Tuesday 11th October

It appears we are destined not to sleep in - awake at 6am again!  At least we didn’t hear the birds this morning at 4.30am.   Same routine again with the aim to leave about 8am to drive down to Brisbane airport to met Julie and Dave.

While checking the map for the route, spotted Kawana Waters - just near Mooloolaba, on our way south.   Suggested we leave early and see if we can find the Rockman shop.  We decided to take the Sunshine Motorway down rather than the Bruce Highway.   Took just over half an hour to get to Kawana Waters shopping centre.  Very easy to find, but at 8.10am only the supermarket and a couple of coffee shops were open.   So thought we may as well get a paper and coffee.  The shopping centre is large, so first task was to find a directory - and low and behold the shop we wanted was diagonally across from the coffee shop - what are the odds!

A coffee and a wander killed the time before Rockmans was opened.   There I found the trousers, right colours and size, tried them on - perfect.   As usual, if I find a pair of trousers that fit, I buy two or three pairs!  So purchased two black and one tan.  Most of my trousers are black as they are more versatile.

Time to head to Brisbane airport - 90 odd kilometres away, about an hours drive.  By now it is 9.30 am and the temperature is already 26!  Yesterday’s high was 28 and today’s was predicted to be 27. 

The traffic down on the Sunshine Motorway and Bruce Highway was not as heavy as we expected.  We stopped at Nudgee Service Centre for petrol before getting to the International Airport to do a rekkie first.  All very easy, so Pete decided as we were still a bit a head of time we would check out how to get back onto the motorway north.  Once done we went back to the Arrivals area, so far no sign of Julie and Dave, and no text.  Nearly stopped in the disabled park, but there was a traffic warden lurking around.  Drove off, and as we went down the ramp from the Arrivals area, we got the text!  A quick lap around the car park and back up the ramp and there they were! 

As soon as Dave got into the car he spotted the All Black Flag and proceeds to wind down the window and attach!  So not the reaction we expected!  Time to drive north.

It was great to catch up on the local news and exchange recent day’s activities.   The trip back to Noosa took only 1 ½ hours and first stop was the apartment to unload the bags.  I had been worried about the amount of luggage they would have as the boot on the Camry is not as large as we thought and will all my ‘stuff’ there wasn’t much room left.  Thankfully they only had one large case and carry on!  A big relief.

A quick beer was in order for the others and a coffee for me.   Dave needed to attend to an urgent email request (business).  Once sorted we headed to Noosa Village Shopping centre to have some lunch and get more breakfast supplies.

Julie was keen to find a Gazman shop which has very nice Polo Shirts, and believe it or not there is an Outlet store in the Noosa Village Shopping Centre!  Perfect, so once we had some lunch we managed to get Pete to buy three very nice Polo’s - success at last.  Pete hates clothes shopping!

With supplies sorted we went back to the apartment.  Once unpacked we went for a walk along the boardwalk along the river to just passed Thomas Street and back.  By this time Dave was flagging and needed a wee sleep.  We all needed some quiet time.  For me time to Blog with a wine in hand!

Dinner will not be late as Julie and Dave are starting the wilt - they have been up since 4.30am NZ time and with the 3 hour time change, 5pm is like 8pm….  Sounds like us four days ago!!

After a rest and wine we wandered east along Gympie Terrace to find a restaurant to eat at.   Some restaurants were fully accessible, but others only had seating on the side walk accessible otherwise it was steps into the main part of the restaurant.   A bit disappointing, as I don’t remember that from our last visit.   There is a good variety of restaurants in Noosaville along Gympie Terrace and Thomas Street.

After some deliberation we settled on the Thai Restaurant.  It was before 6pm, so only a couple of tables occupied and what looked like tables set up for big groups.  They were able to take us and we had a nice spot just inside the door, so at least I could benefit from the slight breeze.

The meal was very nice.   For Starters we had a mixed entrée, which was huge compared to our local restaurant at home, followed by three dishes to share.  Our choices were large servings so we were pleased we opted for three and not four dishes.  Nice to have a good amount of vegetables in the dishes too.     By the time we left the place was really filling up, so it is obviously popular with the locals - interesting.   There was a real mixture of dress - some people had made an effort and others very casual!

With sunset being around 5.50pm it was very pleasant evening, still quite warm and a gentle breeze.  We were only about 100 metres from the apartment, do the walk home was quick.

Julie and Dave piked just on 8pm - they did extremely well.  We watched a bit more TV and called it a day at 8.45 - not much better than them.   It was a much hotter night, so ended up sleeping with the fans on in the bedrooms.