Ozopens its doors - Mark's Blog

First presentation goes OK although the boss is a bit concerned by time - we are running over - but nevertheless the film is well received!

Fantastic food from a BBQ a cuddle from a snake - hopefully the last one I will experience and John leads us on an evening walk around Springbrook Heritage area.

A fantastic opportunity to be led by some one so knowledgeable (no offence to Farmer Ian) and we see some fantastic sights - trapdoor spiders, Wait-a-whiles and the most spectacular sight of a cave lit by thousands of glow worms!

I am on the end of plenty of ribbing about being a "big feartie" for bugs and spiders and snakes and basically anything that crawls - what with that and my swimming my macho man image is taking a doin!


After a relatively restless night the morning starts with a trip organised by the Coomera River Midday Club to the Gold Coast City Marina.

Hugh (my host) has a boat in storage and there are some spectacular ones on display - the two most striking features are that the entire Marina complex did not exist 7 years ago and that one company Riviera offers 220 apprentice places to young people - one company offers more than the whole of East Renfrewshire combined.

The Marina is also very conscious of the environmental impact of its business and takes special measures to maximise the use of recycled water and minimise any damage caused by oil spills.

Debs takes us on a tour of the immediate area around the Marina and we drop in on some Rotarian colleagues for tea and biscuits (tim-tams I think they are called - a poor imitation of a penguin!)

The next stop is a brewery visit during which we are led by Peter who is a member of the Oz GSE team heading out to the middle east. A really knowledgeable and friendly guy and it is easy to see why he was picked. The trip finishes with the opportunity to pour our own pints! Despite not working in a pub for a fair few years the old magic is still there.

Pleased to say that Australian Fosters is nicer than the water they serve in Glasgow!

The brewery also provide a fantastic lunch and already I can see that food is going to feature heavily during this trip - just as well I lost all that weight before heading out!