Life is Swell....

Quite literally.  Since our last entry Nick has acquired a surf board.  Whenever the conditions permit, and occasionally when they don’t he has been chasing and catching waves.  He has made it his mission to master the skill before we leave the country.  The surfing days are numbered however once we head north.  Soon we will drift into the no swimming area of OZ.  The waters will begin to get clearer and more beautiful but with the rainy season in full effect, will bring on the jellyfish, crocks, and sharks.
He will often ride a Segway from work to the beach before work, which has often caught a few eyes and brought in more work for the afternoon.  This may seem counter-productive as the more he surfs the less he can surf, but it doesn’t seem to hurt the financial situation.  The van seems to be getting smaller with the influx of souvenirs, and we have taken it upon ourselves to rig up a roof rack and strap the majority of our all-weather items on top.  Too much more and we will have to add a trailer to the mix…

Over the Christmas/school holidays the Segways never seemed to stop rolling.  Towards the end of January the tours became smaller and eventually we saw a few days off.  At this point we welcomed the mandatory holiday.  We took up a new hobby in the form of cable skiing.  This activity is virtually the same as waterskiing or wakeboarding, accept one major aspect: the boat.  Instead you are launched from a dock and sent skimming around a man made lake via a tow rope attached to a series of cables and pullys’.  The whole “getting up” and “riding” bit proved to be easier than its tow-boat counterpart, but there was a new skill required to make it around the lake.  This skill consisted of being able to do a (seemingly instant) 90 degree turn to the left.  Both of us took the majority of the night to master whip #1.  That still left another 3 ½ whips to make it around the whole lake.  Needless to say the majority of the evening was spent walking back the launch pad.  I forgot to mention before but this was all done at night with the help of spotlights.  This was another advantage to the cable ski racquet; you can unwind after a full day of work, and you don’t need to buy (or know someone with) a boat.  It is also worth mentioning that Amanda didn’t face plant while launching for the first time.  We were told by the cable operator that it is rare to see a newcomer stay dry for more than a few seconds.  Amanda avoided that fate…until whip #1 of course.  There were heaps of gear to choose from and Nick made it duty to try everything at least once.  This meant riding wake boards, kite boards (thinner), surf boards and skis.  Once he thought he had conquered them all he found a lonely plywood disc in the corner of the gear room.  He asked if it was an option and the operator laughed and said “yes, but make sure you don’t ride it upside down.”  It turns out there wasn’t a difference between top and bottom and it was meant for more of a gag for birthdays and bachelor parties.


Nick said he wouldn’t have noticed it except his father relayed many a story about the toys they used to ride behind the boat, and one happened to be one of the same.  Nick beat the odds of getting off the dock with it but soon noticed its lack of a steering mechanism and spun himself off and into the drink.  Determined he rode it, again and again.  He skipped down the lake and forced to do his own impression of a flying saucer on the corner as he was whipped to the left, leaving the disc flying straight toward the shore.  After giving it the ol’ college try he decided to put it back in the corner to wait for its next victim.

 In the mix of work and play the Aussies declared a holiday-Australia Day.  Very similar to our Canada Day, people were scurrying about with coolers and grills flocking to the beaches and parks.  Getting up early we were rewarded with a free breakfast at the local beach.  In the spirit of things we gorged ourselves that evening on meat pies, washing it down with OZ made ginger beer, while watching some local music and taking in the fireworks on the beach.  We even interviewed a few locals asking them what the best part of being Australian was, to which one replied “ice cream” which may have been a bias opinion from the ice cream merchant.

Things in this neck of the country have been heating up.  All the recent rainfall has now taken to the air and made this Canadian couple feel much more Canadian.  We have been hiding out in shops and supermarkets mooching A/C like its our job.  The small van we reside in has been getting smaller each night and trips to the beach have become more frequent.  We have equipped small fans to our “bedrooms” in hops of relief.  The only success we have has was to leave the coast for a few days and do a tour of the foothills of Maleny, and Montville.  Here we were reacquainted with our shoes, pants and sweaters.  We also got to know the views of the rolling peaks, freshwater lakes and deep valleys.  In Montville we visited shops of all kinds.  We took time to take a lesson from the custom candy makers, and enjoyed tasting a few fine liqueurs made locally.  After tasting the pride of the shop we couldn’t leave without a small bottle of coffee liqueur that makes Bailies taste like dirty socks.


 In Maleny we found market after market of fresh produce.  The town brags of no franchises and the book stores outnumber the pubs.  There were also many beautiful walks in the area to which we were obliged to include in our stay as well.  Our trip back to the coast was broken up by a night of flying sod and mud as we drifted off the safety of the ash fault and came to rest at the bottom of a seemingly gradual slope.  This was our own doing as we ventured off the designated rest area parking and to the shelter of a nearby tree.  We never made it to that tree.  Instead we spent the majority of our time trying to get farther from it realizing it requited a lighter vehicle with a bigger footprint than our Sully had.


After exhausting all other options we called a tow truck only to find out it would cost more than a days wage to get us out of this pickle.  We decided to call the only other person we know in the country with a truck (Ray) and see if we could cut a deal.  Luck was on our side as Ray was only 15 min away at the time and could make short work of it and not even miss his supper.  It turns out you pay your mates for towing the same way ya do in Canada…with beer.  So we cut a deal and traded his services for a few goods we picked up at the nearest Bottle shop.

Amongst the Segway tours we were enlisted to assist with a few Corporate events.  One crew found themselves suddenly in a plane wreck situation with only a few items dropped from the plane before its unscheduled decent.  They worked together to find food, build shelter, cross a raging river, hunt their own food build a fire.  They worked in teams and earned points along the way.  The final event was a clay pigeon shoot out, the winner walking away with a free Segway tour of the nearby ranch.  We were located not far west from Brisbane but on our tour we encountered roos, horses, lots of spiders, and even a group of wild camels wandering through.  It was just as much an adventure for us as it was the clients.  Other days had us setting up human-fooseball, lazer-clay and Segway-croquet for clients such and EB Games and a local Engineering firm.  It seemed like we had as much fun watching them as they did playing them.

We are making this entry 4 hours North of our last one, from inside a Don Pancho Resort room.  We are very thankful to Amanda’s mom for the Christmas gift of a weeks stay here on beach in Bargara 10 minutes from Bundaberg.  The A/C is a blessing and it’s a treat to be able to spread our possessions out and regroup for our next leg of the journey.  A kitchen, though small by most standards, seems just big enough to cook some recipes from home. Our newly acquired freezer has found itself full with icy treats.  We are also informed that we have arrived just in time for sea turtle hatching season.  There is a place down the road you can pay to have a guided tour, with chances to see the little guys taking their first steps, but we have been told we have the same chances when we stroll the beach ourselves after dark.  We have a full moon tonight to light the way.  We will head out shortly to try our luck.

We are not completely sure of our next move.  There is talk about saving some more money for the long leg around the top.  We are also considering spending a week at sea sailing the Whitsunday islands.  As soon as we know we promise to let you all know.  We would like to end this entry with a quote from Ray’s website: “Do the best you can, with what you’ve got, right where you are.”