Not much time left this year to teach you how to speak in an Australian tongue, so here goes with a few more Aussisms:

• Youse – pronounced yewz or yooce – ‘What are youse trying to say’. Commonly used to imply the plural of ‘you’.
• Bonzer/Bonza – An adjective expressing great enthusiasm or approval: ‘a bonzer bloke’. It is not widely used nowadays, other than in books, or films depicting the stereotypical Aussie
• Larrikin – a wild, unruly or undisciplined person

Our morning had been energetic to say the least; first stop had been the beach at Mooloolaba to meet Robbie Sherwell for a sunrise surfing lesson on the long sandy beach. Having lived in South Africa for a few years I’d surfed before but Bre had never tried it out and we both raced into the foamy shorebreak with our fat foam boards to try and conquer the waves!

Bre has prefect balance having been a gymnast for much of her early life and mastered standing up straight away, the two of us played around in the water for ages riding to the beach then turning and paddling back out for another go. Robbie was excellent and helped us to get out back every time the waves became too much for our tired, unfit shoulders. I can’t wait to get back into the wet stuff once more after Best Job has finished…

As one well known surfing brand states “only a surfer knows the feeling”…

Another slightly higher profile lesson awaited me once I’d hung up my boardshorts back at the Hyatt resort in Coolum – a quick golf lesson with PGA professional Adam Scott the recent winner of the Australian Open!

During our stay at the Hyatt, a major golf tournament was being hosted, the last round of the Australian PGA competition and consequently the resort was alive with golfing pro’s and enthusiasts. I made my way down to the practice range and felt the lump in my throat get bigger – I was going to have to play alongside the big guns here and I don’t think my two comedy games on Hamilton Island golf course would hold me in good stead! The pressure of having about five cameras pointed at me wouldn’t do too much to improve my game either!

Adam showed me exactly what to do and over the course of the lesson I learnt how to hold myself and the club throughout the stroke and genuinely improved what was a very questionable swing into…a slightly better one. I won’t be winning this competition anytime soon but at least I might not find the rough every time – thank you Adam!

It’s not necessarily one of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef as Moreton is just off Brisbane and therefore too far south, but it’s truly fantastic place to visit where you can take part in one of the many activities which are on offer. Tangalooma resort on the island is also home to the famous wild dolphin feeding program so it was somewhere we couldn’t resist the thought of visiting!

The wind was howling as we arrived at the departure point in Brisbane ready to board the fast catamaran across to Moreton Island and Tangalooma resort, as we left the confines of the river and entered the open ocean the swell picked up and the boat rolled around accordingly – there were a few green faces as we arrived at the jetty around an hour later.

Henk the resort manager was there to meet us, a friendly guy who has made Tangalooma his home for the past few years and really does live the place. As we walked along the arrivals jetty people were already starting to gather for the daily dolphin feeding show so we raced to our rooms, dropped our bags off and headed down to the beach. Tonight I was to become an honorary Marine Biologist!

Aleisha Constein has been working here for three years and helps members of the public down the sand to the waters edge where every night between seven and eleven dolphins arrive to take fish from their hands! It’s an awesome sight I can tell you as five lines of people queue up ready for some interaction with these incredible creatures. Each night the dolphins come to the beach for around an hour and each night return to the same line to feed. There is enough food to go around but never so much that the dolphins don’t retain their natural feeding requirements – in fact only 10% of their daily diet comes from these sessions.

Echo is a 17 year old male who arrived to the beach as an orphan and has been a regular feeder here for a couple of years, he’s easy to identify as there’s a little bit mark out of his tail from a shark attack a few years ago – amazing!

Feeding dolphins is a very belittling experience – being able to get so close to such graceful creatures fills me with wonderment and after spending the night so close felt blown away by the interaction. What a great way to introduce children to them!

There’s no point on sitting around soaking up the sun and doing nothing when you’re staying somewhere with as much on offer as Tangalooma has, so after a quick breakfast Henk piles us all into the resort’s Land Cruiser and drives us up the deep sand roads to a famous site on the island. The Desert.

The place is a vast wilderness, Moreton island is all sand and most of it appears to be here in the form of massive sand dunes and the prevailing winds have moulded and shaped them into huge steep-sided slopes perfect for a bit of fun. We grab our waxed pieces of wood and make for the top of the super heated sand arriving at the top five minutes later after a lot of huffing and puffing.

The next step is to try and get comfortable on the tiny scrap of wood lying belly-down before sliding all the way down to the bottom of the dune at speeds of up to 40 km/h. The secret with this is to keep your mouth and eyes shut!

It’s a brilliant way to waste some energy and time, sweating it out poldding up the dunes and then racing back down again and good practice for the next activity on the agenda – ATV racing!

We’ve done a little of this before whilst being here in Australia but nothing could prepare us for quite how good the course here on Moreton Island is! We had a quick safety briefing and headed out of the resort in convoy not knowing what to expect, as we left the tarmac and hit the soft sand it dawned on me that this is the perfect location for racing about. The track is well away from the resort with little sound pollution and no environmental damage to the surface either as it’s only sand!

For the next hour Bre and I tear about racing around after our instructor as we explore the island; head along the beach, burn down the slopes and figure out the gear systems on these wickedly good fun machines. By the time we get to the end of the course we’ve been covered in dust (again) and feel tired and dirty. What a day of fun…

Tangalooma offers so much in the way of fun and activities for all ages, the range of foods and restaurants on the island mean you’re never far from the next meal and we loved it. Considering the island is only an hour away from Queensland’s capital the air is fresh, the water clear and you can forget the pressure of city life during a short weekend away.