Esmo & Rach

Of Rare Visitors and peculiar exercise......

5 Nov 2006 - 11 Nov 2006 -> Amelia and gang arrives!

After 4 months of "long distance relationship", Amelia and I are finally "reunited". Amelia is finally here in Brisbane with her family for a break!

After picking her and family (total 10 pax!) from the airport, we headed off to South Bank where Thor made a bee-line for the bike exhibition in the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hall 4.

While Thor drools over bike stuff, Amelia and gang proceeded to the South Bank market for a walk and some grubs.

Having fish and chips on South Bank.

When we are through with the walking and sun tan, we split up and drove to Harbour Town Shopping Mall in Helensvale, for some good old retail therapy. Amelia and Sheryl joined Esmo and I in our Mazda, while Thor being the designated driver of the 12 seater mini bus ferried the rest of the gang to the next destination.

Tired visitors "knocked out" in their ride down south.

The gang had 2 hours.

After the retail therapy, we all needed some gastronomical therapy.

Nothing that an ice cream and a hot dog couldn't "cure".

After settling the visitors down at Isle of Palm, Currumbin, we heeded our growling stomachs and had our dinner of Perfect Satisfaction at Oyama (Japanese Restaurant).

As Esmo and I are not holiday makers, we bid goodbye to the "lucky ones" and agreed to meet up again on Friday, 10 Nov 2006.

After work on Friday, Esmo and I drove straight down to Surfer's Paradise to meet up with Amelia and family for dinner at Captain's Table. The steak and lobster was absolutely delicious!

With our stomachs filled with good food, we decided that to see an organism that would never be seen in the Lion City. We drove 1 hour westward towards Natural Bridge.

The whole group of 12 started trekking down to the valley in search of a cave sprinkled with glow worms at an ungodly hour of 11.30pm!

Armed with torch lights, we walked in a single file down the dark, cold, damp trek. One missed footing could mean drawing on our insurance payouts. Hence, we were extremely cautious since we were the only people that were there in the park! (There would have coaches of tourists if we were there earlier). It was like we were stranded in the wilderness as we had the whole forest to ourselves! Without the torch lights, we would never be able to see one feet ahead of us!

The kids were dragged out from the car, disturbed from their peaceful slumber!

After half an hour of "treacherous" walk, we've finally arrived at the cave! We were sprayed with water from the waterfall nearby. The current was so strong, that it was like drizzling! (Nobody could have stood a chance if we slipped into the waterfall. The current was very strong, made so by the storm Gold Coast had on Wednesday!).

This is the most quantity of glow worms that Esmo and I have seen (compared to our previous trips there). It was as if we were looking at the whole galaxy of stars! It was beautiful (but we couldn't show you how beautiful as any strong light / flash will kill the worms, hence, no photography allowed).

When we've had enough of the worms (and water!), we headed back to our car. We took a wrong turn and nearly didn't make it back!

All pumped up after the midnight trekking!

After a few hours sleep, the visitors had packed all their purchases and belongings, checked out and headed for their final retail therapy at DFO before heading home.