From England To Australia - The Adventure Continues

I'm writing this blog post from Gold Coast, Australia. I've moved halfway around the world since I last had a chance to sit down, collect my thoughts and blog. What a trip it's been! Let me bring you up to speed....

Our Last Day In England

Here's some photos from our last day in England. As you can see, I took a jog through a local park which the hotel receptionist suggested might have deer for me to see. I was expecting a fleeting glimpse of Bambi as she ran from me, terrified (as is usually case the in US).

Well, things are considerably different over here. The deer were just loitering around, clumped together pretty much oblivious to me. I was informed later, if I had wanted to, I could have fed them.

How they keep so many deer in one spot without them becoming a nuisance to the town is beyond me.

Other highlights of the day included working from a quaint little pub. I had the perfect seat next to the fireplace. Perhaps the pint of beer was the key to making it such a relaxing place to work?

Flying from England To Australia

Our trip from England to Australia was remarkably uneventful. No lost luggage, or messed up meals. Like our flight to England, it went smooth as could be. In theory, the flight is pretty long (about 12+ hours to Singapore, 7+ hours to Brisbane), but with my 3+ hours of battery life on my laptop and 50 movies available to watch, it went by pretty quickly.

Brisbane

We flew into Brisbane instead of Sydney, and it turned out to be an excellent choice. Brisbane was the perfect city to contrast London, and our previous surroundings in UK. It's bright and sunny, down right hot, small, and with the oldest building in town from the 1820's, it's brand spanking new.

We traipsed around the city, seeing the highlights such as city hall, the man-made beach and the botanical gardens. By 3pm, jet lag had kicked in and were barely able to function.

We dragged ourselves back to the hotel and took a much needed 3 hour nap. We then woke up, went to dinner (for slightly above average pumpkin pizza, and a below average Spanish omelet) and came back and crashed.

Jet lag is truly amazing.

Hiking in Lamington National Park

After a day of walking around the city, we wanted to get out into nature so we hit Lamington National Park. It was an excellent rain forest to hike in and provided some really nice views.

By far the most exciting part of the trip was the drive up and down the mountain. Yikes! Even if we had been driving on the right side of the road (which of course, we weren't), it was still crazy scary with the sharp turns and narrow roads. But we made it in one piece, no problems.

The Gold Coast

45 minutes away from Brisbane is the Gold Coast, and the intriguingly named Surfers Paradise. We spent the night here and woke up to another wonderful day of sunshine and beaches.

And that brings us to right now. Whew, what a trip so far.

As for what's next? I'm not sure. At the moment, I'm going to do a bit of work and then perhaps hit the beach? How can you not at a place with paradise in the name?