We arrived in Brisbane early this morning from Auckland. The three hour flight saw us take a 10 degree increase in temperature and during the day we have gradually wilted under the intensity of the sunshine. Brisbane is a rapidly developing city, with some beautiful old colonial architecture backed by the obligatory big city skyscrapers. Locally, it's called Bris-Vegas due to the casinos and 'Pokies' (Poker machines) which are abundant in town. The main attraction in the area is the local Koala Sanctuary, which we visited today. Along with some 100 of the cuddly critters it is also home to most of the well known indigenous animals ; dingos, wombats, kangaroos, wallabies, kookaburras etc. The key highlight of the visit for Carol was the opportunity to give one of these little teddy bears a big hug. They are quite small, even when fully grown and weigh only a few kilos and they are probably only second to the sloth in being the laziest creature around. They spend 90% of their day sound asleep in some very pecarious positions on tree branches. The rest of the day is spent eating eucalyptus leaves. Some life......... We also had a go at feeding the kangaroos, who were a little more active and hopped from shady tree to shady tree, in an attempt to cool down. They are very muscular in their upper body and we both agreed that we would not like to get in their way in a boxing ring! Rather than stay in the city, we have decided to head south and visit the gold coast. This is the main surfing area for the East coast and also boasts some of Australias best theme parks and beaches, making it a favourite place for the Aussies to take their hoildays. We plummed for Surfers Paradise which is the most developed of the towns along the coast. Although it's dominated by skyscraper style apartment buildings, it stilll manages to maintain a sophisticated feel. In fact, one of the buildings which is almost completed is the Soul Towers which will be the tallest residential building in the world with 72 storeys. Our days were spent on the great beaches soaking up the rays. We had some pretty big surf and when we were in the sea, the waves would come break our heads. Everyone seemed to enjoy being beaten by the waves, under the watchful eyes of the Baywatch style lifeguards. At night the place is jumping, with lots of bars and restaurants which stay open till 3am. Whilst here, we also took the opportunity to visit Wet 'n' Wild which is a great water park. We spent the day, sliding, splashing and zooming around on inflatible rings. We also had plenty of opportunity to sit around the wave pool and catch some more rays. In the evening when we returned to Brisbane to catch the flight to Cairns the next day, there was a tremendous storm with violent thunder and huge lightening bolts. The whole of the East coast has been experiencing some strange weather over the last few days with Sydney flooded and Melbourne experiencing giant hailstones which forced the airport to close. Luckily we haven't been affected much and continue to enjoy great weather. Next, to the airport and off to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef.