I am greatly appreciative to Rotary and this amazing GSE experience!  We have seen and experienced an abundant amount of the countryside along with cultural experiences of District 9640.  Rotary is a class act organization that is always working to improve the community and the members are genuine good people.  I have wonderful experiences and memories of Australia that will last a lifetime plus built friendships along the way!!  This GSE trip to Australia was a trip of a lifetime and again I am extremely grateful to Rotary for the opportunity – Thank You!!!

District Conference: we’ll be attending the conference and hopefully dressing up at either convicts or early settlers.  Wendy Scarlett is trying to arrange for the GSE team members to have a custom.  We will be presenting our presentation Sunday morning and the US Rotarians will get to see the same presentation the following weekend in Ashville.  We depart for the States Monday April 19^th in the morning.

Changeover; easy going morning and my new hosts are Robert and Deborah.  We had lunch at New Italy and viewed the museum and glass gallery.  We have a rotary meeting tonight for our last presentation then the GSE team will put together another presentation about our trip in Australia for both District Conference in Grafton and Ashville.

Day 27

Schedule: start at 5:45am to depart by car for lluka, visit and tour the Fishing Co-Operative then at 8:30am breakfast with Lluka Rotary Club.  Walk to the Bluff and rainforest escort by Ranger then lunch at Makuti Restaurant Ferry Wharf.  2pm, tour of NSW sugar milling co-operative at Harwood and 4pm ferry from Lluka to Yamba.  Dinner with hosts that evening.

Day 28:

Schedule: free day.  The GSE team will get together and work on the presentation for District Conference.  There’s a chance I’ll get to ride on the beach – I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Day 29

Schedule: 7am breakfast at Yamba surf club, 8:30am demonstration of life saving techniques by surf club members (remember in Burleigh we saw this happen in real life), it will be nice to see this demonstration and have it explained much more low key then what we saw earlier.  Lunch at Ferry Park and visit gallery.  Depart for Grafton and check into Hotel that afternoon.

Easy going morning and did a handover at Bangalow.  My hosts are Cec and Joan.  Picnic with the group and then departed for the afternoon with each host.  Cec and Joan took my to a tea tree lake and I walked in it for a bit.  This was so cool, there are tea trees along the fresh water lake and the water is the color of tea.  My feet felt so refreshed after spending just a few minutes in there!  Dinner at a local restaurant, which we walked to and met Leslie with his hosts.

Day 24

Surfing in the morning!!!  Cec has surfed his entire life so he took me out and said I was a good student.  Rode the waves in nicely!.  Breakfast with Joan and Cec and went to the markets were local hippies and aboriginals were everywhere.  Ran into Megan and of course we enjoyed shopping together!  Met up with the Lismore Rotary club for lunch, about 30 people.  Later went to see the Rocky Creek Dam, beautiful photos and then to Chris’s host where they have horses and a coffee / macadamia farm.  I was thrilled to pet noses again, it’s been awhile since I’ve ridden and I’m missing the horses.  Dinner with Cec and Joan, we had Zucchini Pie which was very yummy.  I got the recipe!

Day 25

Busy, busy Day.  Started with a bike ride along the water (Cec and Joan have a house at Ballina where I stayed).  Then my favorite breakfast, eggs benedict at a local restaurant over looking the water, just beautiful.  Into town for a vocational visit at Kemp’s Agencies and a Vet Clinic, both very good and useful information to take back to Novartis.  Ran into Leslie and his host at lunch then off to see Cec plane ‘The Lady’ she’s in the shop getting fixed at the moment but another Rotarian was there and I went up in his small 2 seater plane, very cool J Next, went to a Macadamia farm and learned all about the different trees, H2 and 246 trees.  Then picked Megan up from her vocation and headed back out to Ballina.  Meg and I enjoyed a walk on the beach and even saw dolphins!  A lovely dinner, my comfort food lasagna and Megan’s host came out to join.

More shopping and I spent the morning at Coles Supermarket where I browsed the lines for new/innovative packaging ideas.  Also, bought a few dog and cat blisters to take back to the states as comparisons and show-n-tell for my presentation back at work.  Changeover to next hosts Max and Helen.  We headed to Mullumbimby for a picnic lunch, fish and chips (French fries).  There are were a few hippies we saw and took a walk on the beach, Australia is never lacking in scenery, checkout the photos.  Dinner with host family and friends that evening we had lamb.

Day 21

Vocational visits in the morning.  I got to pet horses and then went to a small animal vet clinic  were I get to see Novartis Animal Health packaging another good thing to take back to work for my presentation.  Later that afternoon had lunch on the beach.  Rotary meeting with Mullumbimby and Byron Bay, the presentation went well and more networking opportunities.  By this time, I think we all could give each others part of the presentation!

Day 22

We each planted a tree at Rotary Rainforest Park, another example of rotary giving back to the community.  The tree I planted is a blue fig and I’ll have a plaque with my name, date and tree name next to the tree!  Then walking tour of Byron Bay, Australia’s most easterly point.  Great photos!  Amazing views!  Then spent sometime on the beach, this beach was beautiful.  Sandy beaches and the water is so clear.  I was up to my shoulders and could still see my toes!!  Beautiful blue, turquoise water!  Then off to a banana plantation, the boys got there but the girls got lost; so we picked up a few things at the grocery store for dinner that night.  I laid down for a 30 min cat nap and fell asleep for 2 hours (I must of needed it).  Dinner at a Rotarians’ stunning home, check out photos.  Of course music and poetry were the entertainment for the evening.

Happy Easter, time for church and final four of march madness.  Watched Michigan State lose by 2 points it was a close game.  Then to change over with Surfers Paradise.  All the change over’s are hard but this one was by far the hardest.  We’ve gotten so close to Jacqueline, Paul, Tink and Benni (the dogs).  They were there too b/c of course they are apart of the family.  TMT (too much Tink) – another good story.  So, tears were definitely shed during this change over.  We all had a wonderful time together and still really miss the Burleigh Club.  But, the best thing is we all get to meet up again at District Conference, hurray!  My new host family is Hugh and Nancy.  We started the afternoon with lunch on their boat; Megan and Matt were they too, thank goodness!  The GSE team is starting to become like one big family and it’s sad when we have to leave one another.  We had a great meal and got to see some nice homes and skyscrapers, great views must check out the photos!  A little shopping in Surfer’s Paradise (it’s a very touristy town).  Easter dinner that night with Hugh, Nancy and Jen (their daughter) and Megan was there too!!  She had to leave the next day but nice we were together for another night.  Side Note: there are flying foxes (bats) that come out at night and make a very interesting noise – we kept trying to see them but never could find one.  I hear they are fairly large about three times the size of bats at home.

Day 18

Boat cruse one Kevin and Lindy Campbell’s 38’-39’ boat; there were about 15 of us on the boat.  Had a great time, we cruised broadwater and northern developments.  Then lunch on an island and walked over to the ocean side and what a stunning beach, must see photos.  This place had little to no development and just beautiful.  Dinner with host families that evening.  Jen and I ended up hanging out and watching tv together NCIS.  This was the 1^st time I sat down to actually watch tv, rotary is keeping us very busy over here!

Day 19

Early morning walk on the beach and off to seaworld for another behind the scenes.  This was sooo cool.  We saw polar bears within inches and got to see a baby seal (just 2 months old) had a personal dolphin show and seal show along with a guided tour of the park.  Rotary knows how to make a GSE team experience extraordinary, definitely memories I’ll cherish for a lifetime!!  That afternoon was vocationals for the group – I got a tour of the Gold Coast Race track (not really a vocation but it was nice to see).  I made up for the vacation the next day.  A combined rotary meeting with Southport Rotary Club and Surfers Paradise Central, the meeting was a success and more contacts were made!

Travel day, so far the weather has been beautiful and sunny.  On our travel day to Burleigh (about a 3-4 hour drive) with a lunch stop in between it was raining and overcast.  We met our host families and had some excitement on the way into Burleigh the car Megan, Chris and I were in broke down.  Apparently, Range Rovers turn themselves off if there’s something the matter with the engine like drop in engine oil.  Long story short, everything worked out and we made it to a dinner Rotary meeting at Ashmore Rotary Club.  The team did another great presentation and we even had some technical difficulty while Chris was presenting the computer just restarted itself and Chris just winged it until photos and slides came back up.

Day 14

Up earlier (5:30am) for a breakfast Rotary meeting at Surf Club.  This place is right on the beach a great way to start the morning.  This club is a young club with lots of members in their 30s and 40s.  So to appeal to the younger crowd one they do early morning meeting and two if they have young children they bring them along before taking them to school.  The GSE presentation was a success with no technical difficulty this time.  Then to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, where we got to pet kangaroos and had a behind the scenes experience with the birds, checkout the photos of us holding eagles; it was amazing!  Then while sitting for lunch there were these beautiful parakeets (I believe) that came down to eat right out of your hands.  At one time I had one on my head and one in my end again check out the photos!  The behind the scenes are by far the way to see these types of parks.   We also toured the animal rescue hospital that rotary had a hand in funding, this place sees about 5,000 wildlife animals in need and then rehabilitates them before returning to the wild, one of the many great thing rotary does for the community.   We all got together for dinner with at Ken’s there was about 20 or so people and had a lovely time with of course Thom-o (aka Josephus) reciting poetry and Chris playing his guitar.

Day 15

Good Friday!  Day off slept in to about 8am then to the beach around 10:00.  The surf was quite rough but nice to spend some time in the sun.  One of the hosts Ken is a life saver (life guard) and there were a group of tourist that got caught in the undertow and the life savers had to pull 5 people out of the water, thank goodness everyone was ok.  Lunch and then Matt and I went to Anthony’s pharmacy, it was an added vocational day for me.  Very interesting to see behind a pharmacy counter, see different packaging and learn about Aussie pharmaceuticals.  Next, a quick wash up and off to the outback spectacular with about 20-25 people and had a great time!  They put on dinner and a show with horses and we learned about the outback history.  Plus, the split up the crowd on two teams and have games, Leslie/Matt/Thom-o/Chris all participated in the boat racing one, it was hilarious.

Day 16

Off to Dreamworld for the day, checkout photos.  Everyone had a great time on the rides and we even got Leslie on a roller coaster, next time you see him make sure to ask about it….it’s a great story!  Everyone came over to Jac’s house for dinner again about 15 to 20 people, another great time with music and poetry.

Yesterday, the group met at the Channon Tavern outside of Lismore. Nearby was the Channon Market, which some of the team visited – it has been around for a long time and there were several exhibitors. Before that we were with the Mullumbimby club, where we visited the lighthouse at Byron Bay and a banana plantation. We had a great time with that club as well! Looking forward to the last week…

Australia, Palm Beach http://gallery.me.com/hugsandkisses/100097

Australia, Stanthorpe http://gallery.me.com/hugsandkisses/100138

Australia, Tenterfield http://gallery.me.com/hugsandkisses/100120

Australia, Burleigh http://gallery.me.com/hugsandkisses/100141