We arrived in Brisbane early afternoon on the 5th of April and it was nice an warm even if the skies were a little grey. We could tell it was getting warmer, the further North we were traveling. It was very exciting seeing Kristina and Mike again, especially since they are having a baby very soon!! When we arrived at their apartment, just outside of Brisbane, we had some drinks and caught up little before going to Kristina’s mum, Gunilla, for dinner. Gunilla’s house was only minutes away and it was great to see Gunilla again and also meet Kristina’s dad Barry for the first time. Kristina who grew up in this house took us for a tour of the house. Before dinner Gunilla had us harvest a pineapple from her garden. To our, or at least my, surprise this grew on a little bush and not a tree as I thought! After this, we had a very tasty chilly fish, that Kristina’s mum is famous for and I can understand why, it really was very good!
 
The next day (6th of March) we traveled 45 minutes to Surfer’s Paradise and had a swim and a look around. It was fun to see, since one has always heard so much about it. After that we went to have a gorgeous steak for lunch back in Brisbane. This was followed by a trip to Garden City mall, were we had a quick look around and then went to the movies, so called Gold Class movies. Mike had been very secretive about this part of the day (Kriss was eager to tell us, but Mike wanted it to be a surprise) and we were excited to learn, that we would enjoy very comfortable reclining seats and being served drinks, ice-cream and other goodies through out the movie. After this, we all said we never wanted to go to the regular movies again! After a busy day we relaxed at the apartment in the evening.
 
We probably had one of our most busy days throughout our whole trip on the 7th of March. In the morning Kristina and Mike had to go a doctors appointment for the pregnancy, so Peter and I just hung out at a café for a bit. When they returned we all went to The beautiful South Banks, where we had breakfast at a restaurant down by The Brisbane River. The weather was lovely and breakfast was tasty. Then we went for a walk through the Botanical Gardens to get to the pier where Kristina and Mike had book us all on a cruise along The Brisbane River. While enjoying the sights of the River we also enjoyed cheese and wine, which was included in the tour. This, while an unusually small and somewhat strange man, who I believe was the boat’s captain told us about Brisbane. Unfortunately, we couldn’t hear a word he was saying but that was fine and we went onto the deck and enjoyed the sun. After the boat tour, we continued to enjoy The area of South Banks and I cooled my feet off in the water at the very nice man made beach (there are sharks in the Brisbane River and for obvious reasons one can’t going swimming there). We strolled along the River to the museum for an interesting and colorful exhibition featuring Andy Warhole. At the exhibition, there was the possibility to have your photo taken and rearranged to look like the famous Andy Warhole pictures with four pictures in one, each fourth being in a different shade. This was fun but for some reason Peter and I kept on looking like complete morons in our photos haha… After this we had dinner at a very tasty Turkish restaurant still in South Banks, followed by a comedy show at the theater. Mike and Kristina had arranged for the best seats and we really, really enjoyed the show. Also, it felt good to finally take on something cultural during our vacation! After this I started to feel quite sick like I was coming down with a cold, Peter and Mike felt it a bit too, so we headed off the pharmacy for some drugs…
 
The next day, 8th of March, we all felt a little better after a sleep in and we did a trip to the mall Carindale. I enjoyed shopping, whilst the others went to a movie, 10’000 BC. While at the mall Kristina and Mike also showed us the very spot where the met in the children’s toy department. Then back home for a a rest, before we went to the Mount Coot-tha Lookout and The Summit Restaurant which offered a great view of Brisbane by night. After dinner we were supposed to go to a desert place in The Valley in the city, that Kristina really wanted to take us to but unfortunately the line was half way around the block and we decided to change our plans. We went to “Cold Rock”  instead, where you can pick lots of goodies to be crushed and mixed in with your ice-cream and then headed home.
 
On the 9th of March, Kristina and Mike very kindly drove us 2,5 hours North of Brisbane to Noosa, where we were to start the part of our trip that would be carried out by Greyhound bus. When arriving in Noosa we where all starving and headed staright for lunch along the main street of Noosa. After lunch we headed for the beach and had a lovely walk and foto session. We also caught a qlimtz of a surfing contest! Then we headed back to the mainstreet of Noosa, had ice-creams and checked out a little gallery with some really great nature pictures of Australia. Then it was unfortunately time to say good-bye and Krisitna and Mike headed off home and Peter and I waited for our ride North at the bus-station… We couldn’t believe how much we had managed to fit in during or time in Brisbane, this of course all thanks to Kristina and ike’s very well planned tour of all of the best Brisbane has to offer! Kristina and Mike, we really can’t thank you enough, we had an amazing time!