Hello Campers,

Well yes this is a little late, and yes I promised Griffo I would have it done a week ago and subsequently promised it would be done that night on every morning until now. But the last couple of weeks have been unlike most of this holiday where we retire to the caravan for dinner and then enjoy a couple of hours before I start snoring and drag myself to bed. We have been welcomed into the homes of two friends to eat beautiful dinners, warm beds and wine, wine and more wine. In the day time there has been so much to do, and the early evenings well …..beer!! So you can now understand the most difficult predicament which led to the delay of these words. If this is not going over with you, thats OK it didnt go over with Griffo either so you’re not alone, but as a mate of mine says “Bear and Grin It”!

Brisbane

Well week 15 saw us leave Noosa for Brisbane. A former work friend of mine Les Bush and his lovely wife Yaja invited us to their place in South Brisbane. We took them up on the offer figuring we would park the van out the front and maybe Griffo would enjoy a bath. Well were we in for a suprise!

As I parked the van on the front verge I was worried about getting it level as the verge slopped away. Les said “Dont worry about it, your all staying inside.” and that was how it was. Les and Yaja have a lovely house only a stones throw from the beach which looks across to Stradbroke Island. Yaja insisted on cooking all the meals, fine by me, and that lady can cook! whilst Les needed another man to share some 6 year old cab sav’s he had being keeping. It was a very hard gig and an absolute treat, thankyou guys we all really enjoyed the couple of days. Les and Yaja took off to enjoy a boat cruise so we also spent one night at a van park in Rochdale.

During the days we took in a few sights. The first day was Australia Zoo the former home of the crocodile hunter. This place is brilliant and its no ordinary zoo. To start with the enclosures are huge and really well appointed, you can see that these people really care for and about their animals. The highlight of the visit was at the “Croc0seum” where an animal show unfolded. At one point there were about 20 birds large and small doing circle work inside the arena, all zinging past and swooping down on the crowd while ACDC was being belted out, very cool! The croc running after the handler was also entertaining, they can keep that job. Later the kids got up close to the Koala’s and Komodo Dragons, I’d recommend this place if your ever passing by, a couple of pics…

The next day we decided to get to South Bank. In 2011 I was asked to travel to Brisbane for work and Griffo and I decided to take the opportunity to get the kids to theme parks and see a bit of Bris Vegas. One of the spots we wanted to see was South Bank as we had heard excellent reports about it. Unfortunately mother nature had other ideas and we instead watched the Brisbane Floods unfold first hand. At this time South Bank was under a few metres of muddy water, but not on this visit.

South Bank is a free water park packed with eateries and entertainment on the edge of the Brisbane river a few minutes drive from the city. We spent the afternoon kicking about in the water and sun having a ball. I also got to catch up with a colleague QPOL who came down for a drink. Queensland really does these water parks well, I guess because the stingers and croc’s mean you can’t swim in the ocean, no matter how inviting it looks. We have enjoyed these water parks all down the Queensland coast. Great idea for the Perths Swan River foreshore I reckon.

Gold Coast

So with Brisbane done we headed to the Gold Coast. No more long drives here, its was only 45 minutes and we were in theme park territory. We stayed at a nice van park in Helendale, right beside “Movie World” and Wet n Wild Water World. We hit the kids area of Movie World on the first afternoon much to the kids delight. Then over the next 4 days we took them all in, plenty of fun for all.  Livy loved the roller coasters and a crazy batman ride at Movie World. Thankfully Griffo can handle these rides and took Livvy on them, not for me. I did the water rides, I dont care how scary it is as long as there’s water otherwise its for Griffo.

The highlights included patting the sting rays, the jetski and Dolphin imagine show at Sea World. The tubular shute ride at Wet n Wild Water World. The 4D Iceage show and the Batman staged fight scene at Movie World were awesome. Heres a few more pics.

With the theme parks done we had a look around the area. Mount Tamborine is a lovely town in the hills west of the Gold Coast, we also loved Coolangatta and Burleigh Heads. This is a beautiful part of the world, but Ive said that about most of Queensland. Anyway from here we head to NSW but I will leave you with a couple more pics, until next week..