New Zealand last day, Australia Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise, Brisbane

---

The alarm went off way too early, I don’t know if it was the time or that I wasn’t ready to leave yet that made it so hard to get up at 3:30. I showered, called a taxi and made my flight without incident. I tell you what, the most irritating thing about traveling over here is the seven kilo weight limit for carry-ons. I never check a bag, never; I fly all over the world and I only carry on. Here though they weighed my bag and I had to check it. Such a stupid rule. Anyway, I am over it… kind of.



Sophie picked me up after the five hour flight back to Brisbane and we took off direct to the Gold Coast. We parked at Broad beach, changed and hit the beach. I relaxed in the sun, it was a beautiful day out so there were quite a few beach goers. We took a walk down the beach and ran into one of her girlfriends that she didn’t know was going to be there. She let out one of those girl squeals and then ran up and hugged her. I sat awkwardly listening to them for a bit until her boyfriend introduced himself. They chatted for a bit and then walked on their way. Sophie and I made our way back up the beach, eventually ending up at our stuff where we sat for a bit and soaked up some sun. It was getting to be about lunch time so we decided to drive up to Surfers Paradise and have some fish and chips. Actually we drove up to Surfers Paradise and walked around for about thirty minutes debating on what we wanted. Sophie decided she wasn’t hungry so I settled on fish and chips, we got it to go and ate on bench by the beach. Sophie’s Dad was flying in that day from his honeymoon and she intended to meet him at the airport back in Brisbane. Sophie dropped me off at my hotel and went on her way.



There was some sort of festival going on in Brisbane down on South Bank. A light show was supposed to go on at dark, so I shopped around for a bit after cleaning up after the beach until it started to get dark out. My hotel was located right there on Queens street so the walk down was even easier than the last hotel. Brisbane looked beautiful, there were hundreds of Chinese lanterns strung over the park, and purple Christmas lights in the trees. A band played in some fenced off section that I thought was more exclusive than I was looking for. It was about 6:00 when I got down there and I walked around people watching and snapping a few pictures that will end up making it on here or to my Facebook page. The light show started at 7:00, I made a photographer friend who came up and talked to me while we waited. It was nice to have someone to talk to before and during the show.



The light show was incredible. There was a boat in the middle of the river with lights that moved to the music, as the show progressed lasers from the top of three of the buildings in the city joined in, they shown off water that was spouted from the boat as part of the show. It went on for a good thirty minutes, I was so into taking pictures that I had to stop and remind myself just to enjoy it. After the show I walked around for a bit longer, the only thing I had to do was find dinner. So I walked back into the city and found a Thai place that looked good. By the time I finished eating it was close to 9:00, I decided to call it a night, I was still on New Zealand time. Once back in the room I packed up my things for the last time before making the long trip home, settled into bed, read for as long as I could keep my eyes open and fell asleep for the last night of my trip in Australia.



Sophie picked me up in the morning at my hotel and drove me to the airport, she parked and came inside with me. The line to check-in was already stupid long so we quick grabbed a bite to eat. I was still on vacation so I felt like garbage and made Sophie eat her first donut. With breakfast out of the way it was time for the inevitable; I said thank you and goodbye to Sophie and went and stood in line for my flight home. After making my way through security I shopped around finding a few little things to spend my remaining dollars on. It was 11:15 am on Monday morning when the plane left Brisbane. It was 7:15 am Monday morning when I landed in LA. My Monday lasted 39 hours. That is a long day.



I need sometime to put together my trip reflection thoughts. I am back on a plane tomorrow… off to meetings again. Right back to it. I should have some time then to put my thoughts down.

---