It was a fine Saturday morning and we didn't want it to go like our usual Saturdays were all those cleaning, kitchen and programming works come in. We both are similar in many ways including going for an adventure or a trip without a plan.

Everything from searching for places to visit to concocting was done hastily ."Underwater World - Sea life" - this was our destination almost 90 kms from our home.We left at 12 pm ,hoping to be there in an hour.We wanted to enjoy every bit of our trip, feel the fun ,fill our minds with complete insanity.Since we had a light breakfast ,we were longing for food. So we took a pit-stop at Caboolture - midway between Brisbane and Mooloolaba. Our taste buds have a special craving for french fries, though we both know that it comes under the label 'unhealthy'!!. After gulping some food we restarted our journey.

The sun couldn't be more bright at 1.30 pm when we reached Mooloolaba. There was some turkeys wandering around the parking lot despite the hot sun. We got in through the entrance gate and to our surprise everything over there was painted in blue (May be to give an aquatic look. They could have painted the roads too in blue).

After waiting for 5 – 7 minutes, we managed to get one of the attendant’s attention. Everything was quick as we showed a print of our online booking record. A Seaworld impression was stamped on our wrists before we entered into the magnificent world of sea life. We were given a handout which summarized the whole structure of the sea life.

16 zones!! Sixteen zones with a variety of sea animals. Each zone had its specific aquatic species. We started with the tidal rock pools. It was impressive the way they arranged each area and each aquarium with eye-catching lighting's. We felt like those animals couldn't live more luxuriously than now. The seahorses were in zone 2, felt like taking those tiny creatures in my hands and running away. The wonder of the underwater gave immense pleasure. We were equally excited to move from one zone to another. The pacific reef, coastal wreck and shark ship wreck were in zones 3,4 and 5 respectively. We could identify most of the species and the ones we couldn't there was this piece of information written next to each aquarium. It was interesting to read about the physiology, behavior and reproduction of these marine mammals. As we walked around the aquarium we saw a diversity of corals with different names, colours and appearances. It was an incredible picture for our eyes. And then bay of ray in zone 7 and turtle temple in zone 8. The innocent and pale look on the face of sea turtles induced a thought of taking them home. Alas, we couldn’t do it.

Zone 9 – billabongs. Billabongs so much rhymed with ‘willywonga’. The billabong zone had an amazing array of species ranging from snails to sawfish. Seal Island was at zone 13, which we found the most interesting and appealing above all others. The seal island had seals as well as sea lions. April, Groucher and Bella were the name of the seals while Portia was one among the sea lions. There was a show at the seal island scheduled at 3.30. So, we rushed to the other zones with the hope of finishing all the zones and coming back to watch the show. The beauty of the jellyfishes made us go madly in love with the jellyfish kingdom. They had a great collection of jellyfishes, some with purple stripes, some with white spots and some even named ass moon jelly because of their appearance. It was almost an end to our journey through the deep sea with the amazing creatures.

However, we didn't want our journey to end too hastily. So there emerged another unexpected plan to visit the Glasshouse mountains which was on our way back home. These glass house mountains come in the vicinity of South east Queensland. The mountains had a piece of history attached to it.

"If you want to make your dreams come true , the first thing to do is to wake up."

Even though we slept late on the previous night, it wasn't strenuous to get up early in the morning. May be we were enthusiastic about our road trip to "Montiville - The land of violet flowers".

The day was perfect. We started from home at 11.20 in the morning with our packed food and luggage. The traffic was heavy as it was the next day after Christmas. Then slowly the busy streets turned into quiet ones and the buildings on the sides were taken over by farmlands. Yes, we were entering into the premises of Montville, where violet flowers filled our way.

We reached Montville at 2.45 p.m. Montville was a small countryside, majestic and serene. Our booking was for a night, on a treetop resort. Finding the reception of our treetop apartment was a bit confusing. After driving to and fro for a while, we managed to see the signboard of ‘Treetops Seaview, Montville’. The lady at the reception was very welcoming and she gave an outline of our studio apartment. She handed over our gourmet breakfast hampers and wished us a pleasant stay.

It was the ultimate destination. We entered into the mysterious woods, in the midst of where our treetop apartment was situated. The studio apartment was just perfect with a balcony, spa bath, log fire, television and a queen sized bed. How romantic can a two day holiday trip be!!! The view from the balcony was spectacular with the scenic beauty of the surrounding hinterlands.We thought of resting for a while and then going for exploring. To our disappointment, it started raining from nowhere. But, the chilling whether added more beauty to our lovely stay. The stars were shining bright at night. Light wind breezed through our partly opened window.

We woke up early as our check – out time was 9.30 a.m. before leaving, we browsed through the internet to find the nearby places to visit and we landed up with the Kondalilla National park which had great walks, waterfalls and picnic creeks. It was hard to say bye to Montville so soon. So we decided to return back to the countryside after exploring the National park.

We reached the National park after driving through a few unnecessary routes. The GPS always make us go crazy. Perhaps, our visit was during the morning hours that we couldn’t find many people there. It was drizzling, but not enough to make us wet. We both love walking in the rain. We stepped our foot into the wooden walkway and we were welcomed by the dense forest. The signboard clearly said a 40km walk left for us to reach the waterfalls. The walk wasn’t tedious as there were small creeks and beautiful lookouts throughout. The waterfalls were amazing. It looked like ‘God pouring heavy masses of snow from heaven’. After spending some time there, taking few pictures, we started our walk back to the exit. It surely was a remarkable and refreshing experience.

As we decided earlier, we went back to Montville village wherein we thought of travelling over the countryside. There were patisseries, cafes, restaurants, galleries and many more. We had our lunch from an awesome place called ‘Waffle-on’ where not only the food was best but also the owners too. After having lunch we continued our walk, going to most of the shops and finally we reached ‘Chocolate country’. It obviously was a paradise for the chocolate lovers with its handmade delicious chocolates. We bagged some and left from there.

‘A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving’. That was the end of our happy trip to Montville. We were a bit sad leaving the village but was glad to make some memories. We saw the blossomed violet flowers on our way back which made our minds delighted :)

This is a story that began in a land beyond the horizons. There lived a princess who couldn’t keep her mouth shut and whose laughter rippled away all the way till Australia, which was the abode of the Prince of Plassanal. The bolts of laughter fascinated the prince and he sent messengers all around the country to find her and he did find her one day. That day onwards, he has not passed a single day without waking up to her bolts of laughter. They began their symphonies of love sitting in two continents – the Incredible India and the Awesome Australia. If you think this is an incredibly awesome fairy tale, our love story will be just as incredibly awesome for you and may be more.
We began our tale of love even before we met each other in person. We wanted to start talking so as to get to know each other. But, we struggled at making the first call. Should I call? Or should I not? What will we talk? What is there to talk? Will it be ok to call? And one fine day my prince made up his mind and decided to make the first call. After spending a few days of short duration calls, full of questions like “what else?”, ”and then what” we build a bridge of love between our hearts. We waited anxiously for the moment we meet each other in person. We were worried. We might have asked each other a couple of times “would you like me when you see me for real?” And then that day arrived. Heart pounding, hands sweating and knees trembling, we met each other at a party organized for us.
We looked at each other and wondered “could this be my Mr./Ms. Right?” Our phone calls and SMS sessions started becoming longer and longer. We began getting to know each other deeper and better, acknowledging each other’s likes and dislikes. We began cherishing the time we spent talking and above all we began missing each other. And this is the story of our love, one that began when we saw each other, one that was built up through words, one that we intend to sustain in prayer, as we walk together towards the Holy matrimony. So, you know, they say – “He stole my heart, so I am going to steal his surname !!”

Kiran's Version

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