Brisbane: Beautiful one day, perfect the next.

That is the unofficial slogan of Brisbane. Today, we found out why.

Now that we have started actively searching for an apartment, we have come to some harsh realizations. Firstly, there are many, many units to choose from, but many of them aren’t fully furnished as we had hoped. This isn’t a massive problem, as there is an IKEA near Brisbane that delivers to the city for a small charge, and there are also many second hand shops to find furnishings. We intend to search a bit more tonight and tomorrow, and hopefully see some units on Sunday and early next week.

Today Uncle Errik was gracious enough to take us down to the Gold Coast, which is more or less the trendy beach area in Queensland. The amount of development down there is just amazing. There is a small city of condos, apartments, and hotels along the beach. Restaurants, shops, casinos, markets, you name it and it’s there. The area is of course very affluent, and as this is ‘winter’ it is the off season, so the traffic is minimal. Not that it would matter, as the beach is more than 30km long and is full of fluffy sand. The water is just gorgeous and even with strong winds it was very warm, as was the water. We just had a blast jumping into the waves and walking on the beach.

After our beach time we had lunch at a nice café with a great view. I had myself a kangaroo burger and it was pretty darn good. Tasted a bit like elk and buffalo mixed together. I also had some Bundaberg ginger beer. Once again we were mistaken for Americans, but no worries. No one seems to care either way. The Yanks don’t seem to make it down under too often. Backpackers do make it down from time to time, but family vacations or sun lovers seem averse to the trip. I’m glad they are, but they are suckers for sticking to California, Miami, and Mexico. The Gold Coast is like the best kept areas in California but always warm with great waves for surfing.

Lunch was followed with a car ride to more seaside sights, and we even got a bit into New South Wales. On the way back I was informed that Uncle Errik needed me to drive his car home from the mechanic, where he was to pick up his daughter’s car. That’s right folks, day three and I was driving in Australia! I had been trying to figure out all the ways cars can come at you on the way down to the Gold Coast, but you can never fully understand the beast without diving right in. Suffice it to say I rocked the challenge and no one was any worse for wear. The hardest parts of driving in Australia are: looking to the left for the rear view mirror, shifting with your left hand, keeping your car on the right hand side of the lane, and right turns into the left lane! It’s not for the faint of heart, but as Uncle Errik says, it was “No drama.”