Quite a busy little day wandering around the city centre, getting a feel for the place. I was meeting Fiona (you may remember her from such things as being in Vietnam at the same time as me) after lunch, so I spent the morning just plodding around, looking in shops and trying to locate a bookshop that sold A+ texts – quite a task in Australia, I’m discovering.

Fiona was staying at a backpacker’s near the station and she was there at 2:00 when I turned up. Great to see a familiar face again! We had a dig through some “touristy” stuff and decided on a wander to Kangaroo Point for some rock climbing. This started at 4:30, so we had some time to kill. Walking shoes on, we plodded through the botanical gardens, up Kangaroo Point, and beyond until we located a very nice pub and had a quick drink and a packet of crisps. For energy, you understand.

We arrived at Riverlife in good time, put all our stuff in a locker, grabbed a couple of helmets and harnesses and headed into the hot sun. Our trainer was Linda and she showed us the ropes (har har), how to ensure the safety line was kept taut and the basics of getting up the cliff face.

Enthusiastically, Fiona and I threw ourselves at the climbing. Just as enthusiastically, we fell off. A lot. Around us, people were crawling up and along like spiders – quite literally in the case of one French guy who just seemed to stick wherever his fingers and toes touched the rock. Believe me, this isn’t as easy as it looks. As I’m typing this the following morning, my wrists and forearms are still a little shaky!

I don’t think we did too badly, but we barely made it 5m up the 30m face in either of the two places we tried. However, we both reckon it’s something we’d love another shot at. Great fun and great coaching, and only $29 per person for 90 minutes. If you sign up for 13 weeks, you can pay $29 per week and do any of their timetabled activities (abseiling, rock climbing, kayaking, skating…) which is a great deal for backpackers working odd shifts or half-days.

Night fell as we packed up the equipment and I got some good shots of the cityscape and walls before our stomachs told us that we’d burned a lot of energy and needed to replace it.

On the walk back to the city through the botanical garden, we spotted a couple of possum. The second was perched on top of a bin, about to have a proper scavenge. Something seemed a bit “different” about it and on close inspection I could just make out a little baby possum in its mother’s pouch! It was tiny – and well covered so I couldn’t get a photograph. Shame.

After some walking and checking of menus (and baulking at prices) we found a bar that did food for as little as $5.90 so decided it looked nice and deserved our patronage. Fiona had a lasagne which was apparenty “OK” and I had a steak sandwich big enough to have it’s own ecosystem. Lovely it was, too – and less than $10. The beer was OK as well.

Fiona fancied a change of scenery, so we walked round the corner to an Irish bar and got charged a fortune for some dodgy beer before being kicked out when they closed. The last remaining place was the cattle market next to the hotel Fiona was staying at. A swift water (yes – water) there and I had to catch the last train back to B&A’s. Well, I’ll catch up with Fiona again in a week or so when I get to Melbourne.

Somehow, I managed to stay awake on the train and made it to bed in one piece.

 Today I had a lie in. Despite waking up at 5am, I stayed in bed and forced myself to doze until 7:00. Fair enough as I didn’t crash until gone 1 in the morning. Elaine had been up for three hours and already had a trip to the gym under her belt.

We had breakfast and I rattled some stuff off online as we waited til 9am when we drove to the bus depot and got a nice cheap day rover ticket for $4.50. This can be used from 9:30 till 15:30 on the bus, train and ferry around Brisbane. Bargain.

 Once in Brisbane, we located Anzac Square and had brunch before I dropped all my major bags off with Belinda as I would be swapping accomodation this evening. Elaine and I then headed for the river and hopped on one of the ferries for a 2-hour journey south, then north and then back again.

Brisbane has an excellent skyline – one of the best I’ve seen at night – especially when viewed from the river. It also has some interesting bridges and I got some good photos of them. I didn’t, though, manage to get a picture of the huge lizard that jumped off a wall as I walked past. I’m sure I’ll catch another one though.

 The City Cats are nippy little things and really get going at a fair lick between the more distant stops along the river. They’re also more comfy than, say, the whale-watching boat in Kaikora so I didn’t vomit. Which was nice.

We went aground for lunch and then Elaine left me to head home before her cheap ticket ran out. I spent the next couple of hours wandering around the city centre and finding my bearings. I popped into the tourist information centre and ended up chatting to a guy who’d emigrated to Oz almost 30 years earlier and who was flying back to the UK for the first time next week. He very kindly recommended a few places that would hopefully keep my attention over the next few days and walked me to the museum on the other side of the river.

 At 5:30, I met Belinda from work and we got the train out of the city to meet up with Albert. Together we went to a lovely Thai restaurant with a very nervous waitress (who literally froze when I spoke Thai to her). The food was superb and not a bad price either – and I had my first Singah beer since I left Thailand all those months ago. Just as good as it ever was!

Oh, yes. The reason for the meal? B&A’s second wedding anniversary. They actually invited me to the wedding but I couldn’t make it so it was great to be able to get them dinner as a (very) belated present – and a thank you for their hospitality on my visit. 

 Another early morning. Elaine gets out of bed at 4am each day, usually to get to the gym and stuff before work. For those who don’t know, she’s a bodybuilder. She’s a senior champion and has three competitions coming up so she’s hard at work building muscle and eating next to nothing. Very serious woman!

Despite this being a day off for her, she was pottering around at that hour and I woke just before 5am. At 5:30, we left and drove into Brisbane to Kangaroo Rock Point, where Elaine used to do a lot of her “boot camp” workouts. We walked for an hour across and beside the river, and through the market that was still being set up. Despite the early hour, the sun was up and the streets weren’t exactly empty. We worked up a bit of a sweat heading back to the car, where we buckled up for the drive to the Gold Coast.

 This wasn’t a log drive, and we made it in under an hour. On the way, we drove past more theme parks than I knew existed in Australia, let along just one part of it. DreamWorld, SeaWorld, MovieWorld, Wet’n’Wild… I’ll have to come back here with someone and work my way through them. Elaine then drove me around Surfer’s Paradise before we headed to her daughter’s house to sort out breakfast.

I met Erin once about 6 years ago when she visited the UK with Elaine. She’s now all settled in with her boyfriend in a new house and has a really good job. She’s also a successful “beach babe” who’s won a handful of trophies of her own. Not surprising if you ever saw her – she’s beautiful!

Breakfast was at a coffee shop just off one of the beaches, and I had an orange juice and “breakfast on the go” which consisted of muesli, strawberries, mango sauce and two enormous dollops of yoghurt. Gorgeous. Afterwards, Erin (thank you again for paying for brekkie!) headed off and Elaine walked me along the coastline and up as far as the border with New South Wales. I managed to be in two states in one day! The border is best shown at the Captain Cook memorial where the line between the two states is clearly displayed.

 As I mentioned to Elaine, one thing that was really noticeable compared to the UK was the number of people out there in the early hours trying to keep fit. Surfers, body boarders, joggers, cyclists, swimmers… hundreds of them. We weren’t the only ones walking around Brisbane earlier in the morning either.

It was time to meet “son number two” who wasn’t working that morning. Craig’s a surfer in every sense. Laid back, parties all night and sleeps in every morning. Like his brother, he’s also into motor racing and has his own muscle car that he built from the ground up. And a bike. And a jetski. And a pile of trophies for surfing. Noticed anything about Elaine’s kids yet? They’re all bloody good at something(s) and have the awards to prove it.

 Craig drove us into town to one of the surf clubs and we had lunch – a huge deluxe chicken burger with beer-batter fries. Afterwards, Elaine and I walked back to his flat – partly to let me walk off the calories and partly to allow Elaine’s car to cool down as the temperature gauge had gone mental on the way from the beach. Without much fuss, Craig sussed what it was (a broken jubilee clip on one of the hoses) and replaced it. Easy as.

It came time to come close to completing my collection of Elaine’s clan and we drove to her parents’ house for afternoon tea. Her folks are Scots, so needless to say there was more than just a couple of digestive biscuits on a small plate waiting for us…

I needed a wheelbarrow to get me to the car after the sandwiches, home-made sausage rolls, scones and apple crumble. My only disappointment was at not meeting Elaine’s brother, but I managed to see most of the family!

The evening was spent slowly allowing the food to digest and catching up on email via number 11’s ropey wireless. I really should knock on their door and tell them to shift their router nearer the window. 

 Having said that, I was up at 7am the next morning as I couldn’t sleep. Great. B & A surfaced at a much more respectable 10 o’clock and we had breakfast before they very kindly drove me to see Avril – a cousin I’ve not seen in almost 13 years when she moved out here. I also got to meet her three kids who I’ve never seen before. And drank a lot of their beer. And ate a lot of their food. Well, what are family for, eh? I have to say I had a great time catching up and it was so good to see them.

B & A collected me just after dinner and – again very kindly – drove me back to Elaine’s. After a cuppa, I crawled into bed at around 11pm.