{"id":4011,"date":"2023-01-09T11:11:25","date_gmt":"2023-01-09T11:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=4011"},"modified":"2025-12-24T22:27:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T22:27:46","slug":"8-cars-and-lights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=4011","title":{"rendered":"8. CARS AND LIGHTS!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m so far behind that it’s now 2023!<\/p>\n

So, we wish everyone a Happy New Year.<\/p>\n

… and I’ll get a bit out of sequence now …<\/p>\n

While we were in Samford we came across the Ford Anglia from the Harry Potter book.\u00a0 It was resting peacefully underneath the Whomping Willow.\u00a0 I had no idea it had flown so far!<\/p>\n

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And on the subject of cars, Glenda has adopted a few unusual SUVs while we have been here…<\/span><\/p>\n

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A Lamborghini, an Aston Martin and my favourite …<\/p>\n

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… the Rolls Royce Cullinan with the numberplate “JG 4”!\u00a0 It should have been “4 JG” – but beggars can’t be choosers!<\/span><\/p>\n

I suppose Knobby’s car would pull the caravan OK…<\/p>\n

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A bit too flamboyant for the British Caravan Club, maybe!<\/p>\n

This trip has been very illuminating.\u00a0 First there was the Christmas boat parade in the Mooloolaba River and canals.\u00a0 Dozens of craft ranging from tinnies and jet skis right up to large yachts and fishing boats make their way around the waterways.\u00a0 Often accompanied by Christmas music.<\/p>\n

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Then, with brother John, we took to the water in Craig and Pauline’s (John’s tenants) boat to view the illuminated houses.<\/p>\n

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Some of them were excessively excessive!<\/p>\n

In Brisbane, we visited the Enchanted Garden in Roma Street Park.\u00a0 Our timed entry was 8.45 pm – the earliest we could get tickets.\u00a0 \u00a0And it was fully sold out.\u00a0 Another very impressive display.\u00a0 But before we even got to the park we passed city hall which is lit up with a six minute, animated display every quarter of an hour from dusk to midnight.<\/p>\n

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The plants in the park were colourfully lit.\u00a0 Animated dragons appeared, moved around then disappeared in clouds of colored smoke.\u00a0 Laser beams were everywhere.\u00a0 Truly Enchanting!<\/p>\n

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We even met Benji the blue-nosed reindeer!<\/p>\n

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Just before Christmas,\u00a0 Robin took us to Rainsford Place, a street of 32 houses in Buderim.\u00a0 Every year, every single house in the street (bar one!) installs Christmas light displays.\u00a0 Lights, music, snow.\u00a0 You name it the street does it!\u00a0 Sadly there was no charity collection, no traffic control and too much traffic.\u00a0 But the displays were brilliant!<\/span><\/p>\n

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There was even a caravan to make us feel at home!<\/p>\n

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And, true to form, one house had restricted it’s display to just two standard security lights!<\/p>\n

Finally, while on the subject of illuminations, we had a terrific firework display the other evening.\u00a0 Well, it was New Year’s Eve!\u00a0 Some of the parents of Ben and Jack’s school friends arranged a party at Point Cartwright.\u00a0 And after a glass or two of Prosecco, a few beers and lots of nibbles we got a grandstand view of the fireworks set off from Mooloolaba Beach:<\/p>\n

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And there were thousands of environmentally unfriendly glow-sticks decorating the young ones and the not so young ones!<\/p>\n

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The Sydney fireworks were pretty fantastic too!<\/p>\n

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So, on that note, I’ll stop.\u00a0 I’ll leave accounts of our two brushes with the local constabulary for the next post!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m so far behind that it’s now 2023! So, we wish everyone a Happy New Year. … and I’ll get a bit out of sequence now … While we were in Samford we came across the Ford Anglia from the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4011"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4060,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4011\/revisions\/4060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}