14th – 17th December

Exploring Brisbane

Early the next morning Tom and I got up to go and get a flight to Brisbane. We had booked a B&B 2 nights in Brisbane to give us time to explore the city and also to meet my friend Sarah who I had met in now and was very kindly lending us her car from a road trip all the way at the coast.

I had booked us a 6 AM flight so we had to be there by 4.30, it was a pretty early start.  Taxis are expensive in Australia but we were close so we booked an Uber and made our way to the airport for our flight to Queensland. At the airport I once again wowed Tom with my travellers economic cuisine when I presented him with breakfast consisting of a loaf of bread and tub of peanut butter 😂😋(peanuts and peanut butter have become the other other love of my life since travelling, after Tom & Cali of course) – he got the pricey airport coffees in 😉.

We were too early for the transfer into Brisbane so we stopped for a coffee at the airport before making our way to the city and checking into the kookaburra inn.  We were quite exhausted so we had a little chill before we went out to explore the city.  We started off as Tom and I usually do with some food and  beer we could probably think is the Aussies good although that’s a very bold statement. Well Tom definitely can! We walked around for a while in the botanical Gardens looking at the trees in the birds before heading there to the shops to get some clothes for Tom.  Inevitably the shopping trip ended in another pint at the Coopers Brewery apparently a loval beer.  Having epically failed on the exciting feed the night before we decided to do with a good old-fashioned Aussie barbecue at the bnb, so on our way back we hit the supermarket and got all the meat for Tom and prawns & halloumi for me.  With a nice bottle of wine of course.

Fortitude Valley and the Christmas Market

The next day we decided to slowly make our way to Sarah‘s to pick up her car. We headed away from the city centre and towards fortitude Valley where they have a small China town and plenty of car showrooms! We were heading for a rooftop bar to have a drink, but as it was too early we killed time by druelling at the Aston Martin & Lambos we could never afford, all the while chatting as if we could one day – will have to start doing the lottery 🤔.

We made it to the bar just as it opened at 12pm and both decided to have………….. an ice coffee, last of the big spenders! As we were admiring the view we then heard from Sarah and made our way to her apartment to go and pick up the car. It was Sarah’s birthday that day so we also went (a very long winded way) to get her a card and present on the way, we also arranged to meet her in the evening for drinks. So we drove the car back to the B&B and got prepped for our evening out.

I really wanted to go to some markets which were quite far away, but we decided that we didn’t have enough time so instead we compromised on the Christmas market, which was over the river. It was quite fun because we got to go by boat – there’s a free tourist boat that takes you to several points along the river. Tom was a bit grumpy because it was too hot, still acclimatising bless him. But lucky for him (I think) there was a big storm due on the northeast coast, and pretty soon that evening we witnessed is wrath!

It was really odd going to a Christmas market in the heat, although the rain made it feel more like the UK 😂. There were the usual German sausage stalls and more Artesanal trinkets, some local,  and a very odd snow dome area thing for kids where they actually got to experience playing with fake snow. I couldn’t find anything I wanted to eat at the market, but there were loads of really yummy looking restaurants around the park area, I picked a Mediterranean and it was bloody lovely! We also had a cheeky beer.

Sarah’s birthday drinks

Luckily Sarah has planned drinks at a bar a mere 10 min walk away from out b&b, so we got the little free boat back over the river and walked to a quirky bar that was right underneath the Story Bridge! I had cider and Tom sampled the local beer. We had a really fun night catching up with Sarah and getting to know a few of her friends. We ended up moving to another bar opposite that had the oddest set up, fairly recently open they were clearly attempting to go for something different. In the middle of the 360 round bar was a tall podium/ stage thing and a dj playing on top – ok that was fine, but a saxophonist joined the dj and proceeded to play with his music at random intervals and he was shocking! (I’m allowed to say that having once played the sax to an ok standard). It was also impossible to get to the bar, so Tom and I left before the others went off to a new place back closer to where Sarah lives. We said our goodbyes as Sarah would be away when we drop the car back off after Christmas, then went to bed ready for the start of our epic road trip the following day! Eek! 😆

Road Trip Day 1: Brisbane – 1770

We had to make it all the way up to Airlie Beach for our Whitsundays trip in 2 days – over 1000 km! I’d picked a stop for us around half way to sleep, 1770, which is a well known surfer beach town. It’s named 1770 after the year Australia was “discovered” by Englishman James Cook. On the way up we chatted, played a couple of car games and (begrudgingly to Tom) did some wedding planning chat. We stopped several times en route, including in Bundaberg for lunch, most places en route were fast food joints so Tom grabbed a Red Rooster chicken meal (their own version of KFC, although they have plenty of these too of course) and I had their vege medley from there, it was yummy! Plus a coffee from the ‘gas station’ next door. We also found a petrol station for coffee that had a giant kangaroo out the back!

When we arrived at 1770 the weather was still not great, so the exotic beachy image we had in our heads for this town was a bit dispelled, however it was still pretty. We had an apt ‘Bundaberg’ juice with some fish & chips, then found a bar to grab some fancy coopers beers that quickly became Tom’s fave. You had to slowly twist the bottle upside down before opening to let the sediments mix leaving a fresh taste. We had a couple back at the hostel we’d chosen, Backpackers 1770, and chatted to some of the other travellers at the communal outdoor table. It was a lovely evening, the whole hostel had a very relaxed, hippy/ beachy vibe.

Road Trip Day 2: 1770 – Mackay

We got on the road fairly early the next morning as we had a lot of ground to cover! Another full day of driving…. for Tom 😂 I did offer but I think he was quite enjoying the no traffic, open roads. Pretty sure I fell asleep for a chunk of it 🤔oops. We then stopped in Victoria Park for lunch, finding a few bargain reduced goods from the supermarket (not particularly to scrimp, but because they had great salads and pies etc that they needed to sell and we were helping not to waste food!) we found a nice place on the riverside to eat.

Up we went to Mackay, where we’d found really random accommodation for the night, it was essentially a caravan park of static homes. It was quite nice actually in the cabin and there was a communal kitchen area to cook. Once we’d found out the facilities we went to a supermarket to grab some supplies, cooked dinner (which was an exceptionally hot task) and got a very early night in preparation for the following morning………. 😆😆😆