Brian and Judy to Ballina: Runaway Bay

Have just spent three days with Jenny and Peter at their home in Runaway Bay north of the Gold Coast. They are excellent hosts and gave us a fun time, for which we are extremely grateful. We are very lucky to be able to call them special friends. Jenny says she can't cook, but that is totally untrue! She prepared delicious meals for us. One day we went to lunch at a seafood restaurant beside the water, where we ate superb food and fed the scraps from our plates to a frantic boiling school of fish just below the balcony rail. This seemed a strange thing to do, but apparently it is the custom at the restaurant. The scraps of lobster shell, octopus, fish and rice all disappeared rapidly.

It was relatively warmer at Runaway Bay, and pleasant sitting around the table on the undercover patio watching the sun set. Peter insists that the sun always shines there.

We had a running sheet for a game of 500 (cards) over 2 evenings and one morning, with the final victors being Brian and Jenny - major shifts in scores and loads of laughs! They are coming to Eildon in October for the AGM, so we could always continue the game then!!!!

A strange yacht which can skim across the water with its hidden underwater keel

Peter's new barge, parked on Stradbroke Island across from their house

Peter and Jenny's house on the right, taken from the water. House immediately in front (next door to them) has just been purchased by them to complete and renovate for resale.

Next door house - view from the street

Large glamorous yacht moored out the front of the seafood restaurant. Some of these boats take 35,000 litres of fuel, that is about $50,000 to fill the tanks !!!