Our Visit to Kangaroo-Country!

A couple of years ago we decided to visit Australia. Now, we like nature, but we also like our creature-comforts, so we booked ourselves in at a rather luxurious apartment-complex, at the time called just "small", these days called "boutique". Since I never want to pay more than necessary, we had a night-flight. That meant that we had to be at the airport at an hour when only the cleaners were around and all the duty-free shops closed.

We landed at Coolangatta. On the map it had a tiny airplane, so we fully expected a real International Airport. This was not to be. I don't know if the Australians finally got their act together, but a couple of years ago it was a tent. When it finally dawned on us that this is where Customs was housed, we clutched our passports fearfully and anticipated the worst. But the Customs people were very friendly and I waved my passport, gave my famous smile and I literally ran out the tent-flaps towards the sun-shine. Outside the thoughtful Aussies had placed some plastic chairs on the pavement, so the weary traveler could inhale the planes'fumes or have a smoke, in most cases both, risking their lives because they could blow themselves up.

After a couple of hours enjoying myself this way, chatting away with other travelers, I realized that my family had not emerged from the tent. Inside the tent my husband looked utterly confused, my son almost in tears, a large Customs Officer looming over the mess that was our travel bag, carefully packed that morning, now all the underwear and socks on the table for all to see. "What's going on?" I said "You, yes you wrote on that form in the plane that we were carrying drugs!" my husband explained. "Did I?" I said, very puzzled. The large Customs Officer smiled at me. "Oi cannot foind a theeng, do ye want to look at the form, please?"he said, in his Australian accent. I looked and burst out in laughter. Under "medicines and other drugs" I had declared a homeopathic medicine for colds. I got it out from one of the side pockets of the bag and showed it to the man. In minutes we were outside and in the bus, speeding to the "boutique-apartment".

At the Gold Coast the sun is mainly to be found at the golden beach. The rest is high rise buildings, and it takes a bit of maneuvering to find the sun between their shadows. Shivering we waited for the bus. I looked around me, not a lot of kangaroos here. But a lot of BMW 's and Mercedes"s, on the highway connecting all the towns on the coast. The bus swung around the corner, and we got in, off to the beach.

The first thing I noticed was a McD on the corner, the first thing my boys noticed were the pretty "babes" in bikini's. I went to the counter of McD to order my coffee.Here I was greeted by a true Aussie accent again. "Coffee, and 1 feeshburger, and cheeps with that?" Oh dear this was going to be fun, I thought to myself.

After a couple of days having been to everything that has "World" behind it's name (i.e. Water world, Movie world, Sea world) I had severe pain in my shoulders and neck. I know how this happened, every time hubby and son hopped on a ride in one of the "Worlds"all the bags and cameras were draped around my neck. Bent over with this weight on my frail posture I was expected to video-tape every event for posterity. And so I did. On the tapes you can see whooping laughs, and happy faces, albeit not from me, since I was cringing with pain behind the camera, nearly touching the pavement with my face.

It became clear that I didn't want to spoil my vacation and I sought help from a Chinese guy I had seen working his medical magic in the shopping-mall. "Yes, a gentle massage is all I need, a bit of pampering, soft Chinese hands." Or so I thought. I explained my problem to him, amidst hundreds of shoppers who stopped to hear about my pain. I had to sit down on a chair, the guy was standing behind me. The audience held their breath.All of a sudden he grabbed my arm and started swinging it around in full force.I was hurdled out of the chair. While he swung me around in this primitive dance around the shopping mall he kept on saying:"leelax wady, leelax, it's going to be awwaight". The shoppers laughed, this was entertainment and never seen before. I wished I'd brought a hat, to be put on the floor, for donations.

But a couple of days later, to my surprise, the pain was gone. And so we set out to search for kangaroos. You cannot visit Australia and tell the folks back home you have missed this little detail. We found them in a nearby zoo, and they are lovely. Not fluffy and soft, as I expected, their fur is a bit coarse. These were wallabies, a smaller variety. Here and there we saw little faces peeking out of the pouches. Of course the zoo was abundant with other typical Australian wildlife, like Koalas and hundreds of other animals.

I think I have to go back, now I know a bit of the local customs and lingo. So I say to you, who haven't been there: " Gedday and fair dinkum" (translation: Good day and it's okay) I'll look up that Chinese guy and have a look who he's swinging around this time, while I sip a homeopathic remedy.