2/9/9 Wednesday Byron Bay to Brisbane

We woke and packed our stuff ready for the bus later on today. Liz did the laundry and we checked out of the hostel. The bus wasn't going until 3pm so we had a free day so we took one of the hostel free boogie boards to the beach. Liz sat writing the diary and Phil had a play on the boogie board for a while. We walked back up to the hostel leaving ourselves enough time for a shower and change before catching the bus. a driver called bubbles picked us up for the drive to Queensland and into Brisbane. He was a cynical old Aussie with nothing positive to say. We arrived at the hostel in Brisbane and went for a walk round the town into the Queens mall for a wander. We had a lovely meal in the Pig and Whistle English pub which is open air and has a really good atmosphere and is 24 hours for both meals and drinks. Phil had to call a solicitor in the UK about an insurance issue which took ages. Phil made an appointment with Queensland Ambulance service to discuss working over in Australia...don't worry people we aren't upping sticks without letting you know but Phil would like to research all options as we are here already !!! After those calls we went to bed.

3/9/9 Thursday Brisbane

We spent the early part of the day travelling through Brisbane CBD to Fortitude Valley and the Indian Consulate to organise our visas for India. We have to leave our passports there and have left an SAE to Cairns post office to send them to so we can pick them up later when we get there. Fingers crossed everyone for a safe arrival of our passports to Cairns. We caught the train to Woolawin to meet QAS. We met with Catherine Bishop who is the HR manager there who explained to Phil that he would need a new set of application forms but wouldn't need another interview. Not so many jobs are available now but there are some left if he wanted to persue the option and give Australia a go. We caught the train back to Brisbane central station and treated ourselves to tickets to see Wallabies play Springboks at the Suncorp stadium in the Tri Nations tournament being played the following Saturday. We tried to arrange our trip further up the coast to allow a few days with Matt, Phils friend from the ambulance service who has emigrated here. We had booked a sailing trip on an open ticket and so re arranged all the other bus dates, hostels, dive course and other activities to give us some time with Matt. Unfortunately the boat company couldn't fit us in for the date we needed despite us calling two weeks before instead of the advised 7 days. We then had to spend ages rearranging everything back to the original plan which has left us with time at the end in Cairns which we didn't really want. We can't get an earlier flight so we will just have to stick with it now. We and a couple of drinks in Zi bar whilst rearranging stuff then went to the backpacker bar and had a meal before going on the internet for a little while then off to bed.

4/9/9 Friday Brisbane

Today we had put aside to visit the home of Steve Irwin, Crocodile hunter, the Australia Zoo. We caught the train to Beerwah to where the zoo is and boarded the courtesy Crikey bus to the zoo. Its pretty pricy to get in but we stayed all day and only left at 4.30pm. At the entrance to the zoo are huge pictures of Steve and even the highway is called Steve Irwin Highway!!! His famous mad catchphrases are everywhere and huge memorials are displayed with loads of messages of sympathy and support.....all very sad. By coincidence it was the third anniversary of his death on that day but the zoo has a memorial day later in the September. We went to see the Koalas first and got great close up sights of them all sleeping in the Eucalyptus branches. Next we went to the "world famous Crocoseum" to see the animal show ! Sounds good eh? It was actually great fun as they let loads of birds out to fly round the crowd and displayed snakes and of course a huge crocodile who was fed just in front of us. There is a huge kangaroo enclosure where there are many roos to fed and stroke so we spent a while in there feeding the greedier ones. We saw wombats, tasmanian devils, elephants, dingoes, snakes and also a brilliant tiger display. The keepers were throwing toys for the tigers to play with and they were leaping after them into a huge swimming pool. The side of the pool was glass so you could watch them dive and swim. They behaved just like puppies and it was great to see them really enjoying themselves. We then visited the elephants who have a really big enclosure and were lovely to watch. The zoo was good and we had alot of time there before we went back to the station to catch the train back to Brisbane. We walked through the town back towards the hostel and managed to get a really cheap chinese meal at a buffet which was closing so selling evertything off at a bargain price. It was suprisingly good too. we went back to the room to change ready to go out for the evening but Liz fell asleep much to Phils disgust !!

5/9/9 Saturday Brisbane

We spent a couple of hours checking through our finances to make sure we are on budget, which we are, and spent the rest of the day wandering around Brisbane before the game in the evening. We walked to the botanic gardens which run along the Brisbane river and inland over a huge parkland area. There are ponds, native trees, rainforest walks and free to use gas barbecues available. We walked through to the Goodwill Bridge which took us across to the southbank parklands area. There are several platforms and sitting areas on the bridge to allow people to gather or just take in the view...all very civilised. Once at the Southbank we walked through a lovely metal archway covered in beautiful vivid pink flowers like clematis. It was really gorgeous and the weather was really warm and sunny to add to the ambience. The southbank is an area if the river bank which has been transformed into a recreation area for the people of the city and visitors to use for free. The parklands are a huge area of water fountains and sprays, creeks boardwalk paths and the famous lagoon and beach area. There are free gas barbecues with awnings dotted along the whole area where groups were gathered having lazy afternoons. We were thinking anything like that in the UK wouldn't last too long as it would be stolen or broken and also have a charge !!! There were loads of people just hanging out and enjoying the facilities especially the children who were all having a ball in the various water play areas. We walked over Victoria Bridge back into the CBD at the other end of the Southbank parklands past a London Eye style huge feris wheel. We passed the Treasury building which has been transformed into a huge nightclub, bar, resturant and casino complex. It looked interesting and we thought we may pop there after the evenings match. We got changed and went to the station to catch the free train out to the stadium. There was a really good atmosphere in Brisbane with lots of rugby shirts and excited fans. We walked the 5 minutes to the stadium from Milton station and got to the Suncorp stadium to find our seats. We had bought limited view tickets as they were cheaper but when we sat in our seats we had the best view and the bar that might have blocked your view didn't block ours at all.....result !!! The anthem was really loud and we really enjoyed the game as honorary Wallabies fans. It was a great game with most of the main points scored at our end of the pitch ! After the game we watched the players walking round signing autographs and chatting to fans before ecatching the train back to town. We went to The Treasury complex and had a wander round the casinos and bars for a while. There was a great band playing and the place was packed. We stayed for a while then left to go to bed.

6/9/9 Sunday Brisbane

We had read in a local paper that there were celebrations in Brisbane to celebrate 150 years of the city so we headed down to the Southbank to see what was happening. We picked up a programme and listened to a local choral group who sounded brilliant. Then we went to an open air arena also free to the public and watched the Queensland Police Pipe and Drum band. They were great and have played at Edinburgh so we suspect Martin will know them well. They played for about half an hour and finished with Waltzing Matilda the Aussie classic. We wandered around the craft markets and the various food stalls then found an area where Queensland sport stars were signing autographs and meeting fans. There was a Lions group having a sausage sizzle for charity so we felt obliged to have a hot dog each !! Once we had walked past the activity areas we walked along the boardwalk past some bars until we reached one with a band playing outside on the riverbank and so we stopped to have a drink there. We listened to the band and got chatting to a couple who had just moved to Brisbane from New Zealand . they found Brisbane really busy compared to their home town in NZ. We really liked the feel of Brisbane, its completely different to Sydney and much quieter. We said our goodbyes to them and went back towards our hostel through the parklands. Some people were still in the lagoon even though it was dark as it was illuminated with underwater lights. We found another bar with a great atmosphere and a singer who was really entertaining the crowd. He played some great tunes and we stayed till he had finished. It was areally nice warm day and evening and we'd had a great day. We walked back to the room to pack ready to leave the next day.