Making it to Noosa

Our flights from Minneapolis to LAX to Sydney to Sunshine Coast went very well.  They were all on time through Sydney and we we were even able to catch an earlier flight from Sydney to Sunshine Coast so we got to Noosa about 4 hours earlier than we had originally planned.

When we were filling out our customs cards on the plane to Sydney the stewardess announced that Australian Customs is very strict and that you should declare you might be carrying illegal drugs even if you were only bringing in prescription or OTC drugs because some things that are legal in the US are illegal in Australia and vice versa.  For example, Advil is apparently illegal in Australia but aspirin with codeine is legal in Australia but not in the US.  That got us concerned because both my wife and I have several prescriptions and OTC drugs with us.  The stewardess said you would be far better off to check off the box "Yes" that you might be carrying illegal drugs rather than having them find something you hadn't declared.  So although we were cringing when we did it, we checked off the box.  They said that the Aussies were very strict about other items as well so we were also worried that customs might make us unwrap all the Christmas presents we were bringing for the G-Kids.  

When we landed, the lady at the immigration desk saw that we had both checked off the box for possibly illegal drugs and immediately asked us what drugs we were bringing into the country.  But when I told her she smiled, made a mark on our customs form and sent us on our way to pick up our bags.  Right after I picked the bags off the conveyor there was another customs agent standing there who asked for our customs cards, made some marks on them and then sent us off.  I could tell from the expression on his face that he knew we were harmless geezers.  However, the place where he sent us did have us and our bags get sniffed by a very cute little dog before we were on our way.  All in all though, it didn't take us more than 15 minutes to go through both immigration and customs and they never made us open our bags.

After lucking out and getting an earlier flight to Sunshine Coast, the thirty mile drive from there to Noosa was a bit challenging.  I've never driven on the left side of the road before and I really don't like roundabouts and we must have gone through twenty of them getting to Noosa.  Also, my sense of direction is off because the sun is so much higher in the sky here.  Within minutes after leaving the airport we concluded that somehow we'd gone off in the wrong direction and were heading south rather than north.  But we got turned around and made it to Noosa safe and sound, although somewhat frazzled.

This first night Carol and I are staying at the Sheraton Noosa before we move over to the Outrigger where we'll have a 4 bedroom suite that all 8 of us will stay in when the kids join us tomorrow.  Our room at the Sheraton is huge and very modern.  And its very close to the beach:

Our room doesn't look onto the beach but looks out over the river that runs into the ocean:

The G-Kids arrive at 9 tomorrow so we're quite eager to see them.