Allie, Yas and I in Brisbane.
After a great time in the north part of Australia we flew south to Brisbane. We were hosted by our friend Yas, who was our soccer teams athletic trainer in college. He couldn't believe we were 30 (and neither can we most of the time). He luckily said right off the bat that we pretty much look the same and he was glad he could still recognize us.
We stayed with Yas in Brisbane, in the West End area which is a super cute area with lots of shops and restaurants. Our first day we walked downtown across one of the pedestrian bridges to meet Yas at his work. We did a full loop of the city, seeing the South Bank area, city gardens, parks, and riding the hop on, hop off boat system - so cool! That night we ventured up to Mount Coot-Tha (the highest peak in Brisbane) and checked out the super moon!
On Wednesday Yas took the day off to tour us around the Gold Coast area. We went everywhere! We first stopped in a place on the Gold Coast called Surfers Paradise and went up the Q1 building (the highest residential tower in the Southern Hemisphere) to the observation deck. We went up to floor 77 and had a great view of the coast. The Gold Coast area is home to 446km of canals which is actually 9 times more than Venice! So crazy! From the deck you could see a 360 degree view of the city, down the coast, and out into the ocean. It was amazing and I didn't even get scared being up that high. From there, we went to a cute little hippie beach town called Byron Bay. We went out to the Byron Bay lighthouse and the most eastern part of mainland Australia. The water here is such a great greenish blue color! And we didn't realize this until later, but the beaches in Australia don't have seaweed. And they were all extremely clean. From Byron Bay we went to Point Danger which is the border between New South Wales and Queensland (and also has an awesome beach!). After that we went to Noosa National Park and did a short walk to a lookout over the beach and a view of the city. On our way we had to dodge a bunch of ugly looking wild turkeys! After seeing another spectacular beach we ventured back to Surfers Paradise and back up the tower to see the views at night. It was such a great day, and thanks so much to Yas our wonderful host!
The next day Allie and I got ready to fly to our next adventure location - New Zealand!
Highlights:
1. Seeing Yas after 9 years!
2. The views of the Gold Coast from the Q1 tower!
3. Byron Bay - the town and the lighthouse were both great.
Lessons Learned:
1. Although we have felt 30+ for most of the trip, Yas thought we looked the same as we did in college! Woo!
2. The beaches on the Gold Coast are more accommodating for swimmers than the North - no gator or stinger warnings here.
The Q1 Tower is soooo tall.
View of the Gold Coast.