Today was a great day. Apart from being woken up by Peter yelling up the stairs, "Don't be late for your rendezvous!", just trying (successfully) to get a stir out of me, it was a great morning. I slept well and got up early, which is not typical for me. Matt and I went down to the docks to pick up Naomi just in time for the field service group. Little did we know that Cheryl and sister Wagner were there to pick her up too! When we didn't see Genelle, Cheryl or sister Wagner at the group, we took Naomi out with us. Meanwhile, they were waiting by the docks thinking Naomi was running late! Kieth and Dorothy, a sweet elderly couple in Victoria Point congregation, took us out with them in their car, to do some rural witnessing in (what they called, jokingly) the bush. It was really just farmland with widely spaced homes that had to be driven to, and with really long dirt driveways that had to be driven up. It was a little strange having to open up a big gates at the end of driveways to let our car in, closing it right behind us (according to the unwritten bush rule to leave a gate exactly as you found it), and driving up to each home. And after about two hours, we hadn't spoken to five people!

Coochiemudlo Ferry Dock	Matt is Waiting	Walking Out Alone	Looking Out
Opening the Gate While Rural Witnessing	Us With Keith and Dorothy

We couldn't leave Genelle out, but because she's still a bit unwell, we couldn't get her to come with us to Coochiemudlo either. So we compromised, and had lunch all together at Cleveland Point, at a nice restaurant overlooking the water.

Matt, Genelle, and Cheryl

Genelle at the Table

Naomi

Michael After Lunch

Michael took us to the dock, and off we went, Cheryl, Naomi and I, to Coochiemudlo Island. None of the locals wanted to come along, we supposed because they come here all the time, but it was really beautiful. It's a tiny little island, with houses and everything, but it's small enough to walk around entirely within an afternoon. So that's just what we did. The tide was very low, and the land meets the water at a very shallow and gradual angle, so there were wide open fields of mud, rock, and crabs. We stepped out as far as we could before sinking into the loose mud, trying to take a photo of a rather shy and evasive bird. We ended up just taking lots of photos of each other, on the sideways fallen and sunbleached trees. The three of us had a great time, talking and walking down the beach, and felt bad that the others were not there to enjoy it with us. The sun began to set, and we were all exhausted. We caught the just-in-time ferry to get us back in time for dinner. Naomi walked back up the beach to her aunt and unkle's house.

Naomi on the Ferry	Me on the Ferry	Ad for French Lessons	West Side of Coochie
Mangroves	Naomi and Cheryl	On the Tree	Naomi and I
Takin' a Break	''Watch out for the crabs...''	Sideways Tree	Low Tide Mud
Walking on the Beach	Halfway around the Island	Coochie's Dock	Tired Out
From the Pier

While we were on the Island, Matt was back at the house trying to make his signature cappuccino pie with only Australian ingredients. They dont have jello here (they call jello "jelly," which can lead to some interesting looks when you describe a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to them), and english pudding is nothing like American instant pudding, so it was hard for him to find plain old vanilla pudding, but eventually he succeded. And, in place of an oreo pie crust, he's used mashed up oreo cookies. We hopped in the van, pie in hand, picked up Marnie, and sped off to Clotilde and Nigel's (where Matt stayed on his previous trip to Australia) for dinner. Clotilde's close friend, Sarah (you remember Sarah - the outgoing, life-loving, world traveling Sarah who stayed with us when she visited NY) was there too, which was nice because I haven't seen her in ages. Sarah has also been reading my journal, and told me how funny it was that I rather ignorantly wrote, "at any given moment, there could be as many as three or four flies on you," because she expected it to rightly read "thirty or forty!" What I thought was really gross was aparantly extremely mild compared to Australia's hot humid summers, when you have to shake your shirt off, batting at the flies, because hundreds will just stick to you. I don't think I could handle that.

Sarah	''Hey! Fishhooks! ... Onya Matt!''	Clotilde and Nigel Checking Out Our Photos	Setting Up Her Group Photo
Sarah Attacks Nigel	Interesting Branch On Their Ceiling	Chillin' on the Couch	Sarah, Talking About Bryan Adams
Nigel

Today was awsome, but tomorrow, we go to the zoo...