Noosa

From New Zealand we headed to the Sunshine Coast of Australia 'Noosa'. It was sad to be leaving after such amazing adventures, but exciting to be heading back to Aus and catching up with some good friends. The reason was of course for Ben and Hailey's wedding but it was also lovely to enjoy a bit of RnR for a few days before being on the move again.

Noosa is like a tropical beachside resort (quite exclusive) at this time of year and very humid on the day we arrived. The bus was expensive to get there and we were in no rush so decided to hitch-hike along the busy tourist road. This inevitably led to an interesting journey... Our first lift was with a Pastor who had retired that day, very nice and Nick kept him talking so he took us a long way, he even offered to marry us in the car (don't worry Mum we declined the offer). Then a young Mum picked us up and I spent the next leg of the journey playing with the three year old in the back of the jeep and finally a young couple who had just got married picked us up in a BMW and drove us to the door! Too Easy.

So we arrived safely and after a bit of washing and shopping we were back in true Aussie style having a BBQ on the roof top, You Beaut! Wednesday took the form of a bit of shopping and relaxing on the lovely beach (getting bowled over by the big waves) and some drinks in the evening on a floating restaurant to meet some of the other wedding guests.

Finally, the wedding day arrived. Once spruced up (apologies if we are looking very similar to the hockey dinner photos) we headed for a small ferry which took all the guests to the wedding. We then walked through the rainforest on a boardwalk and waited for the bride to arrive on a little opening on the beach. The setting was beautiful and everyone looked lovely, even the rain held off for Hails and Ben to say their vows. The restaurant looked out over the beach and we gave the happy couple top marks for the food and canapés... Yum. All in all it was a wonderful evening and we would just like to wish Ben and Hailey a lifetime of health and happiness together!

Inevitably, everyone had a few drinks and ended to evening in the hotel pool, very funny. Best effort goes to Madeline (Hailey's sister) who jumped in with her entire bridesmaids dress on...

Reality hit us in the morning and we spent the remainder of the time sorting out things for our trip to Asia. Thanks to Wend and Perce for a lovely post wedding BBQ! Saturday was spent in Brisbane getting together any last min items and exploring the city by ferry. We also watched the junior skipping world champions performing in the main square, Impressive!