Australia 2024 - Day 19, 20 & 21

Day 19 - July 16  Caloundra

The original plan had been to do a whale watching cruise today.  Unfortunately the tour company decided that it was too choppy to go out today so we had to scrap that plan and come up with a Plan B.

Atti had found the Queensland Aviation Museum down in Caloundra that he wanted to go to, And Uncle Bill and Grandpa decided on a sightseeing boat tour at Caloundra. In the end we decided to tag along to the air museum.  We dropped Grandpa and Bill off at their jetty, then did a short drive around Caloundra before heading out to the Air Museum.  We had fun checking out all the planes - I still think this is the cutest aircraft ever.

At midday we went back to pick up Grandpa and Bill and stopped at the tavern at the jetty for Lunch - good food with a great view, but service was slow.

We had planned to go the Aquarium in Mooloolaba after lunch, but by the time we finished lunch and drove back to Mooloolaba it was 2pm.  Grandpa and Bill dropped us off in front of the Aquarium and headed home and we went to go in, only to be told that, since the Aquarium closed at 3pm they would not accept any new entries after 2pm.  So now we were stuck in Mooloolaba with nothing to do.  Since we thought Mel would be back shortly (and we were just a short walk from her place) we decided to hang around the Wharf and bought some Gelato, but then we got the text from Mel saying that they had only just started their hike (they were doing a hike in the Glass House Mountains) so we gave in and called Grandpa to come and pick us up.

We relaxed at Bills place for a while, then once the Stopic's were back from their hike we went down to their place for one final evening together, ordered pizzas for dinner.

Day 20 - July 17  Buderim - Wingham

Had a early start today as we started the drive home.  We said goodbye to Uncle Bill and then headed straight down the M1, through Brisbane, towards Sydney.   It was a fairly boring drive, motorways are never that exciting, but at least there wasn't too much bad traffic.  We switched drivers regularly again, once at a McDonalds just south of Brisbane, then again at Lunch.  For lunch we stopped at a little town called Mclean.  We were hoping to find a takeaway and eat down by the river, but the only thing we found was an Olivers - overpriced "nutritious" food...but we did at least get a nice view.

Then back on the road.  After a quick afternoon tea stop at a service plaza, we got off the freeway at Taree and headed for Wingham.  We are staying the night at my cousin Bruce's house.  A nice little spot he has there I really enjoyed seeing his place.  He'd organised a BBQ for dinner and we went out and cooked in his little outdoor Kitchen.  Snags rissoles, onions and eggs on the BBQ plus salads and bread.  Lexie found out that Australian sausages cooked on the BBQ really are good and devoured 4 of them - so did Josh for that matter.

Day 21 - July 18  Wingham - Loftus

This morning we got a tour of Bruce's sheds - checking out all his cars.  He only has 8 of them at the moment.  I do love the new teal statesman, but nothing will beat the bright green Torana.

Had a later start today, then on the road heading back to the freeway.  First stop today was at Heatherbrae for lunch at a mexican fast food place Guzman y Gomez.  Then back on the road.  Ran into heavy traffic down near Gosford, but finally made it back to Sydney - then through Sydney and arrived home around 3:30pm.  Considering it was only meant to be a 4 hour drive today it was still a long day.

Spent the rest of the day relaxing and unpacking.