[Original post by Elliot Mogerman – Transferred from yahoogroups.com]
We arrived at Rick’s home and no one was around so we let ourselves in and stole some free wireless from unknown neighbors to check our emails. Then went to the store and bought some appetizers, they call entrees, and consisted of king’s island brie and blue cheeses, spicy olives, assortment of crackers, asparagus, and prawns. I marinated the prawns in hot chili sauce, garlic, and lime. The asparagus was normal with oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Richard made corn and fish, his wife made salad and apricot pie, and we feasted on everything we bbq all night on their deck. The neighbor’s dog came over for a play date and eventually the neighbor and another friend stopped by for some entertaining conversation. Some of which was about our conspiracy theories of the Rockefeller disappearance. After Mike finished a slideshow of our trip we crashed. In the morning I woke up early and did the dishes from the previous evening. Everyone else woke up and made pancakes and coffee for breaky. Went for a walk around the forest and town they live by, had lunch at a world famous pub, Lyrebird, where the restaurant chef trained under the same guy who taught Gordon Ramsey of hell’s kitchen everything he knows.
Next day we dropped off our bikes at Neil’s and went to the cabin on the river near Echuca. On our way we stopped for dinner and had burgers with the lot (egg, beet, bacon, cheese, salad, pineapple) otherwise known as the works back home. Also had a pizza with bacon, ham, prawn, pineapple, green bell pepper (capsicum), and onion. After a 3 hour road trip we arrived in the evening. For the next week we sat on our private beach on the Murray river, drank, and caught some rays. At night we cooked up feasts fit for kings. Night one: scotch filet steak, 4 mins on bbq (2 on each side), 4 min in oven 250cg seasoned with salt and pepper and no knife needed, bbq zucchini with salt, pepper, and oil, and a salad with misc ingredients. Night two: spaghetti with home made sauce from Rob’s mom and an entrée or appetizer of blue and brie cheese and crackers. Night 3: appetizer of Danish blue and brie cheeses, salmon pan grilled in oil with salt and pepper (served on cracker with cheese and salmon layers), and barbeque seasoning with garlic and other stuff. BBq zucchini fresh from garden, and spinach salad with yellow bell pepper, small tomatoes, walnuts, white onion, feta cheese, and garlic vinaigrette. Enough of food, the Australia open was very exciting to watch. And there is this crazy bird for days that has been repeatedly running into the windows trying to get in. I guess that’s what the sun here does to you if your stuck in it too long. And today we dropped off our bikes with the freight company at Quantas air and they will be scheduled to ship out Thursday. Mike and I leave on Sunday and will arrive in Auckland around lunch. Quarantine in New Zealand is supposed to be worse than Aussie. A few more rough days of sun and relaxing, then off to NZ.