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Published: March 6th 2007
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Maureen eats melon
just summed up the summery feeling at our campsite in Brisbane. Notice the 'Frank Butcher' feel to Carlas latest pair of Sunnies....PPAAATT!! Maybe it's because we haven't seen a 'city' since we arrived in Australia and Perth over 6 weeks ago (and when I say 'city' I mean in the European sense ie - buildings over 3 stories high and a mix of influences - not the 'small town America' feel that Cairns and other so-called cities in Northern Queensland have). But arriving in Brisbane was a well needed shock to the system.
Arrival at the closest campsite to the city (4km) was as typical as ever, especially when I booked us in and the headmistress of a campsite manager told me off for not having neat enough handwriting or knowing exactly how long Martha's electrical connecting cable is "I think it's about 3m and is orange if that helps??...."
An early night off the grog, during which Carla got up to her old tricks and woke me up to tell me the van was full of peanuts!? and we rose clear headed (unusual) and early (usual) to catch the number 345 bus into central Brisbane.
We had noticed a slightly more European feel to Southern Queensland, especially since Rainbow Beach and Noosa, (our last two stops) and Brisbane
A Brissie modern art gallery
Notice Carlas freshly coiffured hair do. continued that feeling and really impressed us both with its diversity and generally relaxed yet busy streets.
A Lonely Planet walking tour took us nearly 9 hours with stops, and even in flip flops (although I reckon I could climb Ben Nevis in these things now!) it was a really interesting day away from the nature and beaches that have been the main attractions since we left Perth. There's a decent bit of history to the place but the modern improvements blend in well and the large University gives it that arty student feel that we both really like, whilst a meandering river, bridges and recently developed 'Southbank' give it the feeling of a bitesize London, except for the palm trees and blue skies - there's even a good sprinkling of buskers, winos and hobos (a city ain't worth it's status without them).
Carla's hair hasn't seen a pair of scissors for 8 months so an advert for 6 quid haircuts at Brisbane's School of Hairdressing catches her eye and a recently arrived Chinese guy named Jack gets a chance to practice on her split ends. 1 haircut, 3 modern art galleries (all free entry) and 6km later
Brisbane by moonlight
The first cityscape of the trip south from Cairns we finished our city tour and found a pub that serves pints (Aussies have invented a size of beer inbetween a half and a pint called a Schooner...WHY???) and I had my first Kronenbourg for 6 months! quickly followed by another whilst Carla continued to indulge in her favourite tipple of Victoria Bitter (basically the equivalent of Tennants - which sort of makes me quite proud!)
A relaxing day followed and our final night in Brisbane was spent exploring the dissappointing Fortitude Valley and Chinatown areas before heading back to the Riverside for a rare meal out and a few bevvies before back to base and a planned early start for the short trip down to the Gold Coast the following morning.
Please remain seated or you may die!
The Gold Coast is the small stretch of coastline South of Brisbane before Queensland (our home since collecting Martha) becomes New South Wales. We had been told by all the Aussies we met to drive straight past - without stopping! But with a week before 'Goodbye Martha' day and only one more planned stop before Sydney in Byron Bay, we decide to indulge in a couple of theme
Maybe 'Paradise' is a bit strong
The campest, tackiest and highest of the East Coasts beach resorts. parks and make our own minds up about Surfers Paradise and the Gold Coast.
We spent a day at Dreamworld, which is sort of like Blackpool Pleasure Beach but with a paint job, and has quite possibly the worst haunted house you will ever see! But although a ride called the Claw made us both nearly vomit, we enjoyed getting shot to a 100mph in something like 5 seconds on the 'Tower of Terror' and being dropped 39 storys and experiencing G force 5 on the 'Giant Drop', but by mid afternoon we had had enough and headed towards the high rises of Surfers Paradise.
Surfers is the beach resort that has seen the most development along the whole East Coast and the American feel returns with a Hard Rock Cafe and badly designed skyscrapers that leave the famous beach in the shade for most parts of the day. I had expected a place that smelt of money, full of good looking people with lap dogs but what we found was an over the top, slightly camp and tacky place with an equal amount of designer boutiques and bargain basement souvenier style shops and with more Irish bars
The funnel one
I think it was called the Tornado, but it was easily the best ride at the Gold Coasts Wet n Wild than Dublin itself.
The following day made the Gold Coast stop off worth while with a day spent at Wet 'n' Wild (water theme parks get me so excited that I had trouble sleeping the night before). The sun shined all day and we went on everything at least once and our three favourites (the big funnel one, the corkscrew one and the vertical drop one) at least 3 or 4 times and even start challenging little kids to races on the tandom rides and whooping and punching the air after we easily beat them at the bottom.
We stayed until 5pm and left with big smiles and sore shoulder blades and decided to spend one more night in Surfers so we could meet up with Matt and Dawn who we haven't seen since Cairns (after initially bumping into them in Thailand). Initial plans to head into town were scuppered and we just spent the evening drinking and chatting outside Martha until the dizzy hour of 1.15am (officially the latest night since we all left Cairns) before heading our separate ways the following morning and onto New South Wales and what I hope will be one of our
Reflections of our favourite Aussie city (so far)
a great place to explore when you only have 2 days to spare favourite stops of the Aussie trip so far Byron Bay!!
Peace
MandCandM
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Tasha
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koko koala
I was wondering if it would be possible to bring me a koala bear home, as you know I love animals and I think I could give one a really good home, I would call him koko and take im everywhere with me, as they sleep so much I would push him in a pram. Love y'all Tasha