Travelling with JohanneTeresie: Noosa and Christmas in a foreign country!

20.-22.12.13

My friend Daniel and I took a road trip to Noosa, about an hour and a half drive up the coast. We stayed at a beautiful resort, in an awesome apartment. Best birthday and Christmas gift! We went for a hike in the national park, ate at restaurants and sunbathed at some of the most beautiful beaches I've seen. He showed me around at the places he and his family use to come to while they go on vacations there. We made some awesome breakys too.. On Saturday night we went out to the Backpackers Bar not so far from where we were staying and got to speak to some cool backpackers there. It was an awesome night! The next day we drove back to Warner and enjoyed the hot weather by the pool.

One very good self cooked breaky!

At the Noosa National Park

Going out to Noosa Backpackers Bar

23.12.13

We took a road trip up to Kondolilla Falls. Kondolilla means falling water in Aboriginal. Kinda cool, except there was no falling water when we got down to the actual place where it was supposed to be.. It was too hot and dry for there to be enough water for it. Not complaining about 35-40 degrees!! But the woods there were so beautiful and exotic!

One huge tree!!

Lookout point at Kondolilla Falls

Magical forest

We stopped by a small town called Montville on our way back. Looked in some cool souvenir shops and in an open gallery. And we also stopped by a lookout point by the road where we could see so much of the beautiful area around the Sunshine Coast.

Lookout point near Montville

And happy birthday to my youngest niece, Solveig, who turned 1 on the 23rd! Love her!

24.-26.12.13

The 24th didn't feel like Christmas Eve at all! It started out with me shopping at a huge mall, buying some Christmas gifts for people back home and some stuff for my self. Then back in Warner I had a short talk to my dad in Norway, they had just started the day, my nephew was eating his third breakfast while the others were waking up and getting ready to celebrate the day with the family. While that was going on early in the morning in Norway, I was about to have my very first Aussie BBQ with the Turner family. Was an awesome dinner, but it didn't feel like it was Christmas. So we went for a drive to look at some Christmas lights that people had put up on their houses. We found a church full of lights, with a huge light angel on the lawn in front of it!

Wouldn't exactly find this in front of a church in Norway..

On the 25th however, I was woken up to a lovely family breakfast with egg and bacon and opening gifts with Daniel, his parents Phil and Vicki and his sister Bianca and her daughters Isabella and Charlotte. I had brought with me some gifts for them, a book about Sørlandet, the southern part of Norway where I have spent most of my life living in many different towns, an other book with the Norwegian folk tales and two beers from Nøgne Ø. I also got some nice presents from them, loving the PJ's!

Before noon the rest of the extended family with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins were arriving with food and gifts for the secret Santa gift arrangement they had. when it was time for eating everyone sat around a long table out on the patio. That's when i felt like it really was Christmas. That's about the same time it took me to feel like it was Christmas when I was in Cameroon too, at the dinner table.

We ate a buffet with mostly cold food, like salads, cold turkey and chicken and hot creamed potatoes.

The Christmas Day dinner with Daniel's family

I never did celebrate Christmas with other traditions than what I'm used to from Norway, because when I was an exchange student in England I went back home to Norway for the two week holiday. And in Cameroon, we celebrated with the other Norwegian missionary families there. I was really lucky to get the chance to celebrate it with a family like the Turners! Really thankful for being so warmly greeted and included into the celebrations!

The day was also of course spent by the pool as it was still really hot outside!

Boxing Day was much like Christmas Day, except there were fewer people there and it was a bit more laid back. Phil had told me that they use to have this tradition of playing cricket on Boxing Day, but we mostly spent it in and by the pool, it was too hot to play so nobody thought about it. However when everyone had left Phil remembered that he had told me I would get to try it out he got up and found the old cricket bat and brought Daniel and me out on the lawn to play. It was fun! Especially when I managed to hit the pall with the bat on my first try! Ha, ha.. never thought I'd manage that. Haven't played anything like it since high school! Cricket is one of the most popular sports in Australia as I understand it. I can't say I understand much of the rules though.. It did make sense when they explained it, but I can't remember anything now.