DAY ONE: May 16 2008.
Boarded Air New Zealand flight 769 - an Airbus A320 For Brisbane, only learned today that we where 2 minutes late departing but thats nothing really. Before take off im re-allocated a seat up front of the economy class and before we knew it we are airborne. The flight is mostly a smooth one but with some minor bumps and thumps in between but nothing serious, Good but not excellent in flight entertainment (Thank you Ms Katherine Heigl AKA Dr. Izzie Stevens for wrecking it with that 27 dresses crap Note: this is not a personal attack on Ms Heigl who is a very good actor) On arrival in Brisbane a moment of comedy when the gangway - only recently installed broke down and it took them 5 minutes to get it working again before we where off the plane
Passport - Check. Immigration/Biosecurity Card - Check, yes weve got everything as we arrived through immigration then a moment of frustration it seemed to take forever for the luggage to arrive off the carosel, finally i got the luggage and lined up at customs, nothing to declare sir - all good go thru the geezer with the aussie accent said.
Now aboard the Brisbane Airport - Narang train, a good hour and a half journey through concrete jungles and queenslands rural heartland, upon arrival at narang this eccentric but harmless aussie dude was loitering outside the kiosk trying to talk with everybody (note: picture nathan 'metallica man' of Wellington but 10 - 15 years older) finally we board our bus to surfers driven by this chinese guy with a thick australian accent but very friendly. Got to the hotel and began the day.
A Trip around surfers was on the cars before a trip to pacific fair mall before heading to the beach. Then it was off to explore the many, many pubs around the Gold Coast ended up staggering back to the hotel - aussie beer is stronger than kiwi beer and is cheaper - at only $4.50 a pint at a place called Billys Beach Bar right across the road from the beach, sadly my night was ruined when 200+ youngsters aged under 25 in "mr men pub crawl" T-Shirts showed up and crowded the bar, unfortunatly yes it wrecked the night for now but its given me an idea for when i return to wellington - might ask the cambridge hotel to put on a similar program. Oh yeh did i mention they have a Hogs Breath Cafe and Kitty O'Sheas here in surfers as well??
Still recovering from last night but im out on the streets of surfers. Its like 23-24c outside and im intending on going back to the beach later, ill try and get some pics up of yesterday later today time permitting.
