No worries

No worries is the Aussie response for “no problem” So yes it’s been a while since the team blogged, but no worries…there’s a very good reason. First reason: no internet access here at the house. Second reason: were on holiday. Holiday=vacation.

We saw Joe off on Monday from Coolangatta airport in the morning and then we hired a car. Hired is what the Aussies call renting a car. With Mike at the helm, we set off on the wrong side of the road with our trusty Garmin set to the female Aussie voice and headed for Coolum on the Sunshine Coast.

All of the guys have driven the car for some period of time. For those of you back home thinking that there is going to be some massive pileup of Americans in Australia…no worries…the hard part is not driving on the wrong side of the road or all of the roundabouts…it is the fact that the turn signal lever is on the right side of the steering column. So if you see the wipers wiping on a perfectly sunny day…that’s our indicator of an imminent turn.

One of the most frustrating things for me since we’ve been on holiday is the familiar lack of sleep of the past four weeks. After a non-stop schedule for the past month, you would think we would be able to sleep in. Not so. There was a time change on Sunday, and being the start of “autumn” in Australia…we fell back one hour and lost yet another hour of sleep. That means for the first two mornings on holiday the team was up by 6:30am.

Today is day three of holiday and no worries, we were all able to sleep in. I was up by 7:30 but have been able to get in a morning nap. That’s right. I woke up, took a nap, then woke back up for breakfast. We have no scheduled plans for today. We’ve packed lots of stuff in our first two days. The only thing we’re sure of is that Dominos Pizza will be delivering dinner.

So far on holiday activities have included: Shawn cleaning the pool, a long walk on the beach, grocery shopping, committee meetings, multiple games of Pea cup in the pool, a trip to the Eumundi markets, ANZAC cookie baking, boogie boarding, sand castle/barn building, ping pong playing, sing-alongs, night walk on the boardwalk, Spanish speaking and cooking some excellent meals.

If you thought we were on our own and starving…no worries. The meal menus have consisted of: Nick’s burgers with topping (mayo, cheese, bacon, mushroom), milk, Sanitarium cereal, lemon myrtle yogurt with macadamia, milk, watermelon, Philly cheese steak sandwiches, milk, prawn/fish stirfry, pancakes, bacon & eggs, milk and milk. That’s right…flat white milk. I think I’ve mentioned how difficult it has been to find plain white milk here in Australia. We bought a combined total of 11 litres of milk and our supply is running dangerously low.

But no worries, we know our way to and from the IGA. No worries, we know how to work the grill. No worries, we completed our gift buying yesterday at the market. What we do have to worry about is that our holiday is coming to an end. I speak for the team when I say that we will miss the generous nature of our hosts, the incredible cultural and professional activities we have participated in and the easy going “no worries” feel we’ve had wherever we have gone.

It is bittersweet to say this…no worries, we’ll be home soon.

Mike, Beth, Shawn & Nick

We been everywhere man...we been everywhere.

The tiny resort town of Yamba, pronounced just like it looks, concluded our Rotary duties of the GSE experience. The district conference is attended by all clubs in the district and is a Friday, Saturday and Sunday of speakers and fellowship. It was also the Missouri team's last chance to say goodbye to the good people of Australia and reuite with our families from the past month.

It was a BLAST. By this time we are pros at giving our presentation. But at district conference we had to prepare a new one that told of our cultural and professional experiences. The whole thing lasted 20 minutes. If you recall, the competion with the Arizona team reaches its culmination at conference. We had the advantage of going second. We had a SONG, set to the tune of "I been Everywhere" made most famous by American Johnny Cash. It was initially an Austrlian tune which we found out.

You all know the tune, here is our version which pays tribute to each of the clubs that hosted along the way.

Chorus: We been everywhere man, we been every where..
Steppin roo poo in Tweed Heads

Prawns and bugs in Coomera
Chorus

Plantin Missouri roots in Boonah

Booma-rooma-rang man, in Gunda-wonda-land man

Chorus

Tenterfield-land man, Home of Oracle of the Bush Graham,

Kyogle cruisin' in Troopy

Chorus

Meeting Mayor Jenny in Goonellahbah

Mt. Warning in the Morning, ain't they got style? (it's a mostly female club)

Chorus

New South Wales to Queensland

Better check your watch man (one place has daylight savings, one doesn't...confusing)

Chorus

We sang this song with a huge lack of tone but made up for it with lots of love and spirit.

That was that. We attended some of the conference speakers that afternoon and then took a little bit of team time to go for a swim and a nap before heading down for Western night at the Conference. Jeans, western shirts, and a tip-of-of-the with a "Howdy" set the mood. Our team's getups for Western night topped everyone except the Coomera River crowd who dressed up as Gold Coast Meter Maids in rhinestoned cowboy hats. See pictures. :-)

There was one last bit of friendly competition with Arizona that night. GSE coordinator Wendy and her husband Charles had a quilt to raffle off. The jobs of the AZ and MO GSE teams was to sell these raffle tickets to the attendees. The proceeds of the raffle went to a Brisbane school in need of textbooks that were damaged from the recent flooding. We raised over $2500 for the school thanks to the generosity of the Rotarians. Both teams sold all of the their tickets and the real winner was the kids of the school!

The winner of the raffle ticket sales was declared a draw...but Missouri stepped it up a notch and auctioned off our uniform ties to benefit The Rotary Foundation. We raised over $1200 on the sale of 4 ties and one scarf! Talk about dear! "Dear" is what Australians say when something is expensive. Our ties had a lot of international flair and were the talk of every club we visited and highly coveted by Rotarians. Joe Beltz played auctioneer for Beth's scarf and it brought the highest price of the night at $310 dollars. My math my not be totally accurate but it's a good sum for the Rotary Foundation!

Then it was time to party. The conference hall turned into one big barn dance. Rotarians, friends, family, exchange students and GSE teams partied in true Aussie style. Visit www.rotary9640.org to see other photos from the conference!

Mt. Warning in the Morning while it's Pouring

It has been a while since I've blogged. I blame it on the frantic schedule at the end of this trip....and the lack of internet access at the District Conference.

To keep you up-to-date I'll fill you in with my last host. I met Bob the book binder during my last vocational day of the trip. Many thanks to my host Anne of the Mt. Warning AM club for making the arrangements. Bob does the exact thing my dad does back home. The only difference is he has a machine to make his letters...a Ludlow...which First Impressions Book binding must desperately find...and he makes movie props. While perusing his shelf of accomplishments I see a US Passport. This passport was made for a movie in which Jodie Foster starred. He has also created books for Scooby Doo, and the Chronicles of Narnia. Very cool and very profitable!

Thursday night's dinner was at the White Olive in Murwillambah, owned by Rotarian Simone and her husband Li Ping. The meal was 8 courses long...and the best meal I have had in 2011. It consisted of: fresh bread with 3 dipping sauces, won tons, spring rolls, kangaroo, spotted mackerel, 12 hour roasted lamb, grilled eggplant, and a medley of desserts which included chocolate souffle, merinenge porcupine ice cream, Anzac cake, and another cake-like dessert.

That was on Thursday night.

Friday morning the team minus Joe climbed Mt. Warning. Mt Warning is the highest eastern peak of Australia and the point of which the sun first hits the Australian continent. Sounds lovely right? The climb up Mt. Warning is a crap shoot. It takes about two hours to get to the top and you never know when a cloud might obstruct your view. The aboriginal name for Mt. Warning is Wollumbin meaning cloud catcher. Mt. Warning was called Mt. Warning by Captain Cook because ships would use it as a landmark to determine the start of the dangerous reef in the sea. Cloud Catcher did a great job catching Friday Morning. A third of the way up the top, it started raining. Granted we were in a rainforest setting, therefore rain wasn't much of a surprise.

We climbed this switchback path full of steps, puddles, rocks, and leeches. Shawn wore cowboy boots...an inappropriate footwear choice for the climb but he made it most of the way to the top. The top you see requires use of chain handrail of sorts to assist climbers in their ascent to the top. The chain is about 1km long (.6 miles) and a 50-60 degree climb. Shawn made it up half the chain in his boots and wisely chose to stop along the wet rocky climb. Beth, Mike and I trekked on to the top. My footwear choice was tennis shoes...mesh tennis shoes...which give ample protection from the rain. Insert sarcastic tone.

We made it to the top to find the view spectacular. April Fools! We were in a cloud. But at least we were above the rainy portion of the cloud. Our descent would take us back into the rain where we got soaked like a cane toad. Despite the weather and no falls or injuries, the team had a great experience and can cross off a trip to Mt. Warning off our Australia to-do lists. Next time though we will choose better weather so we can enjoy the views.

Friday afternoon was a transport day to Yamba, where the district conference was to be held. We checked into the Star of the Sea retreat center which is a converted convent. The rooms were small and cozy but provided all we needed...a bed and bathroom.

Gingi, There are muchas languages en Australia.

That my friends is a three language title inspired by our adventures yesterday. Here's a translation:

Gingi= Aboriginal for hello
There are= there are in English
Muchas= many in Spanish
Languages= languages in English
en= in, in Spanish
Australia= Australia

The full translation= Hello, there are many languages in Australia. I didn't know how many of my readers needed help with the English parts, so I included them as well. You're welcome. De nada.

What inspired the my multilingualism? Is multilingualism even a word? Yesterday after the Mt. Warning AM club presentation the guys minus Beth (see the Moo blog for Beth's location) went first to the Murwillumbah Museum, the equivalent to a county historical society. They had quite the collection. Then we traveled to the visitor center where we all loaded up on Australian souvenirs . I completed my niece Sophie's shopping at that stop...or so I think. Then we went to an Aboriginal Museum in Tweed.

Joining us along the way was Boia (pronounced BOY-a), a Rotary Youth Exchange student from Brazil. Boia's full name is Luis Fernando Fakih Amellei Furquim. You see why we call him Boia. Being Brazilian, he speaks Portuguese and Spanish. Beth and I have had a chance to practice a little Spanish speaking with him, he practices English with us. I always tell people "Hablo un poquito Espanol" meaning I speak very little Spanish. But Boia tells me my Spanish is good and I should change my phrase to "Hablo un poco" meaning I speak a little, not very little. He tells me my pronunciation is dead-on and that it is "Vury good" in his accent.

At the Aboriginal Museum, our tour guide Marley took us on a tour of the museum and told us about the culture of the native Australians. There are still over 360 tribes of natives in Australia, and even more dialects of the language! Much like the Native Americans, these people have no written history. Theirs is an oral history passed down from generation to generation and more and more is being lost every day. Marley was quite the character and taught us a few aboriginal words. The only problem with this language, like many languages, is that the meanings of the same word change from place to place.

Here are a few words we learned:
Gingi (JIN-jee) = hello

Jarjum (Jar-JUM) = kid, child

Moogle(MOO-gull)= silly

Nin-gan-nar (Neen-gone-ARE= Shut up, stop doing, or Please be quiet

Koala= No drink...because koalas apparently don't every drink water, they get it from eucalyptus leaves

Kangaroo= What's that? see below for the "legend" story...I'm not sure if I believed this one.

Nar-loo-waliya (Nahr-LOO-Wah-lee-ah)= good bye

The kangaroo story is this. An Englishman was inquiring an Aborigine about what certain things were called and was writing the translations down. The man spotted a kangaroo and asked the Aborigine what it was. The kangaroo proceeded to hop away out of site as the Aborigine was turning to look. When the Aborigine saw nothing (the kangaroo had hopped away) he told the white man "kangaroo". Kangaroo translated to English means "What's that?" The white man, not knowing any better, wrote down kangaroo. And the name stuck.

Right now I'm waiting for my host Anne to come pick me up to take me to a book binder in Queensland. So it is time for me to ninganar and say narloowaliya. (Shut up and say goodbye)

Mooball Moorrning!

To get to the Tweed Valley Whey Cheese factory, Murwillumbah you do not need to go through Mooball, but you should. It is an old cow-town- For real. We started off the day with a lot of laughs and fines. Afterwords the boys headed to museums and Margarita took me to The Cheese farm. Here's the tale of our mooorning....
Years ago, (Margarita and husband Gary explained this story to me) the main highway when right through the town of Mooball in the Tweed Shire bringing the tall B double trucks right through this little shire town. It is a perfect resting spot for truckers and families. Somewhere along the way the black and white spots were introduced to the buildings, light poles, gas pumps and cream houses. The town no longer hosts B doubles due to the by-pass, but the spots ares still fresh.

Turn left at the black and white cream house just before the holding pen of Frisians, to get to Tweed Valley Whey Cheese Factory. Debbie Allard and Sue Harnett, two happy ladies with pink cheeks greeted us with a G'day!
They have been making and selling cheese for two years. Sue and her husband still have a dairy farm just down the hill where the 100+ cows are grazing. Sue told us that they still
sell 95% of the milk to Norco, and she uses the rest to make the cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream, kefir, natural yoghurt, yoghurt cheese balls, feta, and haloumi. Check out these names: Cam and Bert, Heluva Haloumi, Norm and Bee camembert, and Fresian Fog. Me: How did you come up with these names? Sue: (giggles) A lot of bottles of wine!
They sell to a few small scale stores (we found some at the butcher shop in Murwillumbah), 2 farmers markets and a handfull of restaurants. She explained that the stores sell for the same price, $9/ small round of cheese, as they do at the markets. They want to encourage patronage at the stores that support them, the same for the restaurants.












Sue said her father is a great salesman. He comes to help out at the markets and store promotions often telling customers that he is Jamie Oliver's dad and this is the best cheese in the world. Sue is the Ebay queen, she searched night and day to find pasturizers, containers sinks, etc... After taking classes, the ladies toured large cheese plants to gather ideas and methods, they also received a great deal of help from a local agriculture extension agent. Norco also helps them through lab testing and general support. The thought being that there used to be more than 150 dairy farms in the Tweed Valley, now there are 8, so as long as these ladies are not creating competition Norco will give them support.


I had to include this black and white dog that is staying with Shawn is Wolfy, and he lets me tell him stories about Butter.
It's the start of another day- Headed to White Olive restaurant today!

Tranfer to the last club!

I shaved this morning and my shave gel is running low. By my estimations that means I've been gone about a month. The days of the week have been lost to me this past month. Today was Tuesday and we transferred to the Mt. Warning Club who will be our last hosts before we head down to Yamba for district conference on Friday.

Our meeting place from Gonnelebah (I spelled it wrong I know) to Mt. Warning took place at Byron Bay. Byron Bay point is the farthest eastern point on the Australian mainland. My teammates Shawn, Beth, and Mike got to visit this site on their very first day with the Tweed hosts. It is quite a sight to behold. I would have seen this my first day also, but I was at an even more interesting place...the doctor. So today was my chance and our leader Joe's to visit this must-see Australian landmark.

I must update you on the status of our team presentation last night in Lismore. The Missouri team presented first, followed by the Arizonans. Leader Joe Beltz brought his A-game and killed last night. The rest of the team performed equally well. We blew(my opinion is biased mind you) the Arizona team out of the water. I have to give a shout-out to Larry from the AZ team. Larry is a Mizzou grad and did the MIZ cheer. I know Beth and I yelled out the ZOU cheer back to him. The Aussies didn't know what to think...and with only three people participating...MIZ-ZOU doesn't pack the punch it should. At the meeting there was also a fellow who had ridden his motorcycle through Jefferson City once for a Rotary fundraiser. So he knew about my town!

We have a morning presentation at 7am tomorrow, then off to some museums and a swim in the Pacific weather permitting. Thursday...Thursday I get to visit a book binder. It has been arranged by my wonderful host Anne. This guy's bindery, like my dad's business, is pretty much a one-man-show! So I can't wait to see the comparisons to our business. I am really looking forward to this vocational day!

OH, and I mentioned that district conference is this weekend in Yamba...guess what else is happening in Yamba this weekend...A Relay for Life! That's right, they have Relay in Australia and I sure hope I get to visit. I'm going to try and get some stuff and see how they do things.

House with no Steps, TAFE, the Mayor and a little friendly competition

Sorry folks for the lack of blog postings the past few days. I see that my Trooopy blog was my last...I'm still sad we had to depart from Trooopy. We switched hosts from Kyogle to Goonellbah (Gone-Ill-i-Bah) near Lismore, NSW last Friday. That handoff occurred at the hippie capital of Australia known as Nimbin. It was certainly an interesting little town...My hosts for the Lismore club don't exactly live in Lismore but in Ballina. The bad part of Ballina is that it is about 25 minutes from the rest of the team...but the great part of Ballina is that it is only one dune crossing from the Beach! Unfortunately it's been raining the past couple of days so my stint at the beach has been limited to two occasions.

Then Saturday was a free day/rest day with nothing scheduled. Our team spent most of the day at Mike's host Tom and Meg's compiling photographs for our district presentation.

Sunday it was raining. My host Rob accompianied me to Sunday Mass in Lennox at this quaint little beach church with a very spartan interior. So spartan that the kneelers were wooden. No padding, just wood. As one would expect at a Catholic mass, the service was the same as in the states. There was a few words of the creed that I didn't quite know...and the accents and low mumble that is the creed...I still don't know what I missed. But still an interesting thing to cross off my list in Australia.

Sunday was also my host Judy's (Rob's wife) birthday. For breakfast we went to Shelly's on the Beach...a seaside cafe where I had pancakes with berries. For lunch we went to the House with No Steps' cafe. It is staffed by persons with physical and mental disabilities. They are trained at the site's many divisions...macadamia farm, avocado farm, cafe, nursery, gift shop, fruit packing, etc. Judy got a Hawaiian birthday cake of which I am enjoying a piece of as I type this blog. Dinner was at Rob and Judy's house and consisted of salad and prawns.

Monday was a vocational day for me. We first met again at the House With No Steps and was given a tour of the facility by the president Bill Buddee. He showed us around and we got to see macadamia sorting in action. First the green husk is removed by machine, then the nuts are visually sorted by workers and then sent through a water bath. If the nut sinks it's good and it is taken from the bottom of the tank by an auger to the storage bin where it will be shipped to a processing plant to remove the kernel. Any bad nuts will float to the top where they are discarded...sort of...to be sold but at a lower rate because of the lower grade. The House With No Steps also has the largest fruit packing facility in the region. They pack their own grown avocados and also pack for other growers in the area. Other fruits they pack include limes and many other stone fruits (peaches, plums, etc). Beth and I both toured this place and we decided to buy a sampling of thier macadamias to take home with us. The cafe had an assortment of nuts and we purchased ours there. The staff noticed our uniforms and we gathered quite an audience. We gave each worker there a Missouri quarter and posed for pictures....and they all held up thier MO quarters! It was a great moment.

After that Beth and I headed to the TAFE (Technical and Further Education) at Wollongbar. I was toured around by Dave, a horticuture faculty member and Beth was toured around with a culinary faculty member. Like Linn State, the horticulture students maintain much of the campus. We talked all the business end of education (classes, schedules, competencies, and the like) and then walked around looking at various student projects. Nearly all of the funding of TAFE, and other higher education in Australia for that matter is fully government funded (federally and state). The number of students is dependent on how much funding they get. There is virtually no tuition. I asked what the average student would pay per year...the first answer was "nominal" and after a little searching for data...the pricetag was somewhere around $600. My jaw dropped to the floor.

After my tour, I met briefly with Greg who is the head of the horticulture department. I traded him an LSTC golf towel for a Wollongbar horticulture t-shirt. After TAFE, we headed into Lismore to meet with mayor Jenny Dowell. She welcomed us with mid morning tea. Tea doesn't just mean tea...it means (tea or coffee, juice, miscellaneous cakes and nibbles, summer sausage with cheese) Australians refer to each meal as a tea. Morning tea, evening tea, and sometimes they do just stop for a cuppa tea and that's it. You have to pay attention to what tea means. Sometimes you eat, sometimes you drink, and sometimes it means both. Mayor Jenny was very gracious. She gave us a book of Lismore history and we capitulated with various Missouri items (a MO book, miscellaneous pins, Rotary banners).

Since she was mayor I presented her with a "Visit Jefferson City" pin, a "Missouri State Seal" pin, and a book of quips from Mark Twain. I said I "was the unofficial bearer of the official seal of Missouri" and she joked "So what sort of buildings does this get me into?"

Tonight we have a big meeting. The Missouri team (us) will cross paths once again with the Arizona team (them). It is completely coincidental that two teams from the States are on GSE at the same time. There is no trophy to win, there is no official competition...but we want to WIN. I suppose the only thing we get is bragging rights...but that's good enough for me. We had one joint presentation at the beginning which in my unbiased opinion WE beat THEM. Our uniforms were coordinated, we had a personal touch in our presentation...good first outing to size up your competition. We have this meeting tonight for round two. Then next weekend we have presentations at district conference. It's the final...it's our March Madness...and Missouri will be victorious!

Catching up!

Where to begin???  It has been a while since I was on here.  Nick has been doing a fantastic job keeping it up to date.  Between the journal, Facebook, and keeping up with pictures, it is hard to fit it all in.  I'll give you an overview of my last week or so.

Gundawondaland-(Goondiwindi)-I continued to fish!  We had a wonderful morning at Peter and Gloria's.  The next day I twisted Peter's arm and we skipped boot camp so we could fish some more.  I had about as much luck as I did in the States, caught a suntan and that's about it.  We were supposed to head to a Cotton farm but the weather canceled that for us.  Instead we went to Goondiwindi Cotton where the owner Sam gave us a history of Cotton around the area.  His shirts are fantastic and we were actually given one after the Rotary meeting!  On our last night in Gundy we went out to Bruce's for a Camp oven Cook.  He had been cooking all afternoon.  Roo Stew and some type of mild Curry.  It was a wonderful night and we loved seeing all of our new friends in one place again.  Tables were set up in the backyard and everyone just took it easy and enjoyed the company and conversation.  I packed the next morning and Peter cooked up a few Yabbies(crawfish) for breakfast.  UMMMM, now if that's not Cajun style, I don't know what is!  We meet at the info center and said our said goodbyes.  Bruce brought us some Milk for the road and away we went!

Tenterfield-Birthplace of a Nation-We handover at Zappa's winery, pour us!  It was a wonderful spot and we had an amazing Italian meal.  The weather was still rainy but we made the best of it.  From there we headed to Tenterfield.  It's called the Birthplace of a Nation because that is where Sir Henry Parks gave his famous speech about bringing the colonies together for what is now known as Australia.  Pretty cool history in a cozy little town.  The first night we met down at the local pub for diner and music.  LIVE MUSIC!  We had an absolute blast and got to know our new hosts.  I feel bad for Tenterfield because they had a wonderful day planned for us and the weather would not allow it!  Rain, Rain, Rain!  We did our best to take in the Granite boulder landscape and Bald Rock.  We had a wonderful night at Ralph and Lee's place and truly enjoyed great food and mingling.  The next morning we met at the School of Arts for a history of Tenterfield.  I'm not going to lie, I was that thrilled about it but after arriving, I was so happy we did it.  You think of Museums and history as boring sometimes but this was so interesting!  We then headed to the cattle auction which Joe loved!  I didn't take a hat....Big mistake!  My head was RED!  We also visited the historical Tenterfield Train station.  Nick has filled you in on our bumpy journey to Drake for handover.  On to Kyogle!

Kyogle-Birthplace of Trooopy!-You all know Trooopy by now so I'll continue without description. 

While Beth, Nick, and Joe where our slaughtering defenseless cows, I went to Euro Chair.  They make all kinds of interesting chairs.  All wood veneer.  They do the insides of upholstery chairs but prefer to do all veneer.  It was a great experience!  I never knew how all of these chairs that I sale daily are made.  They use radioactive waves to heat the plywood and veneer to form it into the mold that they have pressing down.  The heat generated is incredible and they can form two chairs at a time.  From there they go to a router which cuts the shape of the back out while also drilling the holes needed to attach the legs and arms.  Very Cool!  The craftsmanship and quality are unlike anything you will find from the truckloads of China imports coming to the US.  Don't get me wrong, I have to sell that product to stay alive but I would much rather work with someone like Jack who does it the right way and stands behind his product.  It's a small factory but they can pump out 1000 chairs in 2 weeks if they set all of the molds the same.  I'm sure there are people in the US doing this but I haven't had the opportunity to go and see them. Good work Jack and thank you for taking time out of your day to show me around!

We also visited many parks and lookouts while in Kyogle.  Border Ranges national park had to be my favorite!  The rain forest was something I had never seen or knew that Australia had.  We walked down from a mildly hot day into a cool rain forest.  Awesome! 

After learning how to throw Boomerangs with Wayne behind Bills house, we had a massive BBQ!  It was so nice to sit and enjoy the evening with our new friends and host.  Thank you all so much for a wonderful evening. 

We have handed over to Goonellabah today and I'm sure there are many new things in store. 

Sorry this isn't the best entry I've had but I'm tired and off to bed.  Goodnight All!

Riding in Tro0opy

Trooopy is a one-of-a-kind vehicle and was our trusty transportation for a couple excursions the past couple of days. Trooopy has 6WD according to the sticker on the roof. It is a beast of a machine. When I first got here I wanted a Ute to take home with me. A Ute is abbreviated for utitlity. (it's like a small pickup, no specific brand, but usually with a flatbed on back) I wanted one of those until I met Trooopy.


From this point forward I will speak of Trooopy as if she (I'm calling her a she) was a member of the family. That's how trusty the old girl is. Trooopy seats 11 including the driver. She has about 3 cubic yards of interior cargo space in the back plus more towards the front and a roof rack on the entire top. She has 6 wheels and we're pretty sure that she is just as capable of driving on 3 as she is on 6 based on some of the turns we made today. As we traveled from lunch to home today in trusty old Trooopy we came up with few catchy terms that will help you understand why the old girl is so well loved. You might name your cars at home or you might not...this vehicle is one that MUST be named. Here goes:

Over the river and through the bush, to grandmothers house we go...in Trooopy.

Where the "Oh, S#!&" handle runs the length of the cabin...Trooopy
(BTW they didn't know about Oh, S#!& handles...they call them JC bars/ handles for Jesus Christ)

Where the JC bar doubles as a chin-up bar because you're always hanging on tight...Trooopy.

Herbie, The General Lee, Kit, Batmobile...Trooopy

For the ultimate vehicle to get the wedding party from the church to the reception...Trooopy

Whose car should we take to the Cardinal's game...Trooopy

If you wanted to cross the ocean using a land vehicle...Trooopy (I'm pretty confident on that)

When four wheels aren't enough...Trooopy

Where every ride is an adventure...Trooopy

Pavement, gravel, dirt, water, whatever...Trooopy

Included activities with a ride in Trooopy are: whip cracking, roo spotting, magic carpet flying, music playing, hill hopping, 3-wheeling...she's the ulitimate vehicle...Trooopy

If Chuck Norris and Jack Bauer were to go car shopping...Trooopy

When the one finger wave won't do and you need to say G'Day...Trooopy (I forgot to mention she has an air horn mounted on top)

When one CB radio just won't do, Trooopy has two!

AC, who needs AC? As long as she's moving there's always a breeze...Trooopy

When you tighten your lap belt so you can take a nap...Trooopy

Even the luggage has a seatbelt...Trooopy

Where you hope that your seat cushion is also a flotation device...Trooopy

It feels like you need guidance from a flight attendant in order to be a passenger...Trooopy

Tenterfield might have been the birthplace of a nation, but Kyogle is the home of Trooopy!

Where your meat comes from...

It was a full morning of vocationals in Kyogle. The vocational this morning was not geared towards my horticulture profession but it was an experience like no other! First we went to the Casino (it's a town, not a gambling joint) Stock yards which was a huge place selling thousands of cattle...much bigger than the sale we saw at Tenterfield a few days back. We got the behind the scenes tours looking in the control room. We learned a little about how the Australian national livestock ID system works. Each cow or sheep born in the country is given an ear tag with a radio chip in it. Any time an animal is sold, the property where it is grown is tracked. So from the supermarket, you should be able to track that meat back to the farm where it was produced! It costs the producer 3.50 per tag and it is compulsory.

There is a tick problem in parts of Australia and all cattle are checked for ticks. Certain species carry some bad diseases to cattle. If your cows are found with ticks they are quarantined. All cows leaving the stockyards are treated in a dip no matter what their tick status is. This was an amazing thing to witness. Imagine a chute for the cows...one lane wide...a single file row of cows. The cattle go down a ramp into a 7 foot deep pool of chemical, lime, and water mix for their dip. They walk, or if too short, swim across a 20 foot section of dip to a ramp out to the other side. We thought this was going to be the highlight of our day. This process was trumped by our next stop.

After the sale yards we went to the Casino Meat Works as it is known locally. Some people also call it the abbatoir (pronounced AB-o-twah). I call it the meat processing plant. So far along our journey if there was a food production facility, tours were not given. But with our Rotary connections, a board member of this facility was able to link us up with a tour. Joe, Beth, and myself were in for a special treat.

Pictures were not allowed...which is good for our readers because you don't want to see what we saw. DISCLAIMER: The rest of this could be a big graphic...don't say you weren't warned. It was a meat plant folks, cattle are slaughtered and cut up into steaks. And we witnessed it all. Donned in pseudo-hard hats, hairnets, lab coats, and booties we enter the boning room. This place had around 150 to 180 employees cutting, slicing and packaging beef for consumers all over the world!

Then we were taking to another room to see the cows entering the plant right after being killed. We didn't get to see the kill room because they had finished killing for the day...but we did see these calves being processed. They called them calves, I know they were bigger than that...roughly 300 kilo animals (multiply times 2.2 for lbs).

We turn the corner and hanging from the conveyors are the full carcasses of beef. Turn another corner and there is a line of workers taking cheek meat off of cow heads. That's right cow heads. The eyeballs were still in the skulls, the skins were completely off...no fuzz left...and this sight was a little disturbing even to me. But make no mistake...I will still eat beef. Tongues were being removed, various unidentifiable parts were hanging down, but the EYES...they were staring right at you! Every now and then you could tell what breed the animal used to be...the floppy ears still gave away a Brahama.

Then finally we saw the skinning. It was a very efficient process, done very quickly by machine after a bloke hooked up the chain. This too was very disturbing to me. The newly dead cows come in hanging upside down, convey around in preparation for skinning and disemboweling, and there you have it. I was mesmerized, perplexed, a little disturbed, but totally satisfied with the experience.

We started the day at the sale barn, and ended up with consumer ready product in a matter of hours. We got to see the complete process from yard to near-table. Quite fascinating.

Taking the scenic route....and it was AWESOME!

Today was a transfer day. So far our transfers haven't really lasted that long...usually a few hours and we're at our new hosts. Today was slightly longer. The journey started at 9am in Tenterfield. There were two vehicles. Peter drove one Ute (utility aka a pickup truck) loaded down with all our luggage and had Mike up front with him. The rest of the team rode with Grahame in his Toyota Land Cruiser. Shawn rode shotgun while Joe, Beth and myself rode in the back.

The agenda was as follows: Tenterfield folks take us to the Drake Hotel in Drake for lunch to rendezvous with the folks from Kyogle and head to Kyogle to disperse to our new hosts. We only had to travel about 90K (55 miles) to the rendezvous point but the journey took three hours. The road we took certainly was the scenic route.

The best way I can describe this road, if you want to call it a road, will only be understood by my immediate family. At my Grandpa Rackers farm, we would load up in a wagon behind a tractor to go check cows. Grandpa drove at normal speed with no regard for ruts or potholes. The result at the end of the ride was somewhere close to a concussion and a sore bottom. The path from Tenterfield to Kyogle was very similar. A mostly dirt path, switchbacking around, over, alongside the mountains and following along the Rocky River. Very scenic and very rough. Technically this was a county road. But the county road criss-crossed over numerous cattle crossings, private land/ pasture, through cow piles, through various depths of low water crossings. Depending on the climb or descent the view changed from a boulder rock face on one side or a very steep dropoff on the other. It really was like a ride at grandpa's farm...cows included!

We only bumped one cow along our journey. We saw at least two kangaroos loping through the fields and viewed a couple of snakes safely from the viewing area in our LandCruiser. The scenery was a mix of exposed rock, grassy pasture, and wooded bush. There were a few times I expected to see Julie Andrews out in a field singing and twirling around. At a couple points along the way, we went through rainforest. The change of plant life, the sounds, the darkness of shade and the drop in temperature signaled the entrance of the rain forest. Also the sounds of the bell birds was quite unique. No one we have talked to here has ever seen one of these birds or knows what they look like but they have a very distinct call. It sounds like a glass bell ringing a single time or something like a miner hammering on a metal spike. Very interesting.

Three hours later we arrive at the Drake Hotel thankful for our arrival and dumbfounded by the scenery we just took in. It was an incredible path and I'm so glad we took the scenic route. I forgot to mention that our LandCruiser had over 500K's or over 310 thousand miles. Go Toyota!

THEN we have lunch at the Drake Hotel. I had the Bacon and Egg burger. On the bun were shredded carrots, lettuce, beet root, a burger, bacon, cheese, and a fried egg. DE-LIC-OUS!

After lunch we said our goodbyes and loaded up in "The Troopy" The troopy is a 6WD people mover vehicle. It held all 5 team members luggage, 5 team members, plus 3 members of the Kyogle Rotary Club. That journey took another couple of hours over similar terrain but on paved roads. Today was certainly an adventure.

Tenterfield and Fulton

The tiny town of Fulton, Missouri is famous for Sir Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain Speech" delivered in March of 1946 in which he warned of the Cold War with the Soviets. It is an iconic speech that put Fulton, Missouri on the map.

Well Tenterfield in New South Wales has two icons that put IT on the map. The first person some Americans may know was singer/songwriter Peter Allen. I was not familier with Peter Allen's work but I have since learned that Hugh Jackman played Peter Allen in Broadway's The Boy from Oz which Jackman won a Tony. Peter Allen was from Tenterfield and wrote the song The Tenterfield Saddler about his grandfather. Put the name of a town in a song and the rest is history.

But perhaps the more significant event in Tenterfield's history occurred much earlier and has had a much longer lasting impact. Sir Henry Parkes delivered a speech in 1889 which catalyzed the movement for the federation of Australia. The Federation of Australia came into being in 1901, but it was Parkes' speech in 1889 at the Tenterfield School of Arts which spurred the movement. Until 1901, all of Australia's colonies (Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia) all acted as independent countries almost. Each was governed as an independent British Colony. One had to pass through customs to go from state to state!

So if it wasn't for Mr. Parkes, Australia wouldn't be the country it is today. Parkes was asked to come speak in Tenterfield and he threw together some impromptu remarks in his Tenterfield hotel the night before. Who would have thought that that one little speech would lead to the birth of a nation? Parkes is revered as much as the founding fathers of the United States are.

It certainly was an event for Fulton, Missouri to host Churchill, but did the world have any idea what the man would say and how significant his words would be? I don't think the town of Tenterfield had a clue what would happen either. But that is how history goes sometimes. The smallest towns can have the biggest impacts. And just a few words can put a town on the map forever.

What's slimy and worse than an Australian Snake?

We arrived yesterday in Tenterfield and settled in with our new hosts for the next few days. It's Sunday here and we set out for a little sightseeing in the Tenterfield area. There are several national parks. The first one we headed to was the falls in Boonoo Boonoo National park. That would be pronounced Baw-no Boo-new. I know, two words exactly the same spelling with different pronunciations. English is spoken here, but it's a whole other language let me tell you.

On the way to the falls we stop along the road to check out the Japanese tank traps set up during WWII. The Japanese had bombed Darwin in north Australia using the same carriers that bombed Pearl Harbor and the thought was that IF the Japanese would advance into Queensland and New South Wales, they would put in these tank traps along the "Brisbane Line" as a last line of defense. Well the Japanese never landed troops on Australian soil, but these tank traps still exist. They're in the mountains and our hosts seem to guess that these "traps" were more of a feel good measure because there was no way a tank could traverse this terrain.

Then we headed to Bald Rock National Park not very far away. It is the largest granite rock in Australia. If you've ever been to Stone Mountain Georgia, it's just like that only not commercialized and no confederate carvings. It was raining so we didn't head up the rock. Joe and I walked a few meters up and I slipped slightly coming down...just enough to be embarrassed a little and wet the back of my pants a lot.

After that we headed to a lavender farm. It's just what it sounds like and was quite interesting. We had lunch there prepared by the owner/ Rotarian. They have won numerous awards creating their essential oils from their lavender.

Now after that delightful day, here's the part that I'm including to try and make the people back home a little less jealous. Australia is the land of big things. Their bats are bigger, their snakes more poisonus, their spiders larger/ deadlier, the flies more numerous, their jellyfish more stinging. Texas could take a lesson from this country. When we arrived in Tweeds, our hosts warned us of the blue bottle jellies that had nasty stingers in the water and on the sand. Then the Coomera folks warned us of the bugs saying, "You're going out west...watch out for the flies! They're terrible!" I've avoided the jellies so far and the flies ARE bad just so you know. The thing about the snakes is that they flee from humans and most people never see them. That's good news. The one thing we were warned about somewhere along the way but we forgot about until this morning was the leeches.

We're out there looking at the Japanese tank traps and are getting ready to get back in the cars and they're everywhere. We had put insect repellant on our shoes and socks to keep them away and I never had any latch on to me (I don't think). But they're crawling all over your shoes. There's no pain, and you can just pull them right off. But these little creatures were only about a half inch long and IF they attached for very long we were told they could grow to 3-4" long in an hours time! At least the slimy snakes go away...these leaches come towards you! Needless to say these Missourians were a little freaked out. They'll attach through clothing too so you can't just rely on long sleeves and long pants. They like to attach in two places and to make it easier to remember this our hosts gave us a mnemonic device Always check your sock and your jock. You think ticks are bad, well just imagine checking for blood sucking slimy leaches attaching themselves you know where!

The question in the title of this blog was what's slimy and worse than an Australian snake? Now you know the answer.

Here comes the Milkman!

For the past two days in Goondwindi Beth and I have taken an early morning walk because our hosts live less than a block away from each other. Our third morning here called for a change of plans. Bruce Perri, a Rotary member and owner of Milko, the local milk distributor invited us to go on his milk run this morning. Our walks usually started at 6:15. Bruce let us sleep in until 5am when he picked us up to go make deliveries.

He picked us up, and headed to the shop to load up the trucks. Beth and I both loaded up milk crates with all sorts of milk product (no ice cream though). We used these hooks to drag the stacked crates of milk around. Basically they were old bale hooks without the sharp ends. We loaded up and Beth rode with Troy and I with Bruce and we headed out for deliveries.

Flavored milk is a very popular item here in Australia. So much so that I'm finding it difficult to purchase a small bottle of plain white milk. It's there on the shelves, but you REALLY have to search for it. Yesterday I had to settle for chocolate. Milko distributors is like the Heinz 57 of milk flavors. For example: Coffee, Expresso, Strawberry, Vanilla Malt, Vanilla, Banana, Chocolate...I seem to be forgetting some but there were all kinds of sizes. For my work this morning I was paid in two bottles of Espresso...Yu-umm!

Troy and Bruce would go into the store, fill out a picking list, go out to the truck and pull the order. Beth and I used the hand carts to wheel the assorted milks into the store and stock the shelves. Labels facing out! We got some peculiar looks from shop owners wondering why anyone would volunteer to go and deliver milk?!?! After introductions they understood why but I have a feeling after our brief meeting that they think people in Missouri must be hard up for something to do! After all, we flew half way around the world to deliver milk!

One of our stops was a bakery downtown which was owned by Troy's in-laws. I had stopped in there the day before to grab a milk and a donut. The milk in a 500ml (approx 17oz) cost me $3.50. The donut was 50 cents. I informed Bruce that back home 3.50 would have easily bought me a gallon of milk! He joked about having a family to feed and a wife whose lifestyle had to be maintained. Almost everything here in Australia is expensive.

After multiple stops at grocery stores large and small, a school, and a kindy (kindergarten), it started to piss down rain. The word piss in Australia has A LOT more meanings than it does in the states...could be the subject of it's own future blog so stay tuned. We're supposed to tour cotton farms today but it's still pissing down (raining). We're scheduled to go shopping this afternoon so we're all going to pick up Akubra hats, and some Goondwindi cotton products.

Brekkie and Chockie...feels like home.

Traveled from Boonah club to Goondiwindi (prounounced gun-da-windy) or Gundy for short. We're here in Gundy until Saturday and that will mark the half-way point of our Rotary journey.

We didn't really realize it, but Beth's host and my host live a stone's throw away (or closer) so we decided to go for a walk this morning at 6:30. We start out down the block, find a newly constructed path and start following it. We were gone for a good 3o minutes when we realize our path is taking us to a place in which we might not be able to get back to our homes, so we turn around and backtrack. Along the way we were greeted with friendly Aussie "good mornings" and felt very welcomed. We must have looked the part also, because as we were walking we came across an older gentleman and his little dog. He asked us "Does this path lead all the way around?" I said "We're from the US, we don't know this path either!" We all had a good chuckle and we kept walking and found our way back to our respective homes.

I spent the rest of my day doing vocational stuff. Talked with John MacDonald (he could be THE Old MacDonald) because he was older and technically it was a farm...E-I-E-I-OOOOOOO And on that farm he had some fruit. EIEIO. With a citrus here and a plum tree there. Here a pom there a pom, everywhere a fruit tree, Old MacDonald had a farm EIEIO!

You're welcome now that you have the Old MacDonald song in your head for the rest of the day.

Then Peter drove me to his son Sam's farm. Peter used to own and run the farm and now it's in the hands of Sam. He was growing cotton mostly and it is about a couple weeks away from picking. He was spraying defoliant and ethephon (Florel for you horticulrally inclined folks) to deleaf the plants and make the bolls open up.

Australians in general aren't very accpeting of GM (genetically modified) plants. Sam's cotton however is Roundup Ready (RR) from good 'ole Monsanto. They cut a $50 check to Monsanto for every bale of cotton they sell. He seemed to think that that was a little high and that Monsanto should be making quite a bit of dough...but overall was so pleased with the RR traits that he wouldn't go back to the old way of growing cotton. So he gladly pays the $50. I think because cotton is a fiber and not a food that that's why it is allowed to be grown. But if a farmer grows RR cotton, he/she has to also plant 10% of it and not use any chemicals. He showed me the field of unregulated cotton and it was farther behind and a lot taller. Taller isn't better because it doesn't work with the machinery as well. They don't have RR soybeans.

A stop for lunch and then off to the feed lot where Joe and Shawn were finishing their tour and I was beginning one. Peter's son Jeff is the manager there and I got the tour from him. Their capacity is 20,000 head with most of the beef headed to the Japanese market. There were a few head ready to be shipped to Japan in the coming weeks and he was a little concerned as to what was going to happen becasue of Japan's recent earthquakes. The other cattle on the lot were being raised for domestic use and sale at Cole's (one of two large supermarket chains in Australia.) Cole's and Woolworth's pretty much control much of the food market in Australia.

We went to Woolworth's our first day in the district. We were rained inside so we spent a lot of time at Woolie's as they call it. They abbreviate everything. My family, especially my dad, will be glad to hear that they do indeed call breakfast brekki, and chocolate milk, chockie! Those two things were the start and end of my vocational day...started with the brekkie and ended with a chockie when we got home!

G'day y'all,
That's how I'm going to address people hear from now on. A good mix of Aussie and Missouri dialects.

Gundi, Home Sweet Home!

So we are in Gooddiwindi now.  My first evening here and we went Yabby hunting(crawfish)!  We put a net in and caught 200+ yabbies.  We sorted them and will eat the big ones tomorrow night.  The little ones are bait for fishing this evening!  could my run of host get any better?!?!?  Peter is my host along with his wife Penni.  Their daughter Kate is 24 and was on the Rotary youth exchange a few years back.  She and her boyfriend Verge cooked us a lamb roast and veggies last night, Wonderful!  Some how I got talked into going to Boot Camp this morning with Pete.  Boot camp is always in a new spot around Gundy.  We were up at 4:30 and headed out.  Boot camp consisted of an hour of extreme conditioning.  Whew, I haven't worked out in over 6 months like this, horrible pain but I feel so good now.  We started with a warm up jog, 1/4 mile.  Then it was 12 pushups, 5 updowns, 9 clap pushups, 5 updowns, 6 chest slap pushups, 5 updowns, 3 fingertip pushups, 5 updowns, then a 1/4 mile job.  Now do that 3 bloody times!!!  In hiking boots because I don't have shoes, whew!  Then we ran down to a roat ramp and spent 30 mintues doing jog down, sprint up, with bench dips and crunches in between, SFA!  Then a "cool down" jog back to the park for stretches.  I'll feel this tomorrow.  I'm going back on Friday to do a canoe race for boot camp.  The best time around the island gets fewer workouts on shore.  I better be on my game!

 Pete and I visited a lot of his building projects this morning now we are going fishing!

That's all for now.  Miss all of you.....but not enough to come home:)

open door policy

Catch This Y'all
This evening I have some down time to fill out postcards. I have the screen door open to catch any breeze passing by Joy's home, and so I can listen to the frogs and birds that welcome the night.
So have my postcard list, I have 17 cards and 20 names so I'm noting who should get one now and who later..blah blah..something brown slithers in my room from the bedroom door and under my backpack. I freak out, do I grab the bag or stay on the bed?!? We (Nick and I) had a fake snake scare at Naurelle and Alastair's. This thing wasn't that long, was it a snake or lizard ahh!! what if it gets in my bag. What if there are others in my bag and I put on my backpack and it bites and kills me!
I pulled the backpack towards me while I stay on the bed.
It's a millipede. Are they poisonous? If I had tv and watched the latest nature shows I'd know, damn my television theories!! It's going towards the dirty clothes in the closet, SFA, where did this thing come from? why does everyone leave the doors open in the land of poisonous pests?
Okay, I've determined that the millipede probably has a small mouth and I can herd it out the screen door. However at this point I'm terrified of all the other creatures that could be in my laundry and bags. No sooner have I comforted myself with the fact that I just put those clothes there an hour ago than a frog jumps up against the back wall of the closet. I hollered- loud. The millipede beast is trying to climb the closet walls, so I shoo him across the floor and through the screen door where i study the extension cord carefully for unnatural movement- it could be masking any number of slithery creatures. Back to the frog, just in case he's poisonous I grab a dirty shirt, catch him with it and out the door he goes too.
I had to share this because my heart was banging in my ears I was a little scared and still am... should probably check the bed for creepy crawlies. Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs paralyze you in your sleep :)
BT

The sounds and smells of Australia

So the team has been posting photos on facebook and writing about our experiences on the blog but there are some things words and pictures cannot describe.

As I write, my host Alastair is cooking breakfast of onions, mushrooms, eggs and beef sausage links.

Perhaps the most unnerving sound I have experienced is that of the call of the kookaburra. The first night I work up at my first host's home it was around 6am local time. My body has adjusted to the clock and I get up at 6am here no matter what just like I would at home. So imagine it's your first night in a home, you're in the semi-awake state, it takes you a few seconds to figure out that you're in a foreign country and all of a sudden it sounds like apes and monkeys outside your window. It was still twilight, I was half awake and it sounds like monkeys are going ape out there! And it's quite loud so my instinct tells me two things: these monkeys are big and they are close. I stay in bed.

At morning tea (breakfast) I ask about the "monkeys". I was genuinely concerned because our first night in Sydney we saw these very large bats which the Australians call flying foxes. The wingspan is HUGE and they were hundreds of feet in the air. In my mind since the bats were huge, so too were the monkeys.

I was informed it was a bird. Thank God! Screaming monkey alarm clock sounds make me a little nervous.

We have moved to our third host club of Boonah which is an hour or two inland from the coast and it feels like home. Winding roads, rolling hills of pasture, crops, cows, are all here as are all the familiar smells that go with it. They neighbor was mowing hay the other morning and you could smell it across the field. Not only does it look like home, it feels like home. My hosts Naurelle and Alastair hosted my teammate Beth and her host Joy for evening tea (dinner) last night and Beth, Joy and I did the dishes. Naurelle doesn't have a dishwasher (familiar to me) and so we hand washed and dried...just like home.

I have only seen one snake since I've been here. My hosts strategically placed rubber snakes outside on window sills to get my reaction. I only noticed them when Beth, Alastair and I were returning from a walkabout on their 40 acres and Beth screamed and jumped. I quickly see the snake and jump also! In all our prep for the trip everyone says "Oh, you gotta watch out for the snakes..." I saw one snake slither away in a garden...otherwise I've only seen them behind glass at a zoo. My hosts got a good laugh. They were waiting to see how long it took...sounds like something I would do...just like home.

I would have to say my favorite sound is that of an Aussie talking. It is so distinct and captivating at the same time. I learn more from these people but simply sitting down for a cuppa (cup of tea) than anything else. We all speak English but there are some vocab issues every now and then. Sometimes but not often it's the accent, most of the time they use some abbreviated form of a word. Brekki is breakfast, Cuppa is cup of tea, and so on and so forth.

And when we eat...which is another source of great smells here...they'll call it a feed. When it was about time for lunch yesterday, the hosts say, "Well go and have a feed before we go back." I'll say this, in the States the livestock feed and humans eat. As well as I have been eating here...I might be swine.

G'Day USA,
Nick

Seaplane10

Sorry, I'm a little behind on the blog.  As Nick has told you, we are in Coomera right now.  Thursday we had our vocational day.  I met up with a builder named Gordon who was kind enough to show me around a hospital renovation.  We went into new construction and also we were able to get into a few furnished areas.  Their procedures are very close to ours.  I do like the fact that almost every business recycles their rain water!  I have some great awning ideas for Chico back at Marathon!  They are starting to transition their health environments into welcoming areas with great colors and a warming feel.  It was a great vocational day and it was really nice to talk to Gordon.  I wish I could dive into it more but I'm exhausted and want to get the rest of the blog finished.  I have my personal journal filled in and would be more than happy to discuss it when I get back.

After vocational morning, we had our second presentation.  This club is so down to earth and young!  They wanted to the full presentation with no corners cut. It was nice not to be rushed like the first one.  I thought we all did a fantastic job on the presentation and everyone seemed to be pleased.  They are a small club but good things come in small packages!  They gave us gift bags with all kinds of AU stuff.  A full flag, DVD of their anthem, information of Parliment, and a peace stone.  I really enjoyed talking to Barb during lunch and I think she will be a wonderful president when she takes over!

Today we met up with Hyden(might be spelled wrong), who is the President of Coomera.  My Mum, Deb and I drove to his dock to meet the team.  Jenny, Sharon, Barb, Neil, and Hyden all joined us for a day on the Coomera River.  What a day it was!  We started out talking back and forth and switching positions on the boat so we could talk to everyone.  Hyden anchored us in a open area and took off on his dingy.  When he returned 10 minutes later, he had 22lbs of fresh prawn and mud bugs!  They were just caught last night!  The mud bug they have is a mix between a fat lobster and a crawfish.  That is the best way I know how to describe it!  WOW, this is the freshest seafood ever!  It was simply boiled in saltwater and served.  From there we headed over to a island where they had a meal set up for us.  We ate family style and they had everything from Fresh fish to steak.  While eating, Peter, the seaplane operator landed and came up.  Coomera Rotary had arranged for us to go up in a seaplane!!!!!!!  Joe, Nick and I took the first round.  Peter took us up to down the Gold coast.  If you said you were comfortable, he would slam the wheel left or right really hard, Great times!  The view from up there was amazing!  Perfect day on the coast.  While flying, Joe took over the controls and drove us for a while.  Peter asked Joe if he liked us or not????  What does that mean?  Well Joe pulled up on the controls and then pushed them down causing the roller coaster experience.  After eating all day, that was not the most pleasant feeling.  After landing, he took the rest of the crew up for their own personal experience.  Each flight lasted about 30 minutes, we cannot thank Peter enough for taking time out of his day and business to show us the sky.  After the flight we started home on a slow cruise up the northern finger of the Coomera.  Perfect ending to a perfect day!

We came home and showered before heading out to the Coomera Waterfront tavern.  The rotary club walks around with a meat tray.  The tray consist of lamb, bacon, steak, and chicken.  They sell raffle tickets to people around the pub.  From what I understand, they had a good night.  Joe was in their Rotary gear helping Hyden collect money.  It was a great way to wrap up the night and continue the fellowship we started on the water.

It will be a very sad day today when I have to leave Deb and Stu.  They have been great host!  I didn't know this when I came but they have a boy from Youth Exchange staying here.  Vianney is truly my little brother now!  He is 16 years old and I will miss his companionship!  We had a wonderful time together and I know that we will stay in touch for many years to come!  I have to also say goodbye to Noodle and Jasper, the dogs:)