Surfers beach

Wednesday today. They are predicting a 50 percent chance of showers but, they have had the same general prediction for days with little or no rain so we are heading to the beach and hoping for the best. The high will be around 30 C regardless so who cares. I ran into a lady in the morning while i was getting coffee she is glad the temperatures have dropped of today and she was looking forward to the nice cool day!

Andrew picked us up just before 09:00 and we drove down to Surfers Paradise, on The Gold Coast, just north of Coolangatta. We parked in an underground lot about 100 meters from the beach. The whole area Is extremely commercial high rises shops bars etc. all sorts of locals and tourists strolling around in beach wear. We pick a spot on the beach and Diane settles in to do some people watching while Andrew and I take the Boogie boards out into the surf. MAN Is This Fun!! We spend an hour and a half in the water before coming out to have something to drink and put on more sun screen. Then back into the water for another hour before heading off the beach to get a beer and have some natchos. Di decides to do a little shopping and we agree to meet her around 3:45 then Andrew and I head back into the surf for more boogie boarding.

We head back to Brissie to barbeque some steaks at Andrew and Jadines place. Despite several applications of sun block It looks like I may have gotten too much sun today. I will know better in a day or two if I am going to lose a layer of flesh!! I am getting a personal demonstration of the ozone hole down here.

 

Posted with Blogsy

MT. TAMBOURINE

It's Tuesday morning and, despite all of the expectations of sunny hot weather, it looks like rain again today. So, instead of going to Bondi beach we alter our plans and head for Mount Tambourine about 40 km south east of Brisbane. Jadine had to work today so it is just the three of us.

Mt. Tambourine is a touristy area with shops and tea houses, craft shops high in the hills surrounded by rain forest. We hiked a jungle trail off the Knoll and found monitor lizards, skinks, lizards, bush turkeys, tree snakes, a terrestrial leaches (which I plucked off of my foot!) and other cool stuff.

The whole hike was around 3km but we were hotand ready for a drink. We then drove over to Cedar Creek Estates for some wine tasting. Our last stop before heading back to Brisbane was the Eagle Heights Resort for beer. The resort is situated on top of the mountain, facing east overlooking Bondi Beach and the coast. Wow, what a beautiful view!

Back at Brisbane we pick up Jadine and go for Mexican food at Montezumas, right across the street from Andrew's place. Andrew deopped us off back at the hotel around 9:30.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Brisbane Downtown

Today, Tuesday Feb 24, was our tour of the downtown area. We drove down and parked at the Holman street ferry terminal near Story bridge east of the CBD (Central Business District). There is a free ferry service up and down the Brisbane river through the heart of the city. We cruised up to the south bank, across from city center and disembarked to stroll the park area.

Brisbane was founded in 1823 as the place to ship the "worst type of felons"! Seems like an appropriate place to send one of our sons to University.

 

There is no swimming in the river due to the sharks. However, there is a nice artificial beach just off the river on the south bank. Lots of bars and shops and a beautiful stoll through the park and gardens along the river. We stopped for beer and wings for lunch. Temperature around 30C and partly cloudy with very high humidity, I love this!!We got back to the hotel around dusk and had a light snack and drinks while we caught small lizards around the outdoor lights and looked for flying foxes (large fruit bats) through the trees!

 

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Untitled

Ok, first full day in Australia and the kids have got us scheduled for stuff. The day dawned clear and sunny with a high of 31 predicted. Di and I walked over to Andrew and Jadine's place, about 4km. We head over to the Sunday market to pick up some fruit and have some breakfast. After breakfast we head north to the Steve Erwin Zoo, supposedly the best zoo in the country. The weather stayed nice as we did our walk around. We missed the cyclone that hit north of us. Lots of Crocs to see along with kangaroos, wallabies, echidnas, koalas and every other type of indigenous wildlife to be found on this continent. Andrew got some cool video of the tortoises! A very cool day all in all! The rain held off until we finished our tour then it poured on the drive home.

This hot humid weather is great for me although Diane finds it a little too hot for her liking.

After the zoo we headed back into Brissie for supper at a great burger place in the mall. After dinner we went back to the hotel for a drink before the kids head home around 9:00pm.

We are still trying to get used to the right hand drive. It freaks me out at a lot of the intersections, especially when Andrew makes an unexpected U-turn. U-turns are acceptable basically anywhere in Austrailia!

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Arrival in Australia

 

We have arrived in Australia! The flight was long but, no problem. There were plenty of movies to watch and they served us lots of food and wine, no complaints and a great way to start a vacation.

It was pouring rain when we arrived. Part of a cyclone that was just petering out as we arrived. Andrew met us at the airport and we took care of the phone card before heading back to his place to meet up with Jadine.

Got a tour around the University area, lunch at the mall and a couple of drinks back at the hotel. We are hoping for some drier weather tomorrow cause, man it sure can rain down here!

View of pool from Andrews balcony

 

Posted with Blogsy

set to go

It's just past noon on Thursday the 19th of February. We are all packed and ready to go. Harold will be picking us up around 3:30 this afternoon. We want to be at the airport in plenty of time to catch the flight. Missing the flight would be a poor way to start. Butters is up at Robert and Hilke's where I am sure she will have a great time, probably not want to come back with us later.

Guess which suitcase is Bill's

We started putting together stuff we wanted to take a couple of days ago and had to keep mofifying what we were bringing so it would all fit in our suitcases. If we missed anything we can pick it up there. We will have to shop anyway for light sleeping bags and all the stuff for camping that does not come in the rental camper. The trick over the next couple of hours is to avoid stuffing additional things in our already bursting suitcases.

 

Posted with Blogsy