On Friday night, after the Year 12 Formal, 55 Year 12 Graduates and eight staff members took off on what would truly be a mystery overnight bus tour! Despite our best-laid plans, the ending of the trip became a mystery, even to the teachers and staff!
We started late with a different bus than what was originally booked. This got us to Game Over in Helensvale where we smashed top speeds in indoor go-karting and took shots in the dark playing laser tag. We then piled back onto the bus and ended up at Strike in Wintergarden, where pizza was plentiful and there were games aplenty.
By this stage, some students (and staff) wanted a nap, but there was bowling, putt-putt golf and karaoke calling our names. After leaving Strike, the mystery bus tour took a truly mysterious turn. For starters, the air conditioning on the bus had stopped working. So you can imagine the atmosphere. And then alarms began beeping and blaring.
We took off with high hopes to hit Mt Coot-Tha just after sunrise, but alas, it was not meant to be. The alarms on the bus went round and round, but the wheels did not. We pulled over, not once, but twice on the side of busy Brisbane streets, to eventually discover this bus wasn’t going anywhere fast (or slow). We piled the sleepy students off to a grassy patch on the side of the road, Mr Jared Bullock pulled some heroics and got all the gear out from under the bus while Mr Neil Capps and Mr Rob Maguire desperately tried to warn oncoming traffic of the broken-down bus. After some time waiting on the side of the road, another bus was called, and we were saved!
We made it back to GCC around 8:00am safely, albeit more tired than ever thought possible. The graduate students were an absolute treasure to have on the trip, and we really will miss them as they head off on their next big Mystery Adventure.
As always, there were many incredible sponsors that helped make the trip what it was by providing students with incredible prizes, as well as the illustrious Mr Russell Modlin who coordinated and provided the resources needed to survive such a trip as this.
We are so grateful to our God for keeping us safe despite all the unexpected twists and turns. Bring on the Mystery Bus Tour 2022!
We would like to acknowledge and thank Andrew Powell (local member of Glasshouse), Colleen Crase (Secondary teacher), along with the Chidgey and Bland families for their donation of gifts for the tour. We also thank the following businesses for their donations of prizes, gift cards and vouchers:
Beerwah Newsagency
Coochin Creek Co-op
CompNow
Beerwah Amcal Chemist
Subway Beerwah
Bargain Max Beerwah
Banjo’s Bakery Beerwah
Coffee Club Beerwah
Beerwah Flowers and gifts
Kmart Beerwah
Woolworths Beerwah
Bli Bli Water Park
Sun City Alexandra Headland
Skateaway Rollerdome Caloundra
Milano Gelateria
Lazerzone Warana
Andrew Powell MP
Optus, Sugar Road Maroochydore
