouting at him so I can now add "Roo Chaser" to my resume.

We got to the ice cream place 15 minutes after it closed and Gary was MIFFED. He had his heart set on ice cream, so we drove for an hour to the coast and the first thing we did was find ice cream for all.

We were at Noosa Head - also a place I have blogged about before, but it was windy and there were about 20 Kite Surfers playing in the water and were fun to watch. They would let their kites fly up and out of the water they would fly - doing somersaults or just hanging in the air. They were supremely fun to watch and we stayed until the sun went down on one final surfer showing off to the crowd.

I don't mention my husbands kick-butt ability over me in taking photos very often because I am jealous of him, but thought that I would put an example here to show you the difference in what I see and what he sees, and can do.

Here is one of maybe 200 photos I took of the surfer - probably the best I could do:

Garys photo is above (I can't seem to write this above the photo and don't have the patience to keep working on it ... stupid blog ...). He KICKED MY BUTT!

He won the 'Photo Contest of the Day' for Sunday hands down!

We are going to take a walk to let Dad take photos of the beautiful churches around or I am going to let my parents take photos while I rest and do laundry in preparation for packing tonight.

Then off to New Zealand early tomorrow morning!

Hopefully I will have time to post - because I have a feeling I am going to have more photos than I know what to do with in the 8 days we are going to be there!

Here's wishing we all get tons of kick-butt photos in New Zealand!

We Did It!!!

Saturday.

We got up at 4:00am to start a drive to a National Park and see the rain forest all in the hopes that while driving on a 4-wheel road, we would see some Roos. Gary had seen one when with some friends at work going to the same place, but when they turned around to get photos - just got the tail. So we knew they were about - and that they came out at dawn and dusk - unfortunately dawn is 4:00am and we weren't about to get up at 2:00am to hit that, so we were thinking that any Roos we found would be gravy on our trip for the day.

We were down in a meadow and I screamed: "Roos!". We stopped the car some ways away from them and we all got photos - Gary having to find his camera buried in his backpack since he was convinced we would not see any.

They aren't great since they are using my telephoto - but I can check that off my life's list of things to do "See Roos In The Wild" ... done.

This was another one that was actually with 2 others and I screamed "Kangaroo" 3 times before Gary stopped (I was the spotter) so we were rather close. The Roos were on Gary and my Fathers side of the car so I only caught this one shooting out Gary's window.

We then arrived at the park and encountered a flock of parrots. A family had been having breakfast (and I believe feeding them) and there were at least 50 very cheeky birds! Hoping to find something or to catch our attention, they started alighting on us:

Probably one of my favorite photos of my Father of all time:

Unfortunately the girls were not looking so dignified - the birds liked our heads the best, and seriously - who looks good with a parrot on their head?

Got to the rain forest, and two waterfalls which I have been to and blogged about before so I won't bore you with more photos, but to show the scale of the trees and their fins here is Gary posing for me:

All in all it was a good day, an exhausting day, and an exhilarating day since we accomplished all we set out to do. When Gary and I were pining for more Roo sightings, my mother scolded us that we were just being greedy - which, of course, we were!

Friday

Lone Pine Sanctuary is one of my favoritest places on earth. Too many fun things to do. We had a blast today. Grandma had to always play 'model' since me and Grandpa wanted to photograph.

The kangaroos:

A mama and her Joey who looks a wee bit to big to be in that pouch:

Then on to snuggling with the koalas:

Met a mighty big lizard of some sort getting tongue fulls of ants as a tasty snack (check out that tongue action!):

Time to feed the lorikeets:

And then on to the sleep koalas. They only eat eucalyptus leaves and they do not get much nutrition so they sleep on average 18 - 20 hours a day!

Zen:

Last (sort of - well, in my blog) is the Bird of Prey show - fantastic, beautiful birds:

Angry eyes:

Angrier eyes!

Adorable barn owl:

Very large, beautiful bird - I forget the name:

All in all a good day - my dad took a ton of photos and my mom had a blast - so a successful day all round!

Tomorrow we are going to get up at 4:30am and drive to a rain forest hoping to catch some kangaroos in the wild at dawn. Then on to an absurdly full day.

Wish us luck!

Yesterday

Well, it is early Friday morning here and I didn't post a blog last night. I drug my parents all over Brisbane and we didn't get home until late, then off to a late dinner and drop into bed.

We hit the botanical gardens first and there were many more flowers than I had seen on my earlier visits - I guess spring is really here!

We then headed on the City Cat (water taxi) for a tour of the area and got off at South Bank - where the arbors are. There was a new piece of art hanging over an intersection:

There were also these adorable little baby birds in a pond. The photo is not great. But HOW CUTE ARE THOSE GINORMOUS FEET!?

Then on to Queen Street for some shopping. They are already decked out for the holidays, but their decorations are to die for. Here is my favorite of many angels:

We leave in a few hours to go to Lone Pine Sanctuary - where we will feed the kangaroos, cuddle with koalas and all sorts of other things. My mother is especially excited.

It is going to be a fun day.

Stand There Long Enough ...

... and you never know what you are going to see out our apartment window.

There we were, my dad and I taking photos of some sort of sculling class:

When a group of military helicopters, flying in formation buzzed our building and disappeared behind the sky rises of down town!

The above photos are actually NOT from that initial buzz - I was so surprised I didn't have my camera ready - so they politely did it 4 more times - which I was ready for and got some good shots.

They then became annoying and buzzing the apartment 6 - 8 more times after dark flying with lights out.

What military unit does maneuvers in a down town?

They were still at it as we went to bed.

Didn't take this photo out the apartment window - we were down on the river walk - but have you seen anything more bizarre? Looks like it belongs in Hong Kong or some such place!

Having a good time.

Probably going to play around the apartment today and take the City Cat (water taxi) to see the river today and go play with kangaroos, koalas and lorikeets tomorrow.


Until then ...

Made it!

Well, we made it. Here is a photo of my home for 14 hours:

I behaved! Didn't freak out. Made my parents get up and walk the plane, made sure my dad got his insulin shot at a decent time since we had a 36 hour day ... all the things a good girl should do!

Now we are going out adventuring. Should lay down, but that doesn't even sound fun - so we are off!

This is why I especially hate airports ...

So, I'm sitting at my gate after seriously drinking a gallon of diet coke and noticed the flight to Orange County was still at the gate and its getting close'ish to boarding time - at least the aircraft should be there but I am blissfully reading an e-book on my blackberry when it randomly occurred to me to check the departure board. Sure enough my flight had been changed TO ANOTHER TERMINAL and while I am trudging halfway across the airport the PA system is accosting me with CHRISTMAS MUSIC. During a lovely rendition of 'I'll be Home For Christmas' I was almost convinced I was travelling during the Christmas Holiday Season I am that messed up 'sleep deprevation' accounts for most of this.

And I haven't even left Houston yet ...

I'm in trouble ....

But will make my flight now that I am sitting at a gate with my flight showing!

Off we go ...

Tried to figure out how to include a photo with my post, and near as I can tell - you can't do it. Was going to post a photo of the gate sign, but sitting here with my diet coke and all the refills I can manage - was just going to use a photo of my lilies THAT STARTED TO BLOOM WITHOUT ME - but there is no upload option on my blackberry version of 'post' so just me ...


Saying 'hah det bra' (goodbye in Norwegian - curiously directly translated as 'have it good'. But then again - what does 'good bye' look like to someone seeing english for the first time - who an I to quibble .....). Obviously too much time on my hands before my flight to LA and on to the fun stuff which basically translates to 'holding my shit together - my parents are on the plane' - good practice for my next flight with my husband and son. Up until now I have felt no necessity to act anything remotely passing as normal on that 14 hour flight. I'm having to ramp it up a bit and BE NORMAL for 14 CONSECUTIVE hours. Its a stretch - but I will give it my best shot.

In the spirit of AJ:

'Talk to you later' ...