Let's Romp!

On Sunday, we took part in a charity event in Brisbane called Romp. It's part Amazing Race (although you were only allowed to walk or catch public transport), part scavenger hunt, part trivia. You had to form a group (ours was my sisters Bec and Mary, my niece and Rosie and Ella and myself), give it a name (Funny Bunny Foo Foos - thanks Rosie) and if you like, have a costume. We were all going to go as bunnies but it didn't quite work out. It was too hot for Ella and Rosie to wear their bunny suits, and the others couldn't find ears. I was proudly sporting my ears though.

There were cowboys and Indians....

and frogs...

and Dora the Explorers...

and farm animals...

and Smurfs....

and members of the French Court....

and monkeys and bananas...

and boots that were made for romping....

and my favourite...these people got inspiration from the Japanese animated movie "Steam Boy". Part Victorian and part industrial. They had real detail in their costumes.

And then us!

We talked about going next year as the Von Trapp family (we used to refer to ourselves as the Von Crapp family...well, there are 9 kids but we don't sing) but it was already taken.

We started at the top of the Queen St Mall, where we got our clue sheet for where the checkpoints were and our first compulsory checkpoint we had to go to. It was...guess... the Story Bridge Climb headquarters....where we were yesterday with Mum. It's too far to walk so we had to catch a ferry....which was soooo slow... and then when we finally got to our stop...apparently WE were too slow...and the driver wouldn't let us off, along with about six other rompers. WHAT THE... So we had to get off at the next stop, 10 mins walk away. So it's taken us nearly an hour to get to our first checkpoint and we only have 4 hours to try and get to as many checkpoints out of 50 that we can. At each checkpoint, the girls got their passbook stamped and we had to try and solve a puzzle and then text the answer to the organisers and then they'd text back if we got it right or not and how many points we got.

It was slow going at first, as the first 3 checkpoints were on that side of the river, with a lot of walking along the boardwalk. At Riverlife, we had to find a fish and text what was in it's tail.

Answer: Springs.

Once we got to the other side of the river, it was better, with checkpoints closer together.The next one was at the Kookaburra Queen ticket office. That's the Kookaburra Queen there, the old paddle steamboat.

Question: If 10 people go on a Sunday cruise and 3 people have the devonshire tea, and 2 have (something else...I can't remember) and 1 has nothing to eat and the rest have a full lunch, how much did they spend all together? Hmmm.

Answer: $415.

Time for lunch. Argh, look at the time, where did it go? Quick, but don't run. We covered 12 checkpoints in all, not bad seeing we got such a bad start.

Back to the starting point for a concert and some prizes. Oh, I'm soo tired.

The girls each won a $20 gift voucher for Myers, which they promptly spent on Littlest Pet Shops, of course.

Afterwards the girls and I went here...

to South Bank... a beach in the middle of the city...

so I could soak these tired little footsies.

(Don't look too closely at the ugly feet.)

And the girls had an impromptu swim in their clothes. Ella hopped in because she had her bunny outfit to change into afterwards, but Rosie needed a little encouragement.

OK, I confess, I pushed Rosie in. But you know she wanted to.

So who wants in for next year. I thought we could be called "Don't get your "hick"..ers in a knot" and go dressed like this.

I don't know whose photo this is but thank you anyway.