Brisbane

Sometimes technology gets the better of us. This is our second attempt at this blog. The first went horribly wrong when the shift key got stuck down and we deleted all the work we had done and 4 of the super pictures. B####s. Never mind here we go again. This time fueled with beer.
We left New Zealand and moved on to Australia to do some touring with Garry's mum (Pat) and to catch up with friends. We started in Brisbane then moved on to Cairns, Sydney and Melbourne. So more blogs will hopefully follow soon (technology allowing).
Brisbane.
We stayed a few days with our friends Tania and Vikars who we met a year ago in India. For us it was great and hopefully they enjoyed catching up as well. Vikars cooked the most superb Dhal Makhani, bringing back wonderful memories of India. Thanks guys and hopefully see you again soon. Oh we also had a cracking day with them at a water park. You know the sort of thing, just being kids again and larking around on the slides and things. Cool. Just as a little aside we are now in Bali and man is it raining. Just as well we're sitting in a little bar typing this. Oh and tonight we're going to the beach to enjoy fresh seafood, can't wait.

We also caught up with some friends June and Alan that we had met in Phuket. They very kindly took us out sailing for the day. We joined a local WAGS race (Wednesday Afternoon Gentlemens Sailing). It's a handicap race and as June and Alan have the fastest (another est) boat we had to start dead last. The above photos shows most of the fleet behind us as we caught them up and just ploughed through. Great for us as we are often somewhere near the back. June and Alan have also got something to answer for. They have rekindled our enthusiasm for sailing so we're going to cut short our time in Indonesia to travel to Thailand for another couple of regattas. Thanks June and Alan and good luck with Plan B! Hopefully see you on the water soon.

Alison and Alan discussing tactics during the race.

When Pat arrived in Brisbane she spent her first few days catching up with her brother (Brian) who now lives in the Brisbane area. For those of you that don't know who is who, from the left, Brian, Pat, Tania, Garry and Vicars.

After Pat had taken Brian shopping we all had a little trip along the river in Brisbane.

There's some amazing flora and fauna in Australia (more coming later) this is a couple of lauraceets (sorry I don't know how to spell larakeets) on the fence in a cafe we were in. Lovely aren't they.

Again as a little aside the rain has now stopped but the mozis are out in force.

On Mount Tamborine.

So that's all from Brisbane.

Thanks to everybody there for looking after us and showing us a great time.

Cheers.

Garry and Alison