The following year, Eloise and I returned to Brisbane as part of a more in-depth tour of Australia and New Zealand. This time, we had backpacks firmly strapped to our backs (always the best place to keep them) and were very much playing the student travel game, staying in youth hostels and backpacker accommodation nearly everywhere so we'd have more money to spend on seeing a wider range of places. Although we had very limited time and were really just passing t...

As you drive into Brisbane and follow a line of coaches up a dreary looking circular ramp into the Transit Centre, it's easy to wake up after a long journey, look out of the window at the featureless grey walls passing by and draw a hasty conclusion, as I did, that you're entering just another dismal city of square office blocks and grid-system roads. The Brisbane Transit Centre, which is about as much as I managed to see of the city the last time I was here, app...

Arriving on the Gold Coast with Eloise couldn't have been more different from my previous experience of stepping off the Sydney to Brisbane bus at Surfers Paradise and heading straight for my welcoming hotel bed. On that occasion, I had meticulously planned my tour in fine detail with the travel agent before setting out and already had somewhere to stay at every destination. In fact, I had laid down so much cash in advance to make sure that I didn't end up gettin...

Christmas in Paradise is probably one of the oddest things I have ever experienced. For the few days running up to Christmas, Santa Claus could be found regularly wandering around the shopping precinct in Caville Mall handing out presents to passers by while wearing a tiny pair of shorts and showing off two scantily clad blondes on each arm. I wonder if Mrs Claus knows about this. If Santa wasn't on show in the precinct, he was usually zooming up and down the loc...

This morning I took the bus to Movie World, which turns out to be right next door to Wet N' Wild. As I got off outside the entrance, the bus driver called after me that I needed to be back at the bus stop by five in the afternoon otherwise I'd be stuck there all night - she then laughed as the doors closed in the best impression of a HammerHorror evil laugh I've heard in a while, so I started my day already pretty freaked out. I had big expectations for a theme ...