Several weeks ago Colin's sister, Adelle flew to Australia for a visit, along with a good friend of hers/ours, Tara. We had a fantastic time running around checking out the sites which included a Sufjan Stevens concert (compliments of my inlaws for my bday gift) at the Opera house. We were also lucky enough to spend a weekend at our friends fabulous beach home where the girls got to surf in Australia for the first time. It was such a great weekend. We were 2 1/2 hours south of Sydney and as we drove home that Sunday night the last thing on my mind was our car registration. When we were about 45 minutes from home we got pulled over by the cops and I assumed it was for a random breath test. Apparently our car registration had expired 20 days prior! When we moved last December we had changed our address with our insurers but forgot about registration and we hadn't been around our old house in a while to check the mail thereby disabling any chance of receiving the two reminders that had come in the mail.
The cop, being the ever gracious human being that he is, hit us with every possible fine he could have and then told us that we wouldn't be able to drive our car home. The total cost for the night was $1678 in tickets and then $275 for the tow home. To add even further insult to injury, we discovered early the next morning that if we didn't get our car registered by day 21 post expiration (yes, that very day), then we'd have to get something called a blue slip and endure a several week waiting period which meant we wouldn't be able drive. My amazing boss picked me up for work Monday morning and then helped me organize paying for my green slip and book an appt. with my mechanic. Then Colin took half a day off of work, met with the mechanic who approved our car which gives us a pink slip, then he drove to the RTA and paid our dues. All of that was another $800 dollars. It was the most expensive and unexpected two days ever.
A few days later Adelle and Tara rented a vehicle to tour up the coast to meet up with Neil and Anita. 3 days after that Colin's grandma came to visit for a week. We had one nice day of weather and then rain rain rain. Grandma Houle was a champ though and made the best of a damp week. 5 days after Grandma's arrival we flew to Brisbane to meet up with Neil, Anita, Aliza, Adelle and Tara. Neil was writing his last exam the next morning and we were all going to go on a holiday together. We rented two cute little cars then drove up to Hervey Bay where we rented a huge 8 person 4x4 that probably should have only fit 5 people with luggage and then took the ferry across to Fraser Island where we stayed at the beautiful Kingfisher resort. Early the next morning we took off to start exploring the island. Neil and Colin were designated the drivers of the beast which meant they had to undergo brief training before we were even allowed to take truck. The terrain is indescribable. I had only seen pictures of the beaches at Fraser Island, not the insane roads you have to drive on to get to the beaches. We developed a system where the two people in the front would yell out how big the next bump would be based on a 1-5 scale so everyone could brace themselves accordingly. There were so many adventures on Fraser Island but I will pick my favorite memory.
Dingo Dinner:
The only consolation to seeing that such a beautiful sea creature had beached itself and died, was that it gave me the opportunity to watch a dingo eating a humpback WHALE!
After spending Friday night, all day Saturday, and Sunday morning there, we took the ferry back over to Hervey Bay, exchanged the beast for our cute little rentals, and continued our drive up the coast. Our
next stop was a place near Rockhamptom called Yeppoon. We stayed there Sunday evening, then woke up early the next morning to check out the sites. Colin & Adelle ran into town and the rest of us drove there to meet up for bunch. We spent the day at the beach and rented a couple of stand up paddle boards. I was absolutely terrible at it but everyone else seemed to manage quite well. The girls even got to see dolphins when they went out.
Late that afternoon Anita asked if we could spell her brothers name 'Thomas' in the sand for a birthday message she wanted to send him. After it was all set up Neil asked a young twenty-something girl who was sitting nearby to take our picture. Afterwards, Neil raced back up the rocks to see how it turned out. They ended up talking for a while and then Neil yelled that she was coming down and we were going to help her spell a message too. Turns out she was meeting her boyfriend at the beach and her message was "Will you Marry Me Josh?" and she had a ring!!! Neil took lots of amazing photos. We had an hour before he got off of work so we spelt it in a huge heart of shells. Obviously Josh agreed to the matrimonial offer based on our sand handiwork. It was a great afternoon.
We left Tuesday morning super early because we had to drive a massive distance that day and get to Airlie beach by 3pm to check in for our 3 day Whitsunday/Great Barrier Reef sailing trip. We were almost an hour late which really wasn't a big deal (in our opinions) because the boat didn't leave until after 7pm but I guess they like to get paperwork done. pfff.
We had an amazing three days snorkeling our way around the Whitsunday islands and getting to experience the outer great barrier reef. When my parents came out Christmas 2010 we went to the inner reef and it was so cool to also experience the deeper end of things as well. Colin opted to do some scuba diving and enjoyed the opportunity to experience that on the trip too.
It would take me another hour to write about those three days so we'll have to say it with pictures. It'll be a few weeks until someone from our group has gathered up the time to make a video but we'll post something on here eventually. Neil has everyone's pictures and video on his computer so I nominate you and Anita :)
Colin and I left the rest of our group Sunday evening and flew back which included a lame 3 1/2 hour layover in brisbane where Colin slept on a couch in the airport and I read a book called "My Steve" by Terri Irwin. It was actually incredibly emotional and I struggled to get through the last chapter while keeping my airport dignity.
When I arrived at work this morning I discovered that one of my coworkers quit while I was away and the office was in chaos. Welcome home.
E.
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