Brisbane

5th & 6th March 2010 Friday was another day of jobs, an hour in the Post Office filling in customs forms for our stuff we were sending home, shopping for a mozzie net, then packing ready to leave the next morning. The following morning we were off to Brisbane. After managing to get completely lost and going all the way into the city then back out over the Story Bridge we eventually arrived at Nathan and Anna’s in Cooperoo. The weather was pretty awful by now, with even more rain so we spent the afternoon chilling before enjoying a wonderful evening with the now famous Morris pizzas - yum yum. ...

7th March 2010 We were lucky enough not to be awoken by the six o’clock Sofia alarm this morning, unlike Anna and Nathan, but once we were all up we decided to drive up to Noosa. Noosa is a small town located about 75 miles) north of Brisbane on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. The town and surrounding area is popular with holidaymakers who visit for its sophisticated cafes, bars and restaurants, beaches and national parks. Unlike the Gold Coast, Noosa doesn’t have shedloads of high-rises and has protected its natural environment avoiding over-development by creating significant areas of national park. ...

26th & 27th February 2010 Friday was spent just relaxing, watching TV, doing our washing in a proper front loading washing machine (which seem to be rather rare here) and checking out the shopping mall (very nice!). It was so nice to be in a home chilling rather than a hostel that we took full advantage and were very spoilt with superb barramundi for tea and quite a bit of wine. ...

1st & 2nd March 2010 Monday morning’s weather report said that Queensland has had the wettest summer on record, hmmm, perhaps it’s something to do with Welsh visitors bringing their rain :D. Tina very kindly dropped us into Brisbane to collect a hire car to go out to the coast where we’ll be staying with Aunty Mary for a few days before flying out to Singapore. Back out at the Gold Coast, Ed couldn’t wait to re-aquaint himself with the pool, even though it was starting to overflow with all the rain, which was still falling. I jumped in, but it was much too cold for anything but the quickest of dips! ...

24th February 2010 We had always planned to do at least part of the train journey between Cairns and Brisbane and had booked this thinking we were on the famous Sunlander train. However, when we arrived at the station today it turns out we are on something called the Tilt Train. None of the lovely lounges and bars that feature on the Sunlander which was something I was particularly looking forward to. ...

15th January 2010 Today we decided to buy a day ticket on the Brisbane transport network which would allow us unlimited travel on all the cities ferries, trains and buses. When we arrived in the city, we started our exploration by jumping on one of the CityCats. The CityCat service runs along the Brisbane River between Apollo Road in the suburb of Bulimba in the east and the University of Queensland at St Lucia, via South Bank and the Brisbane CBD. This is a pleasant way to travel past such Brisbane icons as the Story Bridge and South Bank Parklands and would give us a good opportunity to see a good portion of the city. ...

16th January 2010 The weekend’s here which means we get some time to spend with Anna, Nathan and Sofia. This morning we headed into Brisbane on the bus to explore the Modern Art Gallery on Southbank. An excellent gallery in a wonderfully designed, airy, modern building incorporating plenty of windows looking out over the Brisbane river and the gardens along Southbank. This is the largest gallery of modern and contemporary art in Australia and currently showing the 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art. ...