Back to Brisbane

Why is it that all the Wicked Campervans look better and newer than ours?!
Anyway we arrived back in Brisbane and had 3 nights to check out this supposed laid back city.
Our hostel is good, it just feels strange again to be back in a proper bed!
No matter how much you look at a map of Brisbane not one bit of it will show you how bloody steep some of the streets are. Why did no-one tell me this!? Added to the fact that during the day it gets to around 35 degrees celcius makes walking around pretty hard work.
To be honest by this stage I was ready for a change and wanted to leave Australia. Not that I hated or anything it's just I was ready to move on. Still, I was going to give Brisbane a chance.
A small Chinatown area(again a huge Chinese population in another city, how come they don't live anywhere else? oh yes, money) was ok and we got an average meal in there. Next day we headed out to see what looked like a really cool park area. It was too. Roma Street Parkland. Thing is getting there wasn't easy. The map again failed to notify my of the incredibly steep streets we had to plod up to get there. Damn it! Once there we strolled around the tropical lush forest areas next to water fountains, palm trees, exotic bushes and a small river. Not bad, not brill. Frickin hot either way.
By this stage I'd become a complete coffee addict. Iced coffee that is, it's too hot for a warm one. Australia has a great selection of iced coffee and everyday I make it my duty everyday whilst filling up the van to buy some, Paul's Coffee and Farmers Union are the bast but from state to state they don't sell the same stuff. Not sure why anyone would care but there you go. Suffice to say we ended up spending a bit of time in various coffee shops doing nowt and preparing for the next destination.
There are some nice looking buildings here, such as the old Customs house, that have mostly been renovated and changed into restaurants, bars or University buildings.
The quirky art thing of this place is that all the electricity boxes, you see them in England all the time and they are all green, are sprayed up with different random art and drawings. Why not.
Across the river near the arena where we saw Tori Amos is a strange mix of stuff. Quite good aswell. There's a man-made beach area, under renovation at the time but a great idea I thought. Near that was a tropical forest with bamboo and a boardwalk leading to a Nepalese temple. A bit surreal but very well built. Did no-one notice all the naked carvings of various sexual acts? It was clear to see this was a fertility temple, if you get my drift. This was all built was for the 1988 world Expo that was held in Brisbane. I beginging to see why, it's quite a nice place.
Away from the temple was a 'lifestyle' market. Which just means a hippy market to me. It was pretty good though as there was an excellent Spanish guitar player there. He was shreading it up outstide an old colonial style building that made us instantly think about the South American adventure to come! If it was for the zombie brained lumps asking us for a 'fag' without even a please or thank you I'd think more of the place. I tell thee, manners are lost on a large portion of these people.
There's a decent shopping and bar street but it's a pity they've obscured the great looking buildings housing the shops with a giant metal frame thingy.
Brisbane isn't a great place, it's not a bad place either. The main areas, of which there are 3, are too far apart for my liking so we ended up doing a massive amount of walking in baking heat. It's disjionted but I'm sure if you lived here you'd have a bus pass or something. Laid back this place is not. Cars screw down every street and if you don't move away from traffic lights within a nano-second of them turning green you're garaunteed to get an earful of horn!
Our time in Oz was over. A bit of reflection perhaps?

Surfing in Straddie

We'd read and heard a bit about an island off the mainland near Brisbane that sounded pretty good so we decided to head off there. North Stradbroke Island, or Straddie as everyone seems to call it, was a dull and expensive ferry ride away but the promise of unbuilt up beaches and quality surf sounded too good. Apperently its big whale spotting country too but we saw not a one.
We drove for a while to get to a full to bursting campsite with no room. Off to another one we went and that was pretty full but we managed to bag a decent spot that fit both our vans. It turns out that it was the start of the school holidays and the place was rammed with brainless kids. At 15 or 16 most of them can drive so they take the opportunity to go across to Straddie to get lashed and go surfing. It's practically lawless too as there isn't enough police on the island to cope. It's only a small place and has but 1 main road.
Still it seemed pretty idillic with some good looking beaches and practically no houses and built up areas.
That night we started a fire, a mistake in Oz as they're scared to death of forest fires, and after an hour or so were told by a park warden to put it out. A real shame really that some people can't control fires and therefore spoil it for the rest of us. Ah well, surfing tomorrow.
Hiring a board was a bit of a problem and quite extortionate but I got one anyway. We went out and got totally mashed by the harsh waves. Still it was a nice place to be if not totally exhausting.
After some food we headed to another beach. We knew we would have a chance because small kids were out surfing!!
Much better surf action but somehow, when there was practically only me and Matt out on the waves, I managed to get on a classic wave only to come crashing down on Matt. His board my head, my board his head. Oh the joys of surfing. No harm done though.
The evening was full of drunk kids throwing up and fighting, not too near us thankfully, but it was still pretty cool to be out of the hustle and bustle of a big high rise tourist place like Surfers Paradise.
Mainly got battered by waves again the next morn on yet another good looking beach. We stuffed our faces with Fish and Chips and then bemoaned the fact that we'd have to give the van back the next day. Although it has 'issues' as the woman at Wicked Campers said, it was still so good just being able to go where you like when you like and not have to carry bags around or bother too much about accomodation. Now that the weather was much hotter it was way better too. The end of an era and back to backpacking, we weren't looking forward to it.
This also meant the end of our 2 and a half month stint in Australia. Nearly. We still had 3 nights at a hostel in Brisbane before flying to New Zealand.
Back on the ferry and on to Brisbane with Matt and Casey. Cleaned out the van that night and packed our bags. The petrol had been a nightmare, the van was freezing when we were down south, it looked crap and the stereo worked sparodically but we could forgive it all for the freedom it gave us. Not having to rely on public transport, especially in Oz, was brilliant. But it had to end and the next morning we dropped the van off, donned our backpacks and got a taxi to a hostel for the first time in 52 days! Boo!