Today I got out on the water with my good friend Eddie Safarik, one of the most brilliant photographers I know and conveniently the President of Queensland Sea Kayaking Club. He’s got a fleet of kayaks and very kindly is letting me test them on the water. Today we headed down to Manly, just south of Brisbane.

The weather was pretty perfect when we left the harbour, sun shining, no breeze and warm temperatures. The paddle across the bay to Green Island was easy enough, then we turned north and headed towards St Helena Island skirting around the reef systems which flank the islands. The occasional turtle popped its head up to see what the splashing was all about, the odd mullet jumped in front of us and everything felt good – not a bad way to spend the morning really.

We pulled up on to the beach at St Helena Island for a bit to eat, it’s tiring stuff this paddling you know. The island has rather a full and jaded history as for 60 years from 1867 it was home to hundreds of society’s outcasts, as on the land stood colonial Queensland’s foremost maximum security prison for men. The Island is rich in history and has a fascinating and colourful past. Eddie and I had a wander around the island noting the big information board which detailed the history and even as much as the names of the undesirables who were imprisoned here.

After careful examination I couldn’t believe my eyes – THERE USED TO BE A SOUTHALL HERE!!! Jonas Southall was one of the inmates on the island charged with the offence of Larceny (or theft to you and I) and sentenced to 8 months hard labour. I’m not exactly sure that I AM related to Jonas but my Mum is looking into our family tree to see if there is a link. As I find out more I’ll let you know.

With the wind starting to pick up we decided to make for home and headed down to the kayaks to ready ourselves. The passage across the bay was pretty tough, the headwind was blasting through at 15 knots and it took some concerted effort to get the hour crossing completed – I suppose I’d better get used to it, the next project for me involves ALOT of paddling. The reward for our efforts was pretty special – three dolphins rose out of the water just in front of our bows and dived below us – it’s moments like these that I live for!

St Helena Island is really worth a visit, the old buildings are a blast back into the past and make you totally aware of the circumstances under which the early prisoners lived, there is a daily cruise across from Manly to the island and tours can be taken to give you a better understanding of the islands history.

Since then I have emailed the Queensland Prison and Penal Historical Association for more information and they have been brilliant at supplying me with the information they have on the prisoner and it’s fascinating:

Prisoner No 583. Jonas Southall. Tried by the Chief Justice, Brisbane 18th May 1874. Crime: Larceny, Sentenced to 8 months hard labour. Build: Medium. Height: 5′ 6″, Complexion: Sallow, Hair: Black, Eyes: Brown. Age. 32.
Arrived St. Helena Island, Moreton Bay 16th June, 1874. Released 13th January, 1875. Native of: London. Left arm disabled, Religion: Church of England, Could read and write. Occupation : Miner.
Arrived on the ship ‘ SHACKAMAXON’

Who knows….I may have a family with a jaded past. Oh well we had to get to Australia somehow didn’t we!

Ben

A couple of weeks ago I was making a presentation to QTIC (Queensland Tourism Industry Council) and in the audience was one very happy chap called Ross. After I’d finished he bounded up to me looking like the cat who’d go the cream “Ben you know how love running? Well I help to organise a Fun Run not far from here and I wondered if you’d like to come and take part in it?”

Having just completed the Gold Coast marathon last weekend I made the decision to head out to the Somerset Region of Queensland a couple of days after, safe in the knowledge that my legs would just about have enough juice in them to take on the relatively short 8.3km route. I grabbed the map and had a look…now it says Fernvale…where on earth is that then?!

Situated about 40kms inland (as the crow flies) from Brisbane, the Somerset Region is also known as the Valley of the Lakes and has some beautiful rolling scenery around the shores of the huge man-made lakes that supply Brisbane’s drinking water…and they also generate some renewable energy! Leaving Brisbane just after 6.30am I hit the road east as the sun was starting to throw some light on the hills in the distance. I was driving over the edge of the Great Dividing Range leaving the city expanses far behind me and where the landscape had changed into more agricultural farm land, wide open spaces and forest parks. It felt great to be on the road again.

Brisbane Valley Rail Trail and Fun Run

My main reason for heading there was to take part in the Rail Trail Fun Run between Fernvale and neighbouring Lowood. There used to be a railway between the two towns but lack of demand closed it down many years ago leaving a strip of wasteland running parallel to the edge of the road. Somerset Regional Council decided back in 2007 that this was rather a waste of perfectly good land so instead of letting it turn back into scrub land and bush, as has happened to many old tracks. They’ve instead cleared it, removed the old rail, resurfaced it and turned it in to a rather attractive path. It’s now used by horse-riders, cyclists and walkers and for the last eight years the locals have organised this very successful run weekend along its length. So far, over 100kms have been reclaimed and the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail stretches intermittently from Ipswich to Blackbutt with ongoing work meaning that new sections are planned towards the end of this year.

Once I’d arrived in Fernvale and registered for the 8.3km run I mingled about with the other waiting runners, all up bright and early on a Sunday morning. There are two separate races, an 8.3 and 3km version that run along the same course and over 800 people had turned up, from elite runners through to Sunday morning families with the baby strollers – it really is an event for everybody. The countdown started and we we’re off! Having never run a short race like this before I had no idea how to pace myself and went out confidently fast, keeping up with the some of the front runners – come on it can’t be that bad I thought…only just over 8kms!

The scenery was excellent; past houses, down dips and along the ridge, slowly knocking off the distance until with about two kilometres to go I realised I’d gone too fast at the start (deceiving these short runs you know!) and my already ‘Gold Coast Marathon’ weakened legs didn’t have much left in them and I started to drop back finally crossing the finish line in 0:33.57 seconds. Pretty good considering the winner crossed the line just under ten minutes before me.

The route along the Rail Trail is here for you to have a look at, but there is plenty more to explore for yourself and much more off the beaten track than this section too. It’s really easy just to throw your bikes in the back of the car, head inland and find a section of the track to walk, run or cycle along.

I’d done a bit of research into other attractions in the area and headed to the Visitor Information Centre in Fernvale to grab the up-to-date opinion on the best things to be doing here! There’s nothing quite like asking the locals who have the knowledge.

Wivenhoe Dam

The first view I got of the dam was a pretty impressive one, the wall itself is over 2 kilometres long and 50 metres high…that holds a serious amount of water, in fact around 2.6 million mega-litres – a vast amount of water! The visitor centre there has loads of information about the construction, the fish and plant life found here, and fascinating pictures from the floods back in 1893 and 1974, when water levels rose so much on the Brisbane River that the city experienced nearly 8.5 metres above their normal level – Edward Street was under water!

Today the Dam stands to protect the city from these extreme water levels and the spillway which forms the back side of the dam is opened occasionally to allow flood levels to be controlled. There is also a small hydro generator on the main dam wall which produces power through a small turbine system, creating 4.3MW of green power. There is also a power station situated between Splityard Creek Dam and Lake Wivenhoe, which produces a further 250MW.

Around the banks of the dam are public park areas and at Comorant Bay the restaurant has just opened again so I stopped off for a relaxing morning coffee to take in the view and read the papers. With time racing on I had to keep moving – there’s lots to do today…

Coolana Olives – located here

Now I don’t know about you, but I have a huge liking for olives and when I saw there was a farm in the area I couldn’t resist the temptation to drop in and see what it was all about. I’ve seen the trees growing at the edges of the road in Morocco and Spain but never looked deeper at what’s involved in processing them. Ian and Dot have been running the business since 1985, what they have here is a real gem of a place and as you pull into the driveway familiar trees line the track up to the farm building.

They now have around 1000 trees and a superb little shop with a huge range of culinary delights. I was lucky enough to try virtually the entire range from baked Sicilian to Lime Chili and boy are they good. Temptation got the better of me too…I ended up buying oils, olives, balsamic reductions – the works! Will make a very good Mediterranean style lunch this week though. Tours of the production plant and groves are available and well worth a visit.

Bellevue Homestead is here

Just up the road in Coominya is a fantastic step back in time. The Bellevue Homestead dates back to the 1870’s and really is a window into another world. The main building has been decorated to evoke memories of a bygone era when cattle farming was the trade, afternoon tea was the norm and it wasn’t unusual to have a prince over to stay (Prince Edward VIII visited and stayed here). Each of the rooms has been lovingly looked after with furniture and fittings all perfectly kept and presented…even down to the wallpaper.

The outside of the buildings looked amazing in the fading evening light and the vineyard off in the distance offers some very tasty wines, shame I’m driving actually. John shows me around the site and tells me all about the history of the homestead, it’s fascinating to hear his passion for the place and it’s not difficult to imagine yourself 100 years back in time pulling clothes through the mangle or stoking the fire in the lounge room. The remainder of the house is actually lived in and tours can be taken at any time over the weekend.

Mt Glorious drive

There was one more thing I had to try and fit into my packed day, and that was the drive up through the Brisbane Forest Park, or as it’s now known D’Aquilar National Park, to Mount Glorious. The last light of the day was starting to disappear as I wound my way up what I seriously consider to be one of the most beautiful drives I’ve been on whilst here in Queensland. The park is made up from open eucalypt woodlands, scribbly gum forests and lush subtropical rainforests.

More than 800 plant species are found in these forests, some of which are rare and threatened. As the road climbs up to around 600 metres above sea level the temperature noticeably drops, and when I reach the Wivenhoe Lookout there is a distinct chill in the air as the sun has just dropped out of sight for another night.

Mount Glorious itself is the name of the small village up top here, I for some reason imagined it to be the summit of the road! There’s some beautiful little houses, cafes and shops here all offering views out over both the dam and Brisbane far off in the distance. The road continues for another 40kms until it hits the outskirts of Brisbane itself and all of a sudden the day which had started early on, was now drawing to an end.

Somerset Region isn’t one of the obvious attractions initially when you look at Queensland and what there is to do, but you should make it exactly that…one of the attractions. It’s a real part of the State that gets you away from the hustle and bustle of city life in just over an hour from the city of Brisbane, and it feels as though you’re in another world altogether.

So a great run, some more food for the fridge and a national park I want to visit again! Good job Ross, thanks for the invite!

Ben

Thursday

Tourism Queensland have launched a new competition called ‘Sunshine Exchange‘. If you haven’t played it before then head there now and guide KoKo The Koala or PoPo the Panda along the course collecting as many points as possible. You could win a family exchange with a family from Shanghai or some travel vouchers.

Peter Lawlor the Tourism Minister launched the campaign in Queens Street Mall, Brisbane and I went along to offer my support…and to have a go of course!

Friday night

There’s a new bridge been built here in the city called the ‘Go Between‘ bridge – not the most inventive name I know but hey it’s a chance to have a party isn’t it! The bridge officially opens on July 5th to road traffic so before that happens the Brisbane City Council closed it off, built a stage and invited some local bands to come and play. I went along and had a superb time with some friends listening to the likes of Angus and Julia Stone, Josh Pyke and the aptly names Go-Betweens (apparently they were big in the 70’s).

The night went off with a bang with a couple of thousand people attending and everyone seeming to be in good spirits, voices and moods! Shame that is has to be turned back into a road next week – would be a great venue for future concerts!

Saturday night

Last week my team England managed to hold onto victory against Australia and won 21-20 in the rugby union game they played at Stadium Australia in Sydney….well done boys! This week the Wallabies travelled to Brisbane to play their next test against Ireland at the Suncorp Stadium and I really couldn’t resist going along to watch the game.

I’ve been to the Suncorp Stadium before and it’s a awesome arena in which to watch a big game like this one. My last attendance was back in March when I saw the Socceroos beat Indonesia in their World Cup warm up games with around 20,000 other people. This time there were 45,000 fans all dressed up in green for the Irish and gold for the Aussies. The atmosphere was electric with singing, shouting and cheering…and not a vuvuzela in sight thankfully!

Bruce Wallace from TQ and I joined the thousands of other people on the march from the city to the stadium, I love the pre-match barracking that always goes on between teams..and the Irish seem to do it better than anyone else!

The game itself left a lot to be desired…well the first half was good with the lead changing hands several times, but the second half seemed as though both teams had gone to sleep. The final score was an Australian victory at 22-15.

Tomorrow I’m heading out onto the water for some kayaking and I can’t wait…

Ben

As soon as I’d landed and thrown my clothes in the washing machine it was straight back out to meet and greet the team from Channel News Asia; Amelia the producer, Sophian the cameraman and the presenter Tim.

They’re over from Singapore to film the final installment in a series entitled “I get paid to do what I love” that features people who have great jobs, which they thoroughly enjoy, and mine qualifies!

Over the course of the next three days I take them around some of the sights and activities which southern Queensland has on offer and here are just a few of the highlights:

Riverlife Outdoor Activity Centre – based right in the centre of the city Riverlife has become an institution and offers so many different activities you’ll never get bored. With Tim fresh out of the office it was a little harder than I ‘d hoped to get him into the Island Caretaker’s lifstyle and trying out what was on offer.

I did manage to get him onto the water with a little bit of persuasion from Amelia his producer and into a kayak…although you can see from the photos that he didn’t do too much work – in fact I ended up towing him up the river whilst he read the newspaper!

Once we dried off it was time for activity number two, abseiling. But this time Tim was nowhere to be seen…where had he gone? Come on you’re meant to be enjoying this and taking part! Now I’ve never particularly liked heights so the thought of lowering myself off the cliffs at Kangaroo Point wasn’t something I raced to do…but life is all about taking on your fears and this was no exception!

Blair my instructor had setup all of the kit at the top and once Sophian the cameraman was ready I put on the harness and prepared to lower myself over the rather high edge. Keep smiling Ben – you’re on camera here! Once I’d conquered the edge and lowered myself far enough down to become horizontal it was all a little easier and I made my way to the ground below….what?? You need me to do it again? Oh you’ve got to love the world of television!

Story Bridge Climb – With my temporary fear of heights conquered it was time to test it out again with a rather different form of altitude-induced giddiness. The iconic Story Bridge spans the Brisbane River between Kangaroo Point and Fortitude Valley and a walkway allows people to walk over the superstructure giving unbeatable views of the city surrounds. As the sun drops out of the winter sky and beyond the horizon the sound of the traffic far below is lost as we all stand there and soak up the moment together. I’ve done this twice now and I can promise the experience doesn’t fail to loose its appeal.

Cloudland – The is one place to take a film-crew for dinner is you want to impress them and that’s Cloudland. It really is unique in Brisbane and probably Australia. Based on four levels this super-club has a fully retracting roof for those sultry nights, a huge white marble bar downstairs and then upstairs a crazy bubble bar. The place is designed to the eyeballs and has so many cool/strange/bizarre/interesting corners and design features. Well worth a look if you’re in the area.

Tangalooma Resort – The life of an Island Caretaker of course revolved around the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef but to highlight the lifestyle in a single day we had to head a little closer to home – Moreton Island is only 90 minutes away from Brisbane by boat. We all headed across Moreton Bay and soon the familiar sight of Tangalooma resort came into view. Once we’d tied up, Henk the manager was there to meet us and told us of our busy day’s activities. First stop the drive inland to ‘The Desert‘ for a spot of sand tobogganing. We had great fun flying down the sandy slopes and I even remembered to keep my mouth closed after eating half the dune last time around when I was here with Bre last year. The vast expanses of white sand really are a sight to behold and the mainly Asian market who accompanied us up there loved every second of it.

No time for resting though as the afternoon had more fun lined up with an ATV bike ride up around the off-road course filming some of the ‘normal’ activities I get to do in my job. As the sun dropped out of the sky once more there was time for one more activity before heading back to the mainland – feeding the dolphins! Even though I’ve done this before the feeling of hand feeding these incredible creatures just doesn’t get any more fascinating. The one thing I learnt this time was that in the past the dolphins have actually brought gifts back to the marine biologists who feed them including fish and eels which are now kept in a preserving tank! How cool is that?

We head down to the Gold Coast for the next couple of days…

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary – Having been restricted to mainly the islands during the Best Job I hadn’t been down the coast to some of the really amazing wildlife sanctuary’s and a visit to Currumbin was well overdue. The place is huge covering roughly the same area as the theme park Movie World and really accessible with wide open spaces filled with some of Australia’s best known animals. But there are other things going on behind the scenes which we took time to film, the introduction of a new animal hospital which has recently opened adds a new, educational side to the sanctuary and one which is essential for the local community too.

Jonathon (CEO) and Andrew (Vet) showed us around and explained that how the hospital has be such an important addition to the local animal welfare community with the RSPCA and other organisations bringing their injured wild patients to the hospital for treatment. They have around 30 cases arriving everyday. Their most common casualties are the Rainbow Headed Lorikeets who fly at ridiculous speeds but unfortunately sometimes into buildings and cars. One of their more unusal patients is the Echidna which we met and was run over by a car resulting in a broken rear leg. Poor thing and with all those needles it looked even more sorry for itself!

The sanctuary itself was full of people all enjoying and learning about Australia’s wildlife with shows, demonstrations and even a mini-train which takes you from area to area past the too-chilled-out kangaroos, the slightly odd emus and onto the aboriginal dance show. Now I’ve come to realise that as soon as I go anywhere near one of these I am instantly recruited to dance…I have two left feet and can’t!! Always good fun for everyone watching, not so good for me.

As we leave the sanctuary I have to show the crew the beach here at Currumbin. I mean it’s a perfect winter’s day, it’s the weekend and the surfers are all out on the last few waves of the day so hopefully we can pick up some tips for the morning as our last activity is exactly that….

Surfing with ‘Go Ride A Wave’ – As the alarm rings I realise that the late night sat up watching the FIFA World Cup may not have been such a good idea as I’m exhausted and ready to sleep some more…but as I look out of the window I realise that the surf actually looks superb through the window and not being someone to waste a moment I head down to the beach to meet the crew and Sam our instructor for the morning’s endeavours.

I’ve surfed a few times before but never to any sort of decent standard and as we kit up and head out the waves look particularly destructive…it’s low tide, there’s a sandbar right in front of us and the waves are crashing down onto it…could make the paddle out interesting anyway!

Tim and I have a great time getting smashed by the waves, swallowing litres of the Pacific Ocean and emptying the sand out of our eyes/ears/nose and before we know it the lesson is over. But like every surfer knows…just one more wave!

Job done…

It’s been a superb couple of days into which we have crammed as much as we can to give the crew from Channel News Asia and idea of exactly why it is called ‘The Best Job in the World’ and enough material for them to produce their 23 minute episode as the season finale of their program. Greg transports us all back up the coast to Brisbane where the crew jump on-board their flight back to Singapore and I head home to unpack, wash and start to get used to life in Brisbane for more than a ten day period. I haven’t had that since moving here in January!!

Once the program has been edited and is ready to go to air I will make sure I put it up here for you all to see!

Over the next few weeks I intend trying out lots of the local attractions around the area and reporting the experiences all back here to the blog for you to read about. On top of that there’s the Gold Coast marathon looming large on Sunday 4th July which I hope I’ve done enough training for and of course planning my expedition ready for next year.

Life continues at the usual crazy pace…

Oh one more thing before I go, if you haven’t seen my new series on National Geographic that has been aired worldwide over the last few weeks then you can get onto this website and download them all…they make the perfect present for someone you really don’t like!

DOWNLOAD THEM HERE

Over and out

Ben

A great day meeting the new international students who will be calling my new city, Brisbane, home for the next few months at least. This is a short clip of the day and the fun that was had back on March 6th.

Enjoy

And when it’s a ticket to a top football match (or soccer as it’s called out here in Australia as there are so many other version of the sport it’s unbelieveable!) you grab it with both hands.

Tonight’s game at Suncorp Stadium was between Australia (or more affectionatly called the ‘Socceroos’) and Indonesia. A bit of a pre-World Cup knock around but well worth a visit all the same.

Kerri from Tourism Queensland managed to get a couple of tickets from Brett Towers, manager of TTF Australia, a company dealing with Transport and Tourism in the country. We made our way through the massed ranks of 20,000 Aussie supporters, all decked out in their yellow merchandising, to our box high above the pitch.

What a superb view it was too, looking right down on the superbly green pitch below we watched as the tension built prior to the teams arrival, the crowd cheering, mexican-waving and flag waving!

The game wasn’t actully that much to write home about with both teams struggling to find any form or momentum, Indonesia struggling the most with numerous dives and pretend injuries. Football/socer is probably THE most frustrating game when it comes to this! Why do players have to feign injury so much!

The final score ended 1-0 to Australia which was really a well deserved victory. They did put the pressure on throughout the entire game. My prediction may have been a little ambitious at 3-1!

It was definitely enough to light to fire inside of me to watch some more live sport as soon as I can though! Watch this space

Ben

“So now that it’s all over – how was it? No really how was it?!”

“Tell me how do you follow the Best Job – surely nothing comes close?!”

They’re all the standard questions but everyone wants to know the answer of course and I honestly tell them it could never be matched, well maybe the next eighteen months won’t quite match it but if the first one is anything to go by then it’ll come pretty damn close!

The P.R. value achieved through the TV and radio appearances go a huge way to reminding the public about Queensland and the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef but the other side of the tour is the presentations I’ve been making to the travel industry in each of the locations I’ve visited.

These are targeted at the most important part of that industry, the travel agents. For it’s them that help convert a customer’s mere thought into a booking, which is what we’re all aiming for.

————————————————————————————————————

I’ve set myself another goal for 2010 and that’s to get properly fit again. If there’s one thing that the last six months have done for me (apart from the obvious good stuff) it’s drop my fitness back down to a level I haven’t seen for five years.

Completing my Afritrex expedition around Africa involved running five marathons and to do that I needed to be fit….really fit and the pinnacle of this challenge was the Comrades Ultra marathon in South Africa. 56 miles or 89 kms of running hell…

Comrades Route Map

…so I thought I’d set myself the daunting task of doing it again this year.

Why you’re probably wondering? I’m not 100% sure really; I love the idea of trying to mentally battle through the 10 hours of hell that the race is, taking it through the pain barrier and pushing myself to my limits once more.

The race takes place on May 30^th between Pietermaritzburg and Durban in South Africa and I’ll be taking some time off work to attend two weddings and to run the race.

But in order to up my fitness level to anything barely resembling that which I’ll need, I’ve been hitting the streets of my new home city, Brisbane. There’s a huge network of tracks, cycle paths and boardwalks covering the city and the sights and sounds of an urban environment are actually very interesting to run in – coming from the countryside of Hampshire I thought I’d never say that!

Brisbane's boardwalk

I’m also trying to find somewhere to live in this great city, getting to know and recognise new places and suburbs is tough when you don’t have a car so combining my training and a reconnaissance mission were the order of the day on Saturday as I took to the streets to investigate further:

To prepare for the Comrades I have to find at least one half and one full marathon between now and the day of the race in May. I’ve already decided to head back to my old stomping ground on Hamilton Island at the beginning of May to run the descriptively named ‘Hamilton Island Hilly Half Marathon’ which should be a stern test.

Hilly Half route

Half marathons are never easy but this one goes up and down the many steep sections of the island and heads off road for a good part too. I’ve trained on these hills and love them…but they hurt.

Why not enter yourself? Combine a week away in paradise with a testing, gruelling run – further details for the event can be found here:

Hilly Half details

To download the PDF of the event please click here

With only 4 months to go I’m trying to find another full length marathon in Queensland which I can enter – does anyone know of one?!

Back soon with some outtakes from my original Best Job application last year…

Ben

During the trip I’ll be making presentations to the travel industry and hopefully lots of excited customers all keen to find out more about the islands and the experiences I’ve had over the last few months. G’Day USA is an annual event introducing to Americans the experiences and everything that’s possible in Australia through trade and business. Tourism, being Queensland’s second biggest employer, is high on the agenda so together with Anna Bligh the Premier, we’ve been embarking on a media tour to tell New York, Los Angeles and beyond all about why Queensland is so good and discussing the options that are available for those people wishing to holiday in the state.

There are links below to the two appearances we’ve made on the Today Show and Fox & Friends, two of America’s biggest morning programmes.

I’ve since flown back to L.A. and over the weekend made a number of speeches to the public and representatives from the travel industry here, all about Queensland and the experiences I’ve had over the last few months as the Island Caretaker.

Having taken so many photos during that time it’s easy to choose the ones I need in order to make a good, light hearted presentation, and the reception I received was pretty good! Having a substantial prize to give away always helps to fill a room (not just the fact that I’m talking!) and Qantas had been kind enough to donate two return flights to Cairns as part of it along with two nights accommodation at Thala Beach Lodge, and a packed house awaited me in the theatre. The huge backdrop of the Great Barrier reef really enticed people to come and find out more about it and the children loved the touch pool with real life star fish in it!

Saturday night was The Gala Black Tie Dinner taking place at the Hollywood & Highland Grand Ballroom in Los Angeles, a celebration of all things Australian and what a fantastic night it was! With 900 people attending the room was filled with an electric atmosphere and kicked off with a presentation by the Qantas Children’s Choir with their rendition of “I still call Australia Home” – very uplifting and truly angelic voices all round.

The evening recognised and rewarded some of Australia’s best known Ambassadors who now live and work in the USA, Greg Norman was the first to be recognised and the speech presenting his award was made by none other than John Travolta! Wow I’m in the presence of greatness here!

As dinner was served the feeling across the room was one of expectation and excitement, what a start to the evening! The next award of the evening was to Simon Baker the actor who’s starred in movies such as The Devil wears Prada and the more recent CBS series The Mentalist, and the role-out of stars continued with Aussie legend Nicole Kidman giving the speech. Then when it couldn’t get any better she and her husband Keith Urban sang a ode to Simon himself….here it is below:

The final award of the night went to the actress Toni Collette whose movies include In Her Shoes and Little Miss Sunshine and the very amusing Cameron Diaz strutted on stage to make a very amusing speech and presentation. Things got even better for Toni last night as she collected a Golden Globe as the Best Actress in a Television Series for her role in United States of Tara. It appears the Aussies are taking the USA by storm right now!

After the awards had been made it was time to dive into the desserts and also time to take our chance socialising with the stars. Shana (Tourism Queensland’s US Director), Wendy (Tourism Queensland’s stand-in CEO) and I headed into the crowds to go and meet the celebs!

It may appear a huge amount of fun, and it was, but at the same time the event raises Australia’s profile in the US and opens lots of doors for trade and tourism alike. Please can I go back next year!?!

• 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.

As Bre and I head off on our penultimate adventure in Queensland during my time as Island Caretaker, our first little appointment is back in Brisbane at the Iceworks Bar & Restaurant – it’s Christmas party time and and of course there’s a theme to try and stick to – Tropical North Queensland. Lucky we’ve spent a few weeks there and have the ideal props.

It was a perfect night to socialise and chat with some of the amazing people I’ve been working with over the last few months and to say some thank you’s too…

Hope I’m about for next years celebrations!

Ben