The Gnome at the Bottom of the Garden

Am I still trying to catch up on holiday blogs? Talk about slack…

We had scheduled Saturday as a semi rest day. A day to hang around the pool and not do too much. We had tickets to the Australian Outback Spectacular that night and didn’t want to wear the kidlets out too much.

The resort where we stayed had it’s own mini golf course, so we played a round starting off in hot sunshine, and by the time we had finished, it was raining. ACW was the winner as usual and after a shaky start, I soon came good (well good enough to come a distant 2nd). We headed indoors for a while to escape the rain and while the kidlets watched tv, I caught up on some laundry. The skies soon cleared, so the we all headed to the pool. ACW and I found ourselves some comfy deck chairs and a book while the kids had fun splashing around. It soon started showering again and everyone got out of the pool! I’ve never quite understood why people get out of the pool if it’s raining. It can’t be because they don’t want to get wet…. Anyway, the rain wasn’t good for our books, so we headed back indoors for lunch and a rest.

By mid afternoon, the skies had cleared and ACW and I decided that we should go searching for the geocache that appeared to be only about 3kms away. A 6k round trip – we figured we could do it in less than 2 hours. Turned out to be just over 4kms and the cache was hidden in a stand of pine trees that made getting a GPS lock very difficult. There was a large flock of rainbow lorrikeets there, but getting a good photo was very difficult.

   We had come this far, so we weren’t giving up. Relying on our memory for the clue, “at the base of a tree” we hunted around the trees, trying not to look suspicious. Eventually, we found it. Hoo-bloody-ray!

But we had lost a lot of time. If we wanted to shower and change (and boy did we need a shower and change) before the coach was going to pick us up to take us to the show, we were really going to have to leg it. We figured that since we were in what appeared to be a really big park, if we just went cross country it would be quicker. Eventually we managed to work our way around the various fences to come out in the car park of the Burleigh Bears Leagues Club. This AFL girl was never so happy to see a Leagues Club. We staggered inside and the lovely lady inside called us a priority taxi and we were soon on our way. I didn’t care how much it was going to cost. the drive took about 10 minutes. After seeing how far we had travelled, I’m glad we made the decision to grab a cab. We would never have made it. So much for a “restful” day.

While waiting for the coach, another family arrived out front of the resort – the mother looked very familiar. I had gone to high school with her for a year 28 years ago!! I last saw her about 12 years ago. She had married (and since divorced) another friend of mine.  We spent some time on the bus catching up on the last 12 years, and our kids quickly became friends.

The show was great (no photography allowed) and the food was delicious. Of all the things we did on our trip, this is the one that the kids wish they could do again.