Brisbane

We got to Cotton Tree Tourist Park without too much trouble and had time for a walk on the beach before the rains et in. The next 48 hours were wet, with 75 ml one night and constant rain. Nevertheless we made sure that we did sight seeing with our first port of call at Noosa. The surf was spectacular again and the overall impact is the same as other coastal destinations. Lovely scenery, impressive shops on the esplanade and the usual commercial stuff behind that. Nice settings though and pleasant temperatures despite the wet. Next day we sought out the Ettamogah Pub and Ausie World. Someone sure had a sense of fun and personality inventing that idea. It was refreshing to find something unique and full of character, different from the theme parks and cruises this area abounds in. One of the shops had sculptures made from hundreds of car aprts. One was a transformer, as in the cartoon, and another was called’ Terminator’ and ‘Alien’. The artist had used diffs, bearings and springs and spark plugs and shock absorbers-you name it- to construct his masterpieces. Terminator stood 3 metres tall, was articulated and so could be posed ion various ways. He nly cost $13 000 but we didn’t think he would be comfortable on the back seat of the car so we left him behind! The coffee/gift shop had three old cars inside-FJ, chev utes 1920’s. Had to take pictures of that!

From there we went to Eumundi which had mid week markets. Had to buy bert a $3 poncho ‘cos his coat wasn’t keeping him dry. Thursday we drove to Mooloolaba and found someone’s mobile in the loo’s. MAqnaged to track the lady down and then treated ourselves to fish and chips at the Spit. The guy told us that if it didn’t get above 20 degrees that day, it would have been the longest cold stretch they had since 1998. No guesses what happened. But still, if you were not in the rain, all you needed was a long sleeved T shirt. Back to Maroochydore and did what Everyone Else was doing-go to the multi storey shopping center. What a big plaza for a holiday town!

Friday was Brisbane-an hour by car but don’t go till 9.30 or you’ll be stuck in traffic. Parked on the outskirts a suburb? called Chermside and caught the bus into town, another half hour. Sydney has train tracks but Brisbane has bus ways. They look like train tracks but have no rails, have stations and platforms and tunnels. It sure is an efficient way to get people into town and keep the cars out! The South Bank of Bris has been developed and has the Brisbane Wheel, a massive Ferris wheel with air conditioned ‘cars’ which you can ride for a good view all over the city. You can tell that Brisbane has recently grown up into a city. Uptil ’88 it was a large country town but with the Centennial Games it was upgraded and brought into the 21 Century. They are still busy restoring and preserving their historical buildings and creating modern city, expecting to number 2.8 million by 2020 or so. It reminded us of Hobart.

Saturday was for lazing in the delicious sun. We tried our hand at fishing off the beach but without luck. The guy next to us had caught two huge flatheads before we got there-atleast 60 cm each. The tide was going out when we got there and the locals were saying there is too much fresh water from the rain but we will try again on Monday. The Mooloolaba Yacht club was serving Flathead Tails for lunch. Apparently they are quite popular but that’s the junk we throw away after we have filleted the fish isn’t it? Any way to make a dollar!