Brisbane with Bambi

After staying in one country for four months it felt strange to be moving on. Not that Australia is a stark contrast to new Zealand but the little things that we had become familiar with were all about to change, to be honest it was a little unnerving and daunting to leave safe, small and familiar NZ for this huge expansive country. The analogy I came up with as a comparison is the day you start secondary school, it is a similar routine but so different, big and scary at the same time. For the first couple of days in Brisbane there was only one objective; to get a vehicle to use for the majority of our time in Oz.

We got to see a lot of Brisbane, just through campervan/car viewings. We didn't make much use of the public transport as we are on a strict budget in Australia and consequently ended up walking for miles. It was weird to be a big city again and I think we have to adjust to the map scales as NZ everything is a lot closer!

On the second night I had arranged to meet up with Bambi, who I haven't seen or really spoken to in six years. James (bless him) was more of a chaperone and didn't get a word in edge ways as we frantically caught up on each other's lives from the missing years, and reminisced a lot about the past. We managed to get through two bottles of wine and then started on the tequila. This was not a good combination for me as we haven't been drinking very regularly and as soon as we went out of the bar the fresh air hit me and I threw up into a plant pot! Such a disgrace but I think an appropriate ending to a meet up with Bambi!

The next morning I was feeling a little delicate and had arranged to meet with Tom to have a look at his van. As soon as we saw it we both fell in love, Monica was the one and we put in an offer. By the afternoon and a long phone call to Mum so we could pay for the van via internet banking we had a brand new van. We spent our last night in Chill backpackers with a plan to leave early the next morning to get all the bits we needed in the van and then head up through the sunshine coast.