Australia - East Coast - Brisbane and The Gold Coast (Surfers Paradise)

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Hello all,

As promised, here is my essay about Brisbane and The Gold Coast! Again Gillies/Coles family - you may want to pay particular attention to this for Hannah and Anthony details!

RAINBOW BEACH to BRISBANE
Sunday 18th April
We got up just in time for breakfast (it was free) and then got ready for our 10am bus to Brisbane. I was VERY excited about getting to Brisbane as I would see Hannah and Anthony again. The bus journey was quite nice; we went through Noosa and were hoping to see Alex (from our Kiwi Experience bus) but missed him. I'd been Facebook chatting to him at the service station we stopped at 10 minutes before we got to Noosa, jokingly suggested he went to the bus stop to wave at us, without realising that 10 minutes later we would actually go through Noosa. Anyway, we arrived in Brisbane at 3pm (after watching most of the Bourne Ultimatum, I say most because we got to Brisbane literally 5 minutes before the end, luckily Caryl & I had both seen it before) and were picked up by Hannah and Katie. It was so GREAT to see them. They took us back to Hannah and Anthony's house and we chilled out for a bit before driving out to Kangaroo Point (on the Brisbane River with a view of the city) for a proper Aussie BBQ. It was so cool; they actually have big table type things with gas BBQs in them. You can just rock up and use it, don't even have to pay for the gas. It was such a great view of the city, and there was only a bit of rain (we were a bit worried as there had been loads of showers the hour before we left). Hannah and I had veggie stuff, which was REALLY nice. A group of Buddhist Monks from Thailand wandered past and stopped to talk to us which was really interesting. There were fire dancers practicing down next to the river below and fireflies flying above (have never seen them before). We got back in time to watch 'Underbelly', which is a series based on the underworld in Melbourne. It's based on real events. Was REALLY good, was interesting to see lots of actors from Home & Away and the Flying Doctors in there! Hannah and I then Skyped Drew and Fra which was really cool as Hannah had not done that before. Then we had a REALLY nice sleep, Hannah & Anthony's sofa is so comfy!

BRISBANE
Monday 19th April
We woke up quite late. Hannah wasn't working today so was due to take us out for the day; she gave us a choice of what to do (there were too many options!) and then went to the gym. When she got back we got ready and decided on going to Tamborine Mountain for the day, which is about 45 minutes from Brisbane (closer to the Gold Coast really). It's not somewhere we would have thought about or had the opportunity to go to had we been sticking to backpacker stuff, so we decided to try it. The drive there was nice, along the highway, and then we started up the mountain. It had amazing views, we could see out to the Gold Coast although it was hard to get a clear view due to the very high trees all over the place. The views of the Gold Coast were just breathtaking. Although there are a lot of high rise buildings it was still stunning. There are some amazing houses up Tamborine Mountain, must be an expensive place to live. They are HUGE, millionaire mansions! It was so lovely and quaint up there. We stopped at a little street where there were loads of coffee and chocolate and fudge and soap (!) stores. We stopped off at the fudge place and couldn't resist buying some. It was 3 blocks for $12 so we all chose one: Caryl went for Cookies & Cream (predictable!); I went for Bailey's Chocolate and Hannah the Cowboy (tasted just like the shot). We then took our fudge to the next door coffee house and enjoyed it with a Flat White. We had attack of the caterpillars whilst we were sat there. They were a bit dodgy looking but as soon as we'd named them Gavin and Dave they didn't seem too bad. We then went on for some wine tasting, it was 7 wines for $3 so a bargain, very chic! And then onto Curtis Falls which was in the rainforest but really nice and refreshing. The journey back to Brisbane was interesting; none of us (Hannah included) knew where we were. We went through a place called Loganlea where the houses were again HUGE but had a random assortment of things in the garden. I also saw something quite interesting, a T2 lane. I thought initially it was a Toll road, like the M6 Toll but then Hannah explained that it could only be used by a car that had more 2 people in, to encourage car sharing. I thought it was a brilliant idea. If you want to use the M6 Toll you just pay for it, and I'm not sure it really reduces traffic. I think the T2 (or T3 where you need 3 people in the car to use it) idea works really well. It actually encourages car sharing and therefore actually reduces the number of cars on the road. Anyway, we got back to Hannah's and Hannah and Anthony went out to a comedy show. Caryl and I had been planning on going out but decided to stay in, where we had an enjoyable evening watching Australia's Got Talent. It was sooooo funny! (Dannii Minogue is a judge) until the neighbours upstairs started screaming. We didn't know what to do, wasn't sure if it was serious (for those of you that spent time in my flat in Witney, or heard about my experiences there with the upstairs neighbours, it was JUST like that). Luckily for us we didn't call the Police; Ants said it always happens when he got home.

Tuesday 20th April
Today was AUSTRALIA ZOO (Steve Irwin's Zoo!). We had an excitable journey there (didn't think Caz aka Dr Doolittle would be able to contain herself!!) and then arrived to be greeted by Anthony the Cockatoo, who told us to have a lovely day. And it was a lovely day; we saw so many amazing animals. One of the first was a Komodo Dragon, which was BIG. Although, I actually didn't spot it at first. It's so big and well camouflaged it just blends in! We were a bit worried about the Alligators, as one didn't move, looked dead to be honest. Then we went Elephant feeding, which was so nice. I was a bit scared as have a thing about feeling animals but the elephants were so gentle. It felt weird when the end of their trunk touched your hand though, really rough. I felt bad as I dropped a bit of fruit; the elephant soon got it though. About the time that was happening it started TIPPING with rain and we had to purchase Australia Zoo ponchos.......we looked a treat. We moved onto the Koalas, the first time I'd seen a Koala. They are sooooo cute, they just cuddle up to the trees, bless them. I was a bit worried about how they stayed in there (thought it was a suspect practice that might be cruel) but later found out that as the edge of the enclosure is tin so they can't climb up. We then when to the 'Crocoseum' for a half hour showcase of Elephants, snakes, tropical birds (they were flying about all over the place, Han had been there before and made sure we were sat in the right place, they landed right in front of us!). They were beautiful colours and the Australian native parrots were really big. When they flew over they seemed to get a bit close. There was also a big heron type bird that they had to release from the car park so it could fly in. Then they let a crocodile into the swimming pool and showed us how to keep ourselves safe from attack. The whole show was quite informative really. After that we continued our way through the park going through 'Roo Heaven' where you could feed the Kangaroos and Wallabies. Caryl got some feed (I didn't, think I'm still traumatized from the time when Trout - the horse at the bottom of the garden - nearly bit off Maff's finger, therefore I don't like feeding random animals) and as soon as they saw the bag of feed they were onto us. It was fun. They (affectionately named by Caryl & Hannah - Barry and Garry) ate out of Caryl & Hannah's hand. I stroked them, they were soft and rough at the same time. We then moved on to have a look at the 'Wetlands', where all the birds that live in the wetlands were. Then walked past the Pony Rides, Caryl was a bit upset she was too tall to have a go, then onto the Koala enclosure. You could walk through and stroke the Koalas (there were 3 on stroking; they took it in turns to be stroked and rest). They were adorable although you have to remember that they can be really dangerous if upset. They were softer to touch than the Kangaroos but only just. And they had the most interesting faces, very old looking.
After that we had a nice lunch of peanut butter & jam and vegemite sandwiches, salt and vinegar crisps, Lucozade for me and Smarties! It was really nice, have now got a thing for peanut butter & jam sandwiches. We then took a ride in the shuttle where the driver might have thought we were a little crazy (girls, that will stay between us...!), seeing a Cheetah being taken for a walk as we shuttled along (!) and ending up at the Tiger show. That was impressive. The Tigers were huge (everything in Australia is huge) although apparently not fully grown and so well trained. The handlers were in the enclosure with them (noticed the difference with New Zealand, it's banned there now) and they put them through their paces. They were awesome, so powerful. We asked at the end how come they could go inside and handle them, it’s simply because they've been handled since they were cubs. We asked some questions about the Zion Wildlife Park, they we'd been to in New Zealand, and learned a bit more about it. We then went to see the Birds of Prey display, that was great, I'd been looking forward to it and was so excited to see an Andean Condor (I've seen them in the wild at the Colca Canyon in Peru). They are huge, in the setting of the show it really showed how huge they are (they fitted in with the scenery more in the wild). We then went to do more Kangaroo feeding, where Hannah and Caryl ended up with messy feet (bit suspect what they were messed with!) even though I took the shortcut. It was really nice in Roo Heaven, gave me a nice warm feeling, it was very peaceful. We moved on through the park and ended up at the Tasmanian Devil which was CRAZY! It was running around like mad, wouldn't stand still for a photo (and just as I was about to get one my camera died!). It was such a great day.
On the way home we stopped at 'All About Fruit' (Anthony's fruit shop) and Caryl was as impressed as I was the first time I went. The fruit and veg is just so nice, puts you off getting fruit and veg anywhere else. I tried a cherry vine tomato and it was amazing, I could not get over how nice it was. On the way home we had a car accident though, someone who told us they were “sorry, but not looking" hit us hard from behind whilst we were sat at traffic lights. We were OK, which was lucky as they did hit us really hard, just a bit sore initially. The car was a bit screwed up at the back. So we went home, I made us all a cup of tea with sugar and ate a lovely Carbonara that we all helped with and chilled out.

Wednesday 21st April
We slept in and then went to the doctors. I needed a prescription for my asthma medicine (Mum & Dad kindly sent it from the UK but think it must have got caught up in the flight chaos) and Caryl needed her back checked out as it was really sore after the accident. I was quite pleased with the visit, ended up with my favourite medicine (that they've stopped given me in the UK because it's too expensive) and a supply of Diazepam tablets (for my fear of flying, have lost the 6 I came with). I couldn't believe they gave me 50 Diazepam tablets in 1 go!!!! In the UK you struggle to get a couple! We wandered back through Greenslopes on the way home and as we were wearing our Australia Zoo ponchos we attracted some attention so had a few chats on the way along. As it was raining, we called in Baskin Robbins and couldn't resist a Vertical Sundae! Then when we got back we spent the afternoon watching the first serious of Underbelly, we are hooked. It's based on a gangster called Carl Williams, who is all over the news in Australia at present as he was killed on Monday in prison. There are so many ex Home & Away and Neighbours actors in it, bit odd to see Harold Bishops sun playing a gangster!!!! When Hannah and Katie got home they cooked us homemade Pizza which was delicious (sorry Drew, think you've got competition in the family when it comes to the best homemade pizzas!) and we got ready to go out. Hannah, Katie, Caryl and I went into the City for a few drinks. We started off at the DownUnder bar which is a backpacker bar. Caryl & I had wanted to avoid them but in the end decided it would be good to show Hannah & Katie what they have been missing, and what we've had to put up with! We then went onto the Valley to RGs, which had Karaoke on. We all got up to sing (if you can call it that in mine & Caryl's case!) Bohemian Rhapsody which went down well. We then went home, played the gargle game which I'm also rubbish at and went to sleep.

GOLD COAST
Thursday 22nd April
We got up and got ready to leave Brisbane and Hannah & Anthony's for our trip to the Gold Coast. I was sad to be leaving, but will be back in a month or so. The bus ride from Greenslopes to the City was interesting, it was a busy bus and we had all our stuff, again we attracted some attention, all we needed were our ponchos to finish it off! It was a bit of a nightmare really as there was no space to put our stuff and people seemed to want to stand next to us in the aisle which meant that when someone needed to get on or off of the bus it was a very tight squeeze. Although I hadn't hurt myself that much in the accident I ended up hurting the one bit of me that I had hurt even more on that bus trip, have still not recovered. We then had a bit of a trek to the Greyhound Bus Station during which I was attacked by a bug that would not get off me and then my bag. Some poor young lad who happened to be walking past had to help me sort it out. We had a 1 1/2 hour bus trip to Surfers Paradise. We dumped our bags and went in search of a Macdonalds (the first we'd had in Australia so didn't feel too bad). We spent a lovely afternoon walking along the beach which is beautiful, what I would expect a big Aussie beach to look like. It's probably the longest beach I've seen, the sand was so soft (seemed like walking on fine sugar) and there was constant surf (can see why it's called Surfers Paradise) and there were proper lifeguards although there was not much swimming space (20 metre wide safe spots, because of the rip tides). We then went up the Q1 Tower which gave amazing views of the Gold Coast out to Byron Bay. We could have stayed up there for ages, just staring out at the Ocean. We could see this funny cloud that blended into the Ocean a far way out that seemed to be moving closer, we thought it was rain and waited for it to hit but it never came luckily. We then wandered through the shops (I bought a hoody, as I'd lost my nice pink one, and also my favourite blue cardi, all in the space of a week) and stopped for a coffee. Caz then went back to the hostel and I went to meet a family friend from home: Kerry and her husband Paul and their children Chloe and Alfie. I recognised Kerry straight away even though I haven't seen her for years and years (she hasn't aged a bit!) and we went to a Surf Club which was really cool. It was very smart, had to be signed in and everything. It was right by the sea and although it was dark it was nice, you could see the waves crashing. I had a really nice couple of hours, a nice chat with Kerry, Paul was great and gave me loads of tips on where to go in Surfers for a night out and the children are adorable, so so cute and so nicely behaved although they were a bit excitable. I hope I get to meet up with them again before I leave Australia. They dropped me back at the hostel and Caz and I got ready for our night out. We went with the hostel to Clouds & Dreams (free entry) and had a laugh. The barman was interesting, she had this whole finger point thing going on, she didn't speak to you, just pointed at you and pouted when she wanted you to tell her what you wanted (Bear, you would have loved her), Caz can do a great impression. She was pretty scary but when it was a bit quieter and we went back she actually remembered what I was drinking and smiled which made her less scary. We had a dance which was a bit hard for me as my hips got the most damage in the car accident and the music wasn't doing it for me so I had little motivation. We were in at 1am.

Friday 23rd April
After checking out of the hostel we had a cheap but very nice breakfast and headed to the beach. Kerry had offered us free tickets to SeaWorld or MovieWorld (two of the Gold Coast theme parks) which was very kind but as we had to be back at hostel by 3pm to get ready for our bus to Sydney we didn't have time to go. The beach was really nice, luckily the sun was out, and we just spent the day chilling out - reading and sleeping. We had a little paddle in the sea but didn't go in too far; it was warm but I was scared of sharks and also the lifeguards, who seemed to shout at people a lot for doing the wrong thing. We then back to the hostel, attempted to get the sand off us (we were literally covered, a day later I'm still finding it) and then got to the bus station for our bus to Sydney. We were looking forward to the 16 hour ride..........not! The bus was late, we eventually headed off at about 6pm (was supposed to be 5.30pm) and the bus started off nice and quiet. But, at Byron Bay (which looks very nice, hopefully will go back there before I leave) it completely filled up. Caryl and I had to sit next to each other; not that we didn't want to but it makes it so hard to sleep, much better if you have two seats. It was a really horrible journey. There were a lot of people talking loudly, the person behind me kept kneeing me in the back which I could deal with, felt sorry for him as he was tall, but couldn't deal with him keep pulling me hair, which he did every time he moved. I don't know what he was doing, but he got several glares during the night that seemed to make no difference. I didn't get much sleep, kept getting cramp in my back (never had that before, in the same place as my pains from the accident) and then it got worse when at 1am the road was closed due to an accident. We were told we were likely to be there for 4 hours. I tried to stay calm, at least we were not in the accident and it really didn't sound good for the poor person who was, but it was horrible Horrible HORRIBLE being trapped in that bus with 50 odd people for hours. I made friends with the bus driver who kept me posted. In the end we started moving after 2 hours. Caz slept through the whole thing. I did manage some sleep but tried to stay awake for my first glimpse of Sydney.

So, we're now in Sydney which is pretty cool. I'm very excited to see it, will tell you all about it next time. It's going to be a sad one too as Caryl leaves me for good in 3 days!!!! I'll then be on my own.

You all take care. Lots of love. Rachel Xx

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