Australia So Far: The Marsoun Ohana, Noosa Race, Alaias and Cappucino

So I arrived safely to Australia after a long travel. Honolulu to LA and LA to Brisbane made it a total of 20 hours in the air.

I was picked up by Mike Marsoun, a Father of six children originally from the Big Island of Hawaii. He brought me back to the family farm in Cootharaba, about 15 minute outside of Noosa, where I am spending the first half of my stay in Oz.

The property has fruit trees, Brazilian Aserola Cherries, a horse and their very own dam which is their water source. I had a blast playing in the dam with all the Marsoun kids. Even Evangeline, the youngest of the six Marsoun children stand up paddles.

The 5K SUP sprint race was on the second day of my stay at it was a blast. Shakira Westrop, a power paddler from the Gold Coast, let me borrow her 12'6'' Lehui Kai race board. The race started out rough, as I got pounded by a couple set waves which set me back quite a bit. It would have probably helped to try the board out before the race, but I had to learn the hard way. By the time I got outside the surf line, the first and second place paddlers were already rounding the second buoy. There were about five other gals ahead of me too, but I didn't come this far to lose because of a bad start. So i put my head down, started to pray and just paddled! By the time I rounded the last buoy, about half a mile from the finish, I had caught up to the 2nd place paddler. As I came closer to the finish line and right outside the surf line, the 1st place paddler was getting closer and closer, so i turned around to time the set just right. Wouldn't you know that I was blessed with a perfect wave that I rode all the way to shore, beached my race board and sprinted to the finished line to take first place. This was my best comeback race yet. Thank you Jesus. Maui's own Zane Schweitzer also took first in the youth division.

After the race the Noosa boys went out for an Alaia expression session. Zane borrowed a board from the infamous Tom Wegener to join the boys in the line up. It was fun to watch.

The points of Noosa are beautiful and the waves go forever. I'm having the time of my life and I've only been here three days. I'm surfing my brains out, making new friends and enjoying being aunty to six really awesome Christian children. Oh, and I have to mention that the coffee her is the bomb. Best Cappuccino ever!

Thanks for checking in. Until next time.

G'day and God Bless.