Happy Birthday Chris!

I'm very happy to have left the big cockroaches behind and be back in a Base Hostel, this time in Brisbane. We left early this morning and travelled up to the Gold Coast and Surfer's Paradise. We only had a couple of hours to wander round, although that was more than enough given that it started raining very heavily after half an hour. What a shame - the beach had looked so inviting and I'd just covered myself in sun cream!

In contrast to Byron Bay, Surfer's Paradise has all the chain shops and restaurants, including McDonalds and Subway, so I didn't mind too much that we weren't staying there, it seems to be just a typical beach holiday resort. It wasn't a long drive then on to Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. Apparently everything happens more slowly in Queensland and the people are super laid back compared to those from New South Wales. It is an absolutely huge state and from what I can gather, there is quite a divide between north and south Queensland. We changed our watches on crossing the border, so I'm now only 10 hours ahead.

Brisbane seems like a cool city - there aren't many hugely exciting things to do as a tourist, but I imagine that it's a nice place to live. There are great walkways either side of the river and several impressive bridges to walk across. The Botanic Gardens are very pretty too - it appears that no Australian city is complete without Botanic Gardens! They also have an opera house, other theatres and cafes on the South Bank, just like London but on a smaller scale.

We went for a walk around the main parts of the city and had tea overlooking the river. I then went to 6pm mass at St Stephen's Cathedral. It was half empty! I couldn't believe that it was dark already when I came out at 7pm - it had been light until past 9pm when I was in New Zealand just over a week ago.

We had planned to go out to an Italian restaurant as a group, but then the hostel - Tin Billy's - offered cheap drinks and free pizza, an offer backpackers can't afford to refuse! I'm going to bed early so that I can get up and make the most of the running tracks before we depart in the morning...