After the marathon traveling all we wanted to do was get to Nic's, take showers and take the mother of all naps; Qantas had other plans, however, and dutifully informed us that our bags were still in LA. The nice baggage services man took our information, told us our bags would be in the next day, and sent us upstairs to customer service where we were given $100 each to cover whatever we needed for the day. A 30 minute train ride and 30 minute bus ride later we were at Nic's school (which is in the woods outside of Brisbane). We took a showers and a nap and then the three of us hopped a bus to the local mall to buy some clothes and various sundries with our money. Nic made dinner for us and we hit the hay early.
Monday Tammer and I went downtown early while Nic stayed behind to wait for our bags. We took a tour of the South Bank which is the artsy area of town and then walked across the bridge to the Queen Street Mall (an outdoor shopping area). Nic and his friend Jon came down to meet us and we walked over to the XXXX (Fourex) brewery plant thingy for a tour. After the tour everyone goes to the brewery pub and gets four free beers! I was feeling pretty toasty.
On Tuesday we took a walking tour of the city as outlined in our Lonely Planet travel book. We stopped everywhere to sit and watch people or have a snack or something; even then the "tour" only took about 5 hours. Tuesday nights at Nic's school is "pub night"; everyone goes to the university club and drinks as much as possible until closing at midnight. It was a fun time.
Tammer knows a guy (Dr. Nic) who lives in Brisbane, and we were invited to a BBQ at his house on Wednesday. He and his wife prepared a great spread and it was so nice to have a relaxing day at someone's home. After our leisurely lunch Dr. Nic took us to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary (per my request), where we got to hold a koala and hand feed kangaroos. We saw snakes, and wombat, a dingo and lots of fancy birds.
On Thursday Tammer, Nic, Nic's friend Chris and I hopped a train south to Gold Coast. We managed to get an awesome deal on a 2BR/2BA split level, fully equipped hotel room with a private pool and BBQ area; there was a little tennis court there, too. If you ever go there, stay here. Our hotel across the street from the beach and between two main areas in Gold Coast (Surfer's Paradise and Broadbeach). We stayed there two nights doing to beach town thing. It was perfect.
We spent Saturday night packing and chilling out in Nic's dorm watching stand up comedy on his computer. Then there was the long trip home, this time with no luggage incidents (ain't it always that way).
There are lots of pictures, but Tammer is in charge of that. This is what I have to offer:
