EIGHTH DAY – FRIDAY 16TH JULY
Got up early, had a walk, had breaky and left Kilcoy about 8 am and it was a cold and frosty morning with sun shining. We arrived in Beewah before 9 am and we decided to visit Australia Zoo, Crikey!! It was pretty good. The animal enclosures were nicely done, however sometimes it was hard to see the animals – I guess they were hiding or not there at all. We walked all around the zoo in about three hours. We saw the big tortoises being fed, the crocs, lots of koalas, kangaroos, and birds. We also saw the majestic tigers. We saw a presentation at ‘The Crocosium’ of a big croc called Graham who’s been around awhile and the big snakes. We missed the elephants. The thing we liked the most was when the birds came in. It was amazing seeing these beautiful creatures flying all around the stadium. They knew exactly what to do. There were amazing coloured parrots, white and black cockatoos, lorikeets, smaller parrots and the most amazing of them all was this one Jabaru which flew in by itself over the top of the stadium and landing in the middle. That was awesome. We left the zoo about 12.30 and reached Maroochydore by 1.10 where we found the Budget Car Rental place to pick up our car. We then convoyed to Nambour where we found the Rainforest Caravan Park. Boy! It was pretty hard for the van to swing around into the driveway of the park. The caravan park is on the side of a hill. It looks nice but when we got to our site we had trouble backing into the site. Other people told us that nearly everyone trying to go on it has had trouble. Graeme managed to get the van into place however managed to bend the wheel on his bike in the process. – not happy!!! After we set up camp we went for a wander around in our hire car which is a Mitsubishi Lancer. Took Graeme’s bike wheel to bike shop – getting a new one. Got our bearings, went back to van, had showers, got ready to go to Maurie and Annies place for dinner. We found our way to Mauries place and quietly went to the front door. We rang the bell. We could here Annie calling to Maurie to answer the door. He came and answered and we shouted “Surprise, Happy Birthday” Maurie was very surprised and I think he was very happy for us to be there. There were lots of hugs and kisses. We met Hannah’s new fiancé Adam, who is a lovely young lad. There were Rachel and Joel and Jessica and her new boyfriend Corray, who was quiet and lovely.(I hope I spelt his name right, sorry if I didn’t) we had a terrific evening with the family. We surprised Maurie again by presenting him with the things that he had chosen from mums stuff which had been packed away in a box in Mikes garage. They had fun opening them like presents as we had wrapped them up. The kids got a kick out of looking at the old slides of which there were many. We had a lovely dinner of a chicken, vegie and rice meal with choc fondu and fruit for dessert. Yummo! They used some of the strawberries from the basket that I arranged to be sent there for Mauries birthday to put him off the scent. It worked he had no idea we were coming. We left their place about 10.40 back to the van. It was a good night.

NINTH DAY – SATURDAY 17TH JULY
Left the van at 7.35 am to go the Eumundi Market. On the way there we dropped into the Jandina Market with was mostly vegies and second hand goods and lots of plants! I wish I could bring some of the plants with us but alas we can’t. Boohoo. We then went onto Eumundi where the market was huge. Much more touristy but good none the less. We bought quite a few things including food, clothes, bits and pieces and food! We were there for a few hours and right before we were about to go we heard a band called ‘Jabaru’ playing which consisted of two people (a couple). I really liked the sound of their music which included a didgeridoo, drums, flutes, shakers, dulcimer and other instruments, it is quite tribal. We bought a couple of their CDs for our trip. We then went to the Ginger Factory and bought some ginger beer and ginger and left. We didn’t do a tour as we have been there before. As we were leaving the ginger factory we discovered ‘The Nut Factory’ opposite which to me was much more enticing than ginger. We had a really nice lunch there and bought some macadamia nut things as well. On our way back through Nambour we dropped into a shop call ‘The Time Machine Shop’ where it was like going back in time where there was all things 50’s, 60’s and 70’s stuff. He had toys, books, magazines, comics, music and you go downstairs to find clothes etc, etc. There is a life size statue of Elvis out the front of the shop. We then went back to van to get ready for Mauries 60th birthday party – we had to dress up in 60’s style clothes. Graeme and I dressed as hippies. We thought this was the easiest. The party was great, seeing people dressed in all kinds of gear. There was a lady who had made a yellow jumpsuit in the 60’s for herself and she still amazingly fits into it. She looked fantastic. We had a sit down smorgasbord meal. Maurie played his guitar which took me back to days when I remember listening to him play when I was little. He was great. I had some great conversations with different people, one being Ross Bird who we haven’t seen in ages. He introduced us to his 18mth old son. I went to Luther with Ross. We practically stayed to the end, which wasn’t terribly late as the party started at 5 and Maurie has to preach three services tomorrow.

TENTH DAY – SUNDAY 18TH JULY
We got to sleep in a bit. Had breaky and went to Nambour church for 10 o’clock service. It is a lovely church – very bright and roomy. Everyone sat on one side of the church. Half the people there were visitors who had come from Brissy for Maurie’s party. Maurie was pretty tired as he had already had two services in the morning and had to do another one later in the day at Witton. So we decided to have a day to ourselves. We went into Alexander Headlands to see the sea and just have a look and then back to Maroochydore and checked out the Sunshine Plaza then went to Bunnings (to get our bunnings fix-heehee) cause Graeme needed to get a few things for the van and then came back to ‘The Snail’ for some lunch and I read the paper and did some much needed washing. Graeme had a fiddle with the float level and carbi in the van. Had a nice tea, watched a bit of tele then went to bed.

ELEVENTH DAY – MONDAY 19TH JULY
I can’t believe it’s been over a week now since we left home. Its starting to feel like we’re on holidays now. We had breaky and then went to Maurie’s place. We hopped into his car and he and Annie took us up the mountains. We stopped at a couple of lookouts to view the Glasshouse Mountains, which are quite spectacular. Unfortunately there was quite a bit of cloud and mist so we couldn’t see the sea as clearly as we hoped. We then went to Mary Cairnscross Scenic Reserve, where we went for a walk through the rainforest. It was amazing to see the big buttressed trees and huge thick wonga vines curling up and around the trees in all directions. The towering strangler fig trees were spectacular as well as the many palms, lichens and fungi. We then went to the town of Maleny where there were many little interesting stores and art/craft shops. There was also an amazing wood shop. We had lunch there in a cute cafe and also had some homemade icecream. We then went onto another town called Montville which is a bigger version of Maleny and more touristy. We had a look at some of the shops – bought some yummy fudge and lollies from a shop called fudgyboombahs – isn’t that a great name? We then went to a waterfall and another rainforest walk which was just as amazing if not more amazing than the first one. And yes, I took lots of photos. We then went back to mauries place had a bit of a chat then we said our good byes which was a bit sad. Hugs and kisses and departed. We came back to van, had tea, watched a bit of tele and then I wrote about the last four days of our trip. We plan to get going early tomorrow as we have quite a bit to do.