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Because Brisbane was such a business and financial center, this is a business hotel: very stuffy, very dry, but very clean. I was only there for 1 night and all I needed was a clean towel and hot shower, so this place was great. Also, I needed a central location. Sure, I could have stayed at an airport hotel and saved the cab fare, but how boring would that have been? At the Hilton, I was able to spend my afternoon walking around this beautiful city. I walked for 4 hours!

Unfortunately, because of my short stay, I was unable to enjoy the hotel’s amenities, and there was a beautiful pool and whirlpool area with food service. I seriously considered spending my afternoon in Brisbane sleeping by the pool, but my sightseeing nature got the better of me. The only thing the Hilton didn’t have was an in-room electrical converter. I’m sure I could have gotten one if I had asked, and had I been staying longer, I would have. The Hilton also provided two complimentary bottles of water, which was good with all the walking I did.

This hotel was pricey, but you’re paying the location and for the business amenities. For my purposes, it was definitely worth it, and I would like to stay here again.

I ordered an Australian staple, fish-and-chips, which came with a slaw salad. I was definitely the best fish-and-chips of the trip, mainly because it was a secret recipe batter that was freshly cooked. My friend’s husband ordered oysters and steak. The oysters came on a huge platter; there were 13 of them, absolutely huge! They had been soaking in a Worcester sauce. My friends begged me to try them. I had tried oysters in Denver and didn’t like them much. They tasted like dirt and I didn’t like the chewy texture. However, game to try Australian seafood, I ate one. It was delicious. It was smooth and juicy and the sauce gave it a little extra kick. It was a little too much kick for my friend’s husband and his daughters, and I ended up eating most of them.

The staff was terrific. Even though Australian restaurants don’t really have "servers," the young man and woman who took our order at the register also kept our drinks refilled and even brought one of the girls a glass of milk after the spicy oysters got the better of her. On the recommendation of my friends, I drank a Middie beer, which was quite good, reminded me of Coors back home. I ate enough for two people and didn’t regret it.

The day at the zoo started out by feeding the elephants. We were given the following instructions. "Make sure that you grab a carrot before the person ahead of you goes. That way you’ll be ready when it’s your turn. Once started, we go until the bucket is empty. If you drop the carrot on YOUR side of the barrier, you may pick it up and try again. If you drop it on the elephant’s side, leave it, because her trunk will find it. Do not hang on the food after you put it in her trunk; let go immediately!"

The zoo has a large outdoor arena that has several different animal shows throughout the day. They started with a snake show. The next show was tigers. Although it looks like the tigers are doing tricks, the handlers informed us that they were merely emphasizing the tiger’s natural behaviors. Two of those behaviors were swimming and climbing a tree. The next show featured birds, and the grand finale were the famous crocodiles. Between shows were 15-minute intermissions, and a giant TV screen showed other zoo attractions with little snippets of Steve himself to entertain us while we waited.

One of the most popular exhibits is the kangaroo grounds. It’s the only place I know where you can pet a kangaroo. You must realize these are extremely domesticated kangaroos, because you would never do this in the wild. Kangaroos can be quite vicious in the wild. The kangaroos at the Australian Zoo are extremely tame, well fed (note the size of their bellies!!), and downright lazy. Most just lay on the ground, and you pet them till they fall asleep. Suddenly the girls yelled, "There’s a Joey! There’s a Joey!" I thought they were talking about seeing a friend from school until they explained to me that a joey is a baby kangaroo still in its mother’s pouch. Just one of the many things I learned at the zoo.

The tour starts off in the mash building where everyone got to sample unfiltered molasses. It doesn’t look appetizing, but it tastes good. The mash looked and smelled like sweet cereal.

From here we went to the fermentation building where the mash was turned in alcohol. It starts out very brown in color because it had not been filtered. The building was a series of tanks and each tank ferments the mash into liquid. At this point it is 90% proof alcohol and not fit to drink.

Then we walked across the compound to the aging caskets. Here the rum was aged and reduced down to 30 proof. These barrels were solid wood barrels held together by the metal rings around them, no nails or screws. Our guides said there was $18 million worth of rum here.

Our guides then acted out, complete with sound effects, the story of the great fire of 1934. A lightening bolt struck the holding kegs and set the rum on fire. This caused the rum to flow into the river. The townsfolk, instead of putting out the fire, gathered the rum that flowed since it was worth more than gold at the time. The rum in the river also pickled all the fish so villagers gathered those too and had a big feast. To prevent this from happening again, when the distillery was rebuilt, they included lightening rods on each building.

After the tour, our guides led us back to the house and into the tasting room. Here we received our two drink samples. Our guides also told us about the many products that Bundaberg rum produces: rum & cola, rum & bitters, dark rum, and limited editions. I chose the rum & cola—delicious!

I thought it odd that a polar bear was the distillery’s symbol, since there are no polar bears in Australia, so I asked the guide. He said it was a marketing strategy selected many years ago because Southern Australians believed that rum was a tropical, warm drink. Bundaberg wanted to show people that rum could be cool and refreshing, thus the polar bear.

After the sampling, we spent lots of money in the gift shop, including a specially priced 2-pack that was just the right amount of alcohol to legally bring into the US. For anyone who enjoys and appreciates fine spirits, this tour was fun and tasty.

I was told that only four or five cars were scheduled to be in the rally, but after 10 minutes at the parking lot, 18 cars showed up! They were all makes, models, and eras, and all in pristine condition.

We started on the main street in Bundaberg and drove over the Bundaberg Bridge, not once, but twice before heading out to the Coral Coast. Our car was last in the long line of rally cars, since the Aston, one of the oldest cars in the rally, had a top speed of 35 mph. My 7-year-old nieces were warned that if the Aston had to climb any hills, they might have to get out and push! My nieces were also a little disappointed the car didn’t have a radio until Geoff suggested they sing, which they were thrilled to do.

Our first stop was the Marina at Burnett Heads, which has many large boats, some in dry dock having work done. Across the road from the marina was a large sugar-cane-storage warehouse, one of the largest buildings I had seen in the area. Back onto the Coral Coast road, we headed south for Bargara Beach. It was a little windy since the Aston didn’t have windows, but that made for perfect views of the ocean on my left and the expensive beachfront homes on my right.

After Bargara, we took a turn into a residential area, where Geoff honked his horn at all the people as we passed. Many people stared as the string of old cars went by, not sure what to think. We were nearing our lunch destination of Elliot Heads. As we arrived at the public park at Elliot Heads, we saw the cars ahead of us parked in a neat row, and we fell into place at the end. People were sitting at the park picnic tables opening up Tupperware bowls full of goodies and thermoses full of tea and coffee. Everyone in the group was offering me a taste of their treats; there were chocolate treats, licorice treats, lemon bars, cookies, and some items uniquely Australian that I have no idea what they were. My friend whispered in my ear that normally people didn't share their treats with anyone; they just eat what they brought themselves. She thought I had inspired them to share their dishes, which I thought was nice. After stuffing ourselves with sugar, my friend, the girls, and I walked along Elliot Cove, which was at low tide, so it was empty of water. If we had the time, we could have walked all the way across it, but soon it was time to load up the cars again and head to our next destination.

That destination was "the Hummock." The Hummock was an extinct volcano that rose above the farmland to about 314 feet above sea level. In the flat farmlands of Isis County, this was a mountain. Considering I live at 5,280 feet in Colorado, I was quite amused at everyone’s excitement of driving up the Hummock. I have to admit, I didn’t think the Austin was going to make it up the small hill, but it did. What a view at the top! Because it was the only hill for miles, it was the only place near Bundaberg that had ocean views. My friend told me that was why the price of homes on the Hummock were so high. Not only could you see the ocean, but the surrounding patchwork quilt of farmland on the other three side of it was amazing. A rain cloud in the distance even produced a rainbow for our visit.

From here, the rally disbanded slightly as many of the cars went home. We still had to go back to Bundaberg. It was a long, quiet drive back to town. It was getting late in the day, the girls were getting tired, and the weather was getting chillier.

My friend wasn’t sure about spending the day "with the old people," and was worried I wouldn’t enjoy it, but I loved it. How many people have an event organized just for them? It was a lovely drive along the water, something I never get to do at home, and the cars were wonderful. One of my more memorable moments of the day was before we even started. A gentleman saw me taking photos of Geoff’s car and asked it I would take a picture of his. He and his wife stood proudly in front of their car. I never even got their names, but they wanted me to have a photo of their car too. My driver, Geoff, was a gracious host answering every boring question I asked him, and he even kept the girls entertained on a very long ride. This was one of the most memorable experiences on a most memorable trip.

Upon arrival at the lovely ranch house in the Bundaberg suburbs, we were shown to the backyard where a large tent had been put up to shield us all from the sun. On the patio was a table filled with two coffeepots of hot water, a plate of tea bags, and trays filled with sugary treats and finger sandwiches. On another table under the tent were all sorts of items, most wrapped in cellophane. My friend explained that these items were for a "cents sale," Australia’s version of a ticket raffle.

We each paid our $1 to get into the tea and then paid another $5 for six raffle tickets. We were the first ones to arrive, but judging by the number of chairs around the tent, many more were coming.

Even though the sun was out, there was a bit of a morning chill, so the hot tea was perfect and the food was homemade and delicious. We met a good friend of the mother-in-law’s who had just gotten back from Tasmania (apparently that’s the "in" place for Australians to vacation). We were also introduced to a woman who had recently recovered from a stroke. However, both my friend and I would never have guessed she had had a stroke if we hadn’t been told.

After a half-hour of chit-chat and eating, the raffle began. Our host, who was also named Carrie, was in charge of selecting the tickets. The prizes were first-come, first-serve. The first winner was my friend’s mother-in-law. She overheard my friend and I talking about a homemade knitted blanket on the table, and without hesitation, she grabbed it and literally threw it at me. She told me to take it back to America as a gift from Australia. I was shocked and told her I couldn’t take it, but then the woman who made the blanket, Joyce Glass, said she would be honored if something she had made went all the way to America, and with that, I owned a blanket. Well, that set the trend for the rest of the raffle. Soon all the winners, women I didn’t even know, were giving me the prizes they picked off the table. It was crazy! Carrie had to find a box for me to put everything in. Many of the items were handmade, such as the blanket and a set of hand-painted ceramic tiles. Some items were Australian products, such as hand lotions and soaps. I was overwhelmed.

After the raffle ended, Carrie announced that our little group had raised over $200 for cancer research. It was a successful tea for cancer research and for my Australian souvenir collection.