McCloskeys Travels: June 2011 - Farewell to family & friends

June 2011 Farewell to family & friends

After a longer than expected wait to get on the road we finally set off from Hastings Point on 11th June where we had the extremely hard job of saying goodbye to family & friends. We didn't get far though as our first stop was to say farewell to our gorgeous Gold Coast friends Nat, Neil, Ben, Kaylee & Kyle who are also looking after our much loved and missed dog, Ruby. Thanks to Nat's quick wit and charm and Dion's innocent face we narrowly avoided getting fined by the Council for parking on their front lawn after about an hour long set-up and managed to enjoy a lovely couple of days with them after that. From there we made yet another very short trip to Brisbane and stayed with Rae, Raeles, Takara, Bryce & Alyssa. We spent a few great nights catching up over the mandatory wine or two...or three, and had a lot of trouble peeling the kids away from their Aunty, Uncle and cousins when we left. Whilst at Rae's we went on a marathon 1 day drive from the far West of Brisbane to the far East of Brisbane to say farewell to the rest of our family (parents, brothers, sisters, half sisters etc).

As much as we would have loved to stay at Rae's longer, we had tickets to see the Dalai Lama up on the Sunshine Coast (a fantastic experience!). While at the Dalai Lama our beautiful friend Linda took the girls on a "big day out" and went shopping for many "special" presents for mummy's birthday (I especially loved the bunches of brightly coloured plastic flowers, which just wont die - thanks Linda!). We settled back into the Sunshine Coast very easily with our friends Ange, Phil, Ben & Maddi and had a fantastic week together - just like old times. It was even harder to say goodbye to them than when we moved away a year earlier.

Harvey Bay was the next stop where we spent about a week with Mum & Dad and their wallaby, Sassy. Jade loved being Nanna's little helper and spent many hours feeding and carrying Sassy on her back - we couldn't wipe the smile off her face. Many a night was spent chatting by the bonfire with an ale or two (which was well needed due to the freezing weather). Dad found a very soft spot for Jorja who followed him around chatting constantly and even managed to get him involved in a few make believe games like fairy hunting. With 42 acres to move around on, Lily had lots of room to run, skip, twirl, spin and move around non-stop as she loves to do. From Mum & Dads we finally started our journey around Oz...