Brisbane Life

We had a fantastic time in Brisbane and did so many things it would have taken forever to write about them all, so we have done a list of some of the places we visited and things we did. Some of which we will elaborate on as soon as we can.

TJ got a HR Job at Mater Hospital a few days into our stay in Brisbane


The landlady of the Macrossan house lived next door with her dog Zoe who was Phoebe’s twin


We watched the Brisbane lions V’s Carlton, Australian rules game at the Gabba where Brisbane lost


We visited the Lone Pine Koala sanctuary where Tj got to cuddle a koala


Along with thousands of others we watched the fantastic fireworks of the Riverfire Festival


Frank and Marion took us to Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast


We dived at The Seaway, Southport and Tweed Heads with the Brisbane BSAC Diving Club

Adam finally got a helpdesk job with Extend Technologies


After much persuasion Tj convinced Adam to go Latino Rock Dancing where we became regulars


We saw some shows at the Valley Festival in the heart of china town.


We had a look round an Eco House, which showed loads of energy saving ideas

We shopped until we dropped at DFO shopping village


We partied at Oktoberfest


We relaxed in Noosa and even tried a Surfing Lesson


We visited Australia Zoo and saw lots of crocs


We drove to Coolum to see the Kite Festival on the beach


We had a meal at the Norman Hotel Steak House for Mich's (a friend from BSAC) Birthday

Jasmin and Annika visited us so we took them to Harbour Town and DFO Shopping Villages and Surfers Paradise


We volunteered at Australia Zoo for 5 days


We caught the ferry to Stradbrook Island and spent the day exploring the island with Matt and Mich


We went for and Indian in Bulimba with Vesna (a friend from dance class) and Iver


We watched the Indy 300 at Surfers paradise and got to walk down the pits.

We took Fearghal (Tj’s work mate) for a meal at West End then for drinks at the Storey Bridge Hotel.

Brisbane

When leaving Hervey Bay we said goodbye to Lisa, Paul and Lorraine as they were carrying onto other places, however Toby, Adi, Adam and myself were continuing onto Brisbane where we were going to meet up with the rest of the Gallard/Smith clan. When we arrived the others were there and told us about their beautiful apartment which they were staying in, in the Cleveland area. Adi went off with them whilst Toby, Adam and I went to look for a youth hostel to stay in. We walked to the train information centre and contacted a couple of hostels to see if they had any private rooms with ensuites-no luck. So in the end we went with a hostel which was about 10 minutes from the train station called Chill Backpackers.



The room was lets say cosy. It contained a bunk bed and a single bed and that was about it, not much space for our bags. It was cheap and cheerful and was to be our home for the next couple of days. We went out straight away to explore the area and ended up at southbank. This is the cultural part of Brisbane with museums, theatres and libraries, but it also has some great restaurants, markets and an artificial beach and swimming pool. We visited south bank a few times in the first week with friends for dinner and nights out. During the days most of our time was spent trying to find a place to live and work. Before Sarah and Aaron returned to the UK we spent a day in Brisbane with them, Sarah and I went and had a day of pampering while the boys went and had a tour of the Castlemain XXXX brewery. We had registered on lots of websites for accommodation, and had a phone call from a lady saying she had a shared house for rent in Norman Park – south east Brisbane. In the evening we went to have a look and fell in love with the place straight away, it was big very modern and fully furnished. Two days later we were moving in, we met our house mates for the first time Frank and Marion, a German couple in their 40’s.