222choppy: Mac Conference, Gold Coast, 2018

We load the car and head off to the Gold Coast. After lunch at Balina (where there have been a couple of recent shark attacks) we book into the hotel at Royal Pines and then return the car to Surfers Paradise. We think we will take an Uber on the way home, but the man in the offlicense says that he does Uber driving and because of the trams and poor parking he will not pick up in this district and tells us where to go to be picked up. However we have to walk past a taxi rank with 3 taxis on the way, so give in and take a taxi.

Our 10th floor view over the golf course - PGA coming up this week.

It takes quite a bit of walking around to get our bearings and find out where we will have to go in the morning. Later we have an Italian meal at the resort.

On Tuesday morning we go down and collect our satchels which include the milkadamia product. I just love my fudge creamer - it has so much mouth feel - something which really slows you down as you drink it.

"a Cuddle in a cup"

Duncan's milk product is the normal milk - barely any calories, but I imagine not so nice in tea, but people seem to enjoy it in their coffee. The first lecture is on soil. Duncan was hoping to go to bees, but cannot get in as there are too many people registered. I have our soil data and analysis from vineyard days, and with great relief see that our soil fits the bill. The main message seems to be mulch and manure, so we are on target there too. In the afternoon Duncan plays golf while I have a browse at the machinery stands, then a quick rest before we head of to the Caribbean Cocktail party. Despite our intention to give the Aussie wine a chance, they didn't really measure up, but the food - pulled pork sliders especially were great!

A harvester - will we be able to afford one of these in the future????

The price of breakfast at the resort is phenomenal! (about $30 each) However we head off to the headline speaker who founded Bulmer the major vegetable producer in Australia. Next we hear about all the innovations for macadamia products. The one on integrated past management is of less interest as we don't have most of them living in NZ at present. And the last talk before lunch is on irrigation, which wasn't really aimed at those with a usually good rainfall and a clay soil. The talk that impressed us most was the small session concerning the desire to identify and preserve the old, indigenous species of macadamias, especially in case they need to hark back to the old gene pool as pests or climate may require re-engineering of the gene-pool. Happy hour followed.

Aussie beers - Critical analysis by Rod, Duncan will give anything a go at this time.

Both Rod and Duncan give the sponsor of happy hour a go to do his spiel. Nice machine. Overkill for 4Ha though!

Filled to the brim with macadamia nuts leading to great bowel transitions, we head back to the Italian place for a bit of starch!!
Up early on Thursday for the Gourmet (Pete O'Donaghue - Australian friend of Jamie Olivers) breakfast. Of course it was all macadamia based.

The first course was salmon, so I decided to opt out - after all I wasn't exactly fading away.

The brown creamy stuff is fermented garlic aioli which lead to many a case of bad breath that day!

The Mango Kulfi with Macadamia cream was more to my taste. We sat with Pam and Fredrick Lips who were interesting company - about the same size as us but quite a few more years down the track, and looking to expand more.

Some good tree talks on tree architecture and physiology, and a talk from a guy which had gone from marketing macadamias to setting up an orchard. As the sugar price slumps in Queensland much of the land is being turned into nut farms.
After quite a long lunch - more macadamia goodies - I watched the 3 minute presentations by the PhD students. Of 10 students, 8 were foreign. Many to do with marking and manipulating genome material to increase yield or to shorten time to maturity.
The final social event was the Bond night.