Beers Best Friend

People really like their beer here, you see them carrying crates of the stuff everywhere. We have seen people sitting in a café with a crate, walking by in the street, heck the only thing left is seeing someone walking along with a crate on a leash. I hear that the Aussies tend to like to enjoy time at home with friends rather than going out partying as much. Probably because pretty much everything closes at a real work-shy time over here. Shops are open til 5pm if you're lucky, kebab shops and pizza places are usually closed before 9pm. Oh and if it's a Sunday, knock off an hour on these stingy opening times.

Seaside Slouching

Sitting eating our fish and chips we found ourselves bird watching. The place was surrounded by pelicans. One pelican alone was a mammoth big fat thing. They had such big beaks, well at least it becomes very apparent when your so close to them. At one point they all flew into one area to be fed scraps from one of the restaurants. The area was supposed to be good for sea lion watching but we see lyin' as we didn't see any.

Paul's attention was later taken by a crow in a tree who was going round attacking all the other local birds and chasing them all out the tree it claimed.(quite funny to watch).

One word of warning - if your driving.. in Brisbane.. dont ever following the signs for the Tourist Drive... it will take you round in one big circle.

Wallaby watch

As we left the indoor enclosure it was a little warmer so we decided to take one last look around. As we walked through the park we could see wallabies all over the place. You could get really close to them. By the end of our visit we had seen enough nature and decided to head off for more fish and chips.

Daisy Hill Koala Centre

We chose to visit this park as it was said to be the best for spotting wildlife in a natural environment. At first the day looked a little bit too wet to spot anything but we had a look around all the same. As expected, all the koalas were hidden away nice and warm. Luckily as we decided to head into the indoor part of the park we met with a couple of little koalas, sitting in a tree eating their eucalyptus leaves. One of the wardens even called one of the koalas down so we could pet and stroke it. It was sooooo cute, we wanted to take one home with us. Apparently they sleep for 20 hours a day (much like Bobbi), and they also love being hugged.

Nemo

Cant come to Oz and not get a photie of Nemo.. this one is for you Nikita!

Gold Coast-Q1

This was said to be the California of Australia, it was a real tourist town. There were loads of tourist shops selling the same cack koala toys and boomerang souvenirs (we bought one of these). There were also loads of little bars and cafes. The beach was pretty nice, good sand etc.

We ventured over to the Q1 building which was another of the worlds tallest. This was the WORLDS TALLEST (residential building, actually only the 20th largest building in the world only this was in very small writing). The view was impressive as always with a grand view of the beach. There was a slight feeling of heck we've seen this a few times before (maybe the magic has been spoiled a little after seeing so many of these).But must admit for us - This was the tallest building with the best view in the world - The view of the the entire length of the Gold Coast & we could even see Brisbane.

Here is Paul looking like he should be in a straitjacket ......cheesecake has that effect on him

Brisbane By Night.

A really nice view to be found of Brisbane South Bank. We parked up and had a stroll around the bridge under the moonlight.

Arriving in Australia.

This was the first real sign that we had reached civilization again and no struggle to communicate as for once we are in an English speaking country. A place where we could actually live in. Our first real breakfast in so many months. Full English breakfast, eggs, toast bacon, mmmmmm. We were in heaven and we didn't want to leave ever again. "I'm sorry breakfast! We'll never leave you again!"

The folks in OZ are a friendly bunch. We find that people are happy to start a chat with you if they are nearby. People in shops are helpful and always have a smile on their face. It feels really welcoming.

Oh my god we can get fish and chips here! Now we know for certain we can live here. Whatever can happen next?

Yup there were three things we were missing from home, English Breakfast, Fish & Chips and now we have the home roast dinner with gravy. No more craving, finally we have arrived home.

23Hr Sleepathon.

After our all-nighter in Japan, going for a curry at 4am, then heading off for a train, then plane on an epic journey to Australia, we then needed an equally epic sleep. Especially after watching an epic XMen3 once we arrived in OZ (had to be done) Japan & China seem to have issues with XMen as it didnt seem to be showing anywhere.

23 hours later we emerged from our hibernation, ready to take on the world down-under.