The Ups and Downs of Traveling

After picking up Jen, Josephine, and Terri on Sunday at the Brisbane airport we worked our way south to Surfer's Paradise so the girls could get situated in their hotel. After a relaxing breakfast at Burleigh Heads we headed to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary to view koalas, kangaroos, crocodiles, and other animals/birds native to Australia. It was pretty cool seeing all the animals up close. Rachel even got to hold a koala which was at the top of her "To Do" list for Australia.

Little did we know that while we were snuggling up to the cute koalas, gazing at the tree kangaroos, and gawking at the massive crocodile our Hippie Camper was getting broken into. We arrived to find our van's window was pried open and five bags were missing. After unsuccessfully searching the area for our bags we headed back to the hotel to assess our losses. When we got to the hotel we had a message...a good samaritan saw three of our bags outside a Salvation Army and thought something was fishy. He searched the bags, found the girls itinerary, and called the hotel to let us know he found them. Two of the bags were our large backpacks that contained most of our clothing and camping gear, the third was Jen's carry-on. Obviously the valuables (iPod, wallet, etc) were gone and Rachel's small backpack and Terri's bag were no where to be found.

Although not everything was recovered, we were happy to have the majority of our stuff back and the rest is, of course, replaceable. We were just sorry that the girls had to waste a day of their short vacation with the mess. If this is the worst we have to deal with during our travels we'll consider ourselves very lucky. We figure that's what happens when you get comfortable and let your guard down. We should've been more careful and we've learned our lesson.

After playing the part of four Nancy Drews and one Sherlock Holmes the day before, we all agreed some serious wine tasting was in order. Tambourine Mountain became our refuge for the day. We hiked a trail through the rainforest to view some waterfalls (getting soaked from the rain on our way out). We then headed to the wineries in an attempt to forget the disastrous previous day. Three wineries (with all the free tasting we wanted) and a cheese factory later and Dustin now had four crazy girls to deal with instead of just one. Such fun!

Last night we dropped the girls off at the airport so they could continue on their trip to Sydney. We have one day to relax in Brisbane before we head to Perth. Despite the rocky start, we really enjoyed having the girls join us for part of our journey. We're hoping the rest of their trip in Australia is a bit more mellow and relaxing.

As we leave the Gold & Sunshine Coasts on the East Coast of Australia here are a few of our thoughts on the area:

• The surf here has been fantastic...the coast is an endless stretch of perfect right points


• The only downside to the perfect surf is that every spot is ridiculously crowded


• The coastal culture is quite similar to California...the clothing, food, cars, and development are all very close replicas of Southern California


• Like California, once you head inland away from the ocean, you can get away from the crowds and into some solitude


• Despite the whole incident with the van, we enjoyed our time here and are glad we included it on our trip

With all that said, we're looking forward to heading to the West Coast of Australia.....