Hi Guys,

As you can see I am now in Brisbane and I arrived as planned last Thursday. The flight was pretty quick and I was able to get a train into the centre to meet Emma with little problem. Once I met Emma we made our way back to her house where she cooked me a delicious Lasagne.

The next day as both Emma and Ben were working I decided to head into the city centre and do a spot of shopping and general wandering. I enjoyed a lovely stroll by the river in the popular South Bank and the Botanical gardens before making my way back to Emma's. That eveninng Ben was taking me to see a live rugby match, the 'Brisbane Bronkos vs the Townesville Cowboys'. This turned out to be so much fun, even though most of the time I did not really understand all of the rules, it was a brilliant match and the Bronkos loosing out 23-16. The atmosphere though was superb as it was not only the first game of the season but as it was an all Queensland affair it meant that there was a degree of rivarly between the two teams. After this, we made our way down to a lively bar where we spent most of the evenning drinking, chatting and generally having a good time in all places a car park. All in all it was a brilliant day.

The next day, having consumed a fair amount of alcohol the night before a lie-in was required to sleep off the morning hangover. I then decided to watch Ben play some footy, which was really cool. Generally sunbathing and relaxing watching 3 hours of football was a great way to unwind. After this we then met up with Emma and generally took it easy for the evenning due to an early start on Sunday morning.

On Sunday we got up at an ungodly hour of 5.30am and made our way to Moreton Island where we were due to spend the day. Even though it was one of those occasions whereby you are cursing your alarm clock, surely it can not be morning already sort of thing, we all had a brilliant day out. Moreton Island is a beautiful island just north of Brisbane. We started off with a spot of snorkelling around the Tangalooma (sorry Ben I can't remember how to say these) wrecks, which was awesome as there were numerous old ship wrecks that had been dumped, creating an artificial reef. After this we had a spot of lunch before making our way inland to the sand dunes, whereby we attempted with no real success to do a bit of sand boarding. Then we made our way back to the beach and we all tried to skim board which is where you have a wooden board and you run along the shoreline and throw the board onto the water and attempt to jump on. The closest I got to achieving this goal was one foot on before falling flatly on my arse. Still it was pretty amusing nevertheless. Then unfortunately it was time to get the ferry back to the mainland, whereby Emma once again cooked up a storm and we had a pleasant evenning with a few bottles of nice wine.

Which leaves me onto today, as Ben had the day off he took me to the Glass House Mountains for the day for a bit of hiking. Well we arrived at one mountain I decided to read the information sign where it mentioned all different kind of trails ranging from 1 which was moderate to difficult to 5 for experienced rock climbers. So there I am reading the information thinking I can probably handle a level 2 difficulty walk, afterall my fitness is improving, oh how wrong could I be? Ben who by trades is an outdoor education instructor was intending the level 5 category trail to the summit. So anyway I decided that I would atleast give it a go and Ben who to be fair was trying his best to reassure my rising doubts mentions that the worst bit is at the start of the trail, so off we go climbing pretty quickly up these giant boulder like steps I start to think to myself, oh if this is the hard bit it can't be that bad. Once again though my naivity shines! We arrive at a section which to me looked like death climb up a cliff edge with no rope I was quite litterally s***ting myself, regardless I start the assent. Naturally I last no more than 3 minutes of climbing and i started to panic and I had to say to Ben that i could not make the climb. Anyway, after making our way back to the car we tried another mountain, which on height is roughly the same as the death climb one but no way near as steep. I am pleased that I atleast managed to climb this one and I was rewarded with the best views of the surrounding mountains. It was once again superb.

Anyway I think thats probably enough from me, I hope everyone reading this is well. Tommorrow i am due to catch the bus down to Byron Bay whereby I am hoping to meet up with my friend Katie again. Katie if you are reading this send me an email.

Take Care

Jon