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Day 5 – Thurs 20th Nov
I must admit it that after the previous late night I ended up sleeping in until about 10am on this day so I missed the first auction…..sigh…..which was a pity as I heard that there were some great deals to be had. I did attend and bid on a number of domains at Rick Latona’s auction but not surprisingly I missed out on the domains due to others being prepared to go a LOT higher than me.
In my opinion the theme of the conference was professional fun. In other words everything that Fabulous did raised the bar for every other conference that follows and the Island Cruise far exceeded expectations.
After about 40 minutes we arrived at Stradbroke Island and Peter from Fabulous “encouraged” me to join him on parasailing. I’ve never done it before so it was a completely new experience for both Roselyn and I. It was absolutely outstanding and not in the least bit stressful. My only regret was that it didn’t go for longer.
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| Merlin, Dan and Howard showing everyone how they can do a traditional dance. |
Once we got back from parasailing we made a dash for the helicopter rides and were the last couple that made it. Being a pilot I was more interested in how the chopper worked then in the view but every now and then I glanced up to enjoy the Gold Coast in all its glory with looming dark clouds closing in.
After a few drinks and some great food the heavens opened up and the wind came raging in just in time for the aboriginal singers and dancers. Maybe they called the storm in? It finally passed over and the feasting began in earnest.
At the end of the night we were all given a special surprise of a fireworks display that was actually really good. On the way back in the boat God decided to compete and ripped lightning almost completely across the sky. Thank goodness that it was in the distance…..it was incredible to see. As normal a heap of domainers crashed our villa and we had a great time until the wee hours of the morning.
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| The poncho team coming back on the boat from Stradboke island. |
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| Trip kings puts a smile on Roselyn's face! |
Day 6 – Fri 21st Nov
It was time to leave and say good-bye until DomainFest to a lot of great friends. It was sad to go but then again all good things have to come to an end. We jumped in our two planes at Gold Coast airport and had the privilege of Kevin, Julie and Jothan sharing the journey with us.
The trip back to Port MacQuarie was fantastic with some great views of the coastline and we even saw a few whales along the way. Kevin and Julie had just returned from seven months in Thailand so a steak dinner followed by a few beers went down well.
Day 7 – Sat 22nd Nov
This is where things got a little interesting. The weather wasn’t the best so Roselyn and I went up to about 5,500 feet and made sure there were emergency landing places all the way across the Barrington Tops. Nothing like hopping from one perspective forced landing place to another. The turbulence was pretty severe and after two hours of feeling sick Roselyn was pretty glad to come out the other side.
We landed in Mudgee but there wasn’t any accommodation available due to a large motor-cross event so we headed all jumped into the planes again and flew across to Parkes. The flight to Parkes involved threading our way through a few bands of rain but overall it was much less turbulent than the mountains.
Day 8 – Sun 23rd Nov
It was freezing and blowing pretty solidly at the airport and we had to wait about 20 minutes for a guy to come out and refuel the plane for our journey to Tocumwal. While he did that I managed to retrieve my mobile phone from where it had fallen behind a console…..nothing like a star screw driver to get things fixed!
Tony and the others arrived at Tocumwal before us (they’ve got a much faster plane) so we arrived to a nice salad roll from the local bakery. Thanks guys! Except the last 5 seconds the journey back home to Moorabbin airport was pretty uneventful. I was just about to put the wheels down when we got blasted by a terrible crosswind that nearly through us off the runway. It was either get the wheels on the runway or do a go around. I chose wheels down and everything turned out fine.
After a few drinks at the Aero Club we’re now back home and swamped by our kids giving us many hugs. It’s great to go away and have so many new and fresh experiences but there is just nothing like coming home. I didn’t really want to part with the plane that I hired but I’m sure that we’ll meet again in the not so distant future.
The whole team at Fabulous needs to be congratulated for one of the best conferences that I’ve ever attended. This was despite the fact that we had the worst weather in 30 years. I just hope that you can get the energy together to run another one some time in the future.
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