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Published: January 10th 2007
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Finally in Australia!! Arrived in Brisbane airport at 7am on Thursday morning after 30 long hours on planes & in airports.....so glad I don't need to go near another airport for a few weeks, definitely not missing plane food.
Managed to get to my hotel in one piece before 9am - not sure how as was completely shattered. Check in wasn't supposed to be until 12 but think the guy at the desk took pity on me as I looked so attractive after all that travelling & had a big backpack on so he let me check in straight away!
Was planning to have a wander around Brisbane but fell asleep in my room & when I woke up it was dark.....so had a great first day in Oz, beautiful country so far!
Friday:-
Actually left the hotel today & saw some of Brisbane! It's a lovely city, a lot of the buildings are pretty new as the Brisbane River that runs through the city used to flood. Can't belive I'm actually in Australia!
Walked along the edge of the river & ended up in the Botanic Gardens which were small (no where near the size of
Edinburgh's) but lovely, lots of palm trees & Mangroves down by the river edge. Best bit was the lagoon shaped lily pond as there were loads of birds, lizards & turtles (got quite excited when I saw my first big lizard & turtle!). One of the birds kept squealing at me as I tried to walk past it & I thought it must not like Fife girls (wouldn't be the first time!) but turned out it had lots of fluffy baby birds nearby & was just trying to protect them so I guess all is forgiven!
Got caught in a 2minute hot downpour when I was in the gardens...got absolutely soaked but dried off in minutes, bit different from Scottish rain!
My dad & his wife Wendy arrived from New Zealand on friday night so we went out for tea in Chinatown which was really nice, sat outside as well as it was a nice warm night.....bit strange at the beginning of January since I've just come from storms & winds strong enough to cancel the Hogmanay Street Party in Edinburgh.
On saturday we all got up early to get a taxi out to meet my brother
& his girlfriend out at her parents house just outside the city (I actually have been waking up at 4, or 5 in the morning everyday...hate jetlag....as you all know I'm not exactly a morning person!). Gavin's been over here since just after Christmas & Niome's been here since the beginning of December so she's got a great tan already, makes me look even whiter than I am.
We all drove down to Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast to go to the beach but just as we got there it started absolutely pouring down with rain, typical, so we went shopping first (I wasn't complaining!). Once the sun had come out I got my first trip to the beach in Oz - love it, the waves were amazing, got knocked over at least 3 times! Lots of tiny blue jellyfish on the beach called bluebottles though that sting you, like everything else in Australia! The lifeguards looked like something out of Baywatch, we kept expecting them to start running in slow motion along the beach but never happened!
Left the beach before it got too hot, my white scottish skin would just have fried I think, and
Lily pond lagoon in the gardens
The daddy bird of these baby birds was going nuts at me when I unknowingly got too close to them! headed back to Brisbane to Niome's parents house. We then went out to Kangaroo Point in Brisbane which has red cliffs where we had our first Aussie BBQ outside with the Brisbane River on one side & the cliffs on the other....can't complain! You can actually rock climb up the cliffs, Gavin & Niome managed it up to the top & my dad tried after a couple of bottles of Niome's dad's homebrew(!) but none of the shoes fit him so he did it bare fotr (great idea1) & stubbed his toe after a few metres up & had to come down!
Been staying at Niome's parents house just outside Brisbane for the last couple of days, it's great they've got a pool in their back garden & the trees are full of parrots every morning. I've tried to take photos of them but they're pretty small & never stay still for more than a second!
Off to Bundaberg tomorrow to see turtles nesting on the beach at night & then to the Barrier Reef & Fraser Island....can't wait!
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Lauren
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Hiya Cara!
Hope you are having a fabby time. Work sucks so I am not jealous at all! Ha!