Welcome to Queensland ... beautiful one day ....

Ok ... so we knew we were in for some rain when we scheduled our trip to Mooloolaba ... but we weren't really expecting this! When we arrived we were told that they were having unseasonably heavy rains since October ... I was already thinking 40 days and 40 nights.

We did have a couple of days at the beach, and we had a nice meal out (Fish on Parkyn - thoroughly recommend it!!) and by and large enjoyed each other's company despite being cooped up for periods of time when the weather provided no respite.

 My Moreton bay bug risotto - apart from the half shell on top, there were chunks of flesh in amongst the rice

M's snapper

Our 3 bedroom apartment was ideally situated, almost right on the beach and within walking distance of the main town. And lets face it we got it for chips! But there were times we were climbing the walls and I trully wanted to just go home. Bless them, but there is a reason why M and I do not have kids.

On what would have been our second last day, most of us were woken in the early morning hours by the onset of a torrential downpour (no longer hairdresser rain as MN calls it) that still hadn't let up by the time we finished breakfast. The flood disaster was all over the news and after seeing the state of some of the roads leading to Caloundra, we were all starting to foster panic, some quietly, some visibly, and some vocally.

View from our balcony - this was soaking wet on the day we left

M & MD decided to take a drive to the airport to see if the roads were passable. Meanwhile I tried calling the airport to see if flights were being cancelled.  I didn't having much luck getting through. I called Jetstar and spoke to a customer service rep and she confirmed that the early flights had left and no further cancellations were expected. She also confirmed that there were plenty of seats available on the other flights if I needed to change. Seeing that it was only the start of the day (about 8am) I wasn't feeling terribly reassured.

The beach we swam at

But when everyone had made the decision to try and catch the next flight out, it all kicked into gear. After several attempts at getting through to Jetstar I finally spoke to Indonesian Mark. There were 57 seats available and because of the flood crisis, Jetstar had waived the changeover fee. After about 20mins on the call, we were all booked on the 1pm flight out. We were cutting short our holiday by a day.

The little rainforest walk behind our street

When we got to the airport, I was surprised at the lack of queues checking in, but there was a whole bunch of people waiting out in the transit lounge as all flights had been delayed. It was almost like a movie set outside when they try to simulate the onset of a typhoon or hurricane ... it was both frighteningly real and mesmerisingly fake at the same time.

Another view of the little rainforest walk behind our street

The Tiger Airways flight cancelled (I will never ever ever fly Tiger), which didn't bode well for us. But after about 3 hours at the airport (thank god for our leftover cheats murtabak) we were on that damn flight outta there! And feeling very much relieved. Our hearts and thoughts go out to all those suffering and doing it tough in Queensland at the moment. Really peops, shouldn't we finally start paying attention to global warming???

PS - Surfers have the best bodies - I have severe whiplash now!
PPS - even the old people are fit here!!
PPPS - Mooloolaba is a tad WASPy - except for token indian at 711 and also trolly boy at supermarket
PPPPS - Mancakes - hahaha - which is really the opposite of Moobs
PPPPPS - Mooloolaba is relatively Mozzie free - how does that work?

And finally hunt this Pinto Gris down forthwith!! It is divine - Monowai Hawke's Bay Pinot Gris 2009