7/9/9 Monday Brisbane to Mooloolaba

We woke early to catch the early bus out of Brisbane northbound towards Mooloolaba where we are jumping off to see matt and his family. Bunny was the driver and she was alovely girl from Western Australia. She had worked in the mines so Phil and she had loads of chats about mining stuff. We travelled towards the sunshine coast via the glasshouse mountains which are a strange looking group of 13 volcanic peaks. They were named by James Cook who thought they looked like the chimneys at the glass factories at home so thats why he named them that. We drove to a lookout where we saw a panoramic view of the mountains. Bunny told us the aboriginal legend of the peaks and I have it below:

The legend tells of Tibrogargan noticing that the sea was rising and calling out to Coonowrin to help his pregnant mother gather the young children together so that the family could flee from the rising sea. Coonowrin ran away in fear and Tibrogargan, incensed by his son's cowardice, followed and hit him so hard with a club that his neck was dislocated. When the seas retreated the family returned to the plains. Conowrin, teased about his crooked neck and ashamed of his behaviour, went to Tibrogargan and asked for forgiveness but the father just wept with shame. Conowrin then approached his brothers and sisters to ask forgiveness but they too could only weep with shame, thus explaining the area's many small streams. Tibrogargan then called Conowrin and asked why he had failed to help Beerwah. He explained that he felt she was big enough to look after herself, though he did not know she was pregnant. Tibrogargan then turned his back on his son and still gazes out to sea today, refusing to look at his son who forever hangs his crooked neck and cries. Beerwah, the mother, is still pregnant, as it takes time to give birth to a mountain.

The mountain representing the pregnant mother is a birthing ground for the aboriginal people and is out of bounds to the males. We left the viewpoint and carried on a short while before reaching Mooloolaba and our hostel for the night. The hostel was a bit of a tip with lots of people living there long term and their stuff everywhere. At least our room was clean and we had an ensuite bathroom so we didn't have to share with the other dirty gits. We sat in the sun writing the diary and doing our laundry for a while then the hostel provided a barbecue lunch which we tucked into. at about 2pm Phil called Matt who had been sleeping after night shift and he came to pick us up at about 3pm. It was good to see him and Phil said he looked really well and relaxed so the Australian life suits him. We drove doen to the beach to meet his wife Tina and the two children Jordan and Amaiya (eldest son Ben was at college) . we chatted there for a while so the children could hava a play in the park. Jordan beat both of us on a giant naughts and crosses game...we were rubbish!! We went to the local Surf Club to get some drinks and lunch of chips and baguettes which were lovely. Unfortunately Matt was working another night shift so we left them to walk back to our hostel which was a five minute walk. Phil had takeaway noodles and we took them back to the hostel to eat. There was a brilliant electric storm followed by a huge downpour of rain which we sat watching for a while before we went off to bed.

8/9/9 Tuesday Mooloolaba

We had a free breakfast at the hostel and checked out to wait for Matt and Tina to pick us up. We were going out for the day while the children were at school then having a barbecue tea and staying overnight at their place...great ! We were picked up at 11am and we drove along the coast to Noosa. Halfway there we stopped at Coolum at a lookout to take in the views of the coast. It was stunning and we took a few photographs before carrying on to Noosa. we had to drive around for a while before we could find a parking space as Noosa gets really busy. its only a small town with a lovely bay but is really popular. we walked along the beach for a while and returned along a boardwalk. Apparently half the beach sand was washed away in a storm recently and new sand is being bought in.We ate anice lunch in a Noosa cafe before heading back down the coast in time to collect Jordan from school. We stopped off to get meat and beers for the barbecue later on. Jordan wasn't very well when he got home so our plan to all go fishing for an hour changed and only Matt and us went off to the river. Liz managed to catch a small whiting within the first few minutes and then Matt caught one shortly after. phil had a sulk on because he couldn't catch one. The fish were all biting madly on ther live prawns we used for bait though but they were really crafty and missed the hooks. We drank some cold cans of beers out of Matts fishing eski and left in time to collect Amaiya from nusery. we collected her with armfuls of artwork and went to the grounds of ther local uni where there were loads of kangaroos. Two of them were boxing each other and looked really camp with pathetic punches...very funny! When we got back to the house we met up with Ben who was very happy as he'd passed an exam at college in the day. We all drank some more beers and the men cooked up the steak, chicken and sausages on the barbecue. we had bread and salads and Matt cooked two camemberts on the barbecue which we all dunked our bread into. After dinner we sat chatting some more and had beers and Mat toffered his computer for us to Skype call our parents. Lizzies mum and Da were at Phils parents in Cyprus for a visit and so we could speak to all of them together. We haven't ever skyped before and it was hilarious as we both yelled at the screen. We kept speaking over each other so missed half of the converstaion but it was nice to see them all. What a laugh!!!! Matt and Phil then starting chatting to people on line on Facebook. they were being really naught, teasing some of the lads they know from work in the UK. We had agreat fun night and fell into bed feeling quite merry...Matt had done well to stay awake so long after only a couple of hours sleep the night before.