Queensland trip - Part 2

Picked up some fresh fruit & vegetables from a road side market stall just past Gympie to bring back to Maxine & Neil's new home. The road trip took us about 5 hours & was a good trip.

Big day out to DFO & Costco, Brisbane. Maxine, Neil, Caroline, Ian & Deb all enjoyed a lovely day out, we all picked up a few bargains & enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Hamilton Hotel.

Ian & I had an afternoon cuppa at Mum and Dad's, where we saw some cute photos of little Deb, her Sisters & Mum & Dad from the precious years before.

Sunday, and Neil & Maxine took us for a scenic drive along the Sunshine Coast roads & saw Noosa which was heaving with people both on the streets & in the restaurants, pubs & clubs. We had a delicious lunch out & drove back through M'ba.
We also had a walk around Max and Neil's neighbourhood, to see all the new development. Huge numbers of new roads, parks and houses being built. Interesting that they lay polystyrene blocks under the reinforcing mesh, before concrete pouring. Most houses are also wood framed, not double brick.

Tuesday Dad drove us to Baroon Pocket Dam, just out from Maleny which was once dominated by Bunya Pines emerging as tall as 50 metres from subtropical rainforrest. 180 million years ago, giant sauropod dinosaurs dined on Bunya nuts and spread the seeds. Fossil trees closely related to Bunyas have been found in Europe and South America. Gradually the ancient Bunyas dissapeared from around the world remaining only a few pockets of basalt soils in Queensland. Two of the biggest forests of Bunyas are in the Blackall Range and in the Bunya Mountains.

Baroon Pocket has some areas of tall eucalypt forest. Tallwwood Eucalyptus microcorys are food for Koalas Phascolarctos cinereus,considered locally vulnerable today.

We saw the butterflies, birds & a racehorse goanna nearby sunning itself & what a lovely sight to see.

On the way we stopped to view the countryside at Gerrard & then Dulong Lookout. Both with spectacular views of the countryside.
Thanks goes to Deb's Mum for making us all a lovely picnic, thankyou Mum.

The Dam itself is always full to overflowing as it received 2000mm annual rainfall. The water is for local household use.

We caught the brink of a sunset as we returned to Maxine & Neil's home. It is beautiful from where ever you are in the world, isn't it.

We had a chillaxing day the next day in preparation for our trip the following day to Brisbane.

Drive to Brisbane from the Sunshine Coast
On our way down to Brisbane we took the opportunity to do a Sunland caravan Factory Tour. It's always interesting to see innovative construction methods, including lightweight composite panels, and get new ideas for our future caravanning adventures.
Special thanks to Caroline for picking us up from the car rental drop off location in Brisbane & driving us to our accommodation.

The Point hotel was our chosen accommodation, at Kangaroo Point for our 3 night stay. We enjoyed our stay here. The Staff were very acomodating.

Exploring Brisbane
We chose to take a free Ferry ride into Brisbane, followed by free bus to view the City Centre.

Look what we found at Myers...See these new innovative items from LitmusLab.com.au
The helmet, called Livall, had 24 vent airflow, improving airflow, immediate notification of any accident you may have, indicators for left and right turn, one touch phone pick-up, communication with fellow riders, Bluetooth music and more.

What a table! Bluetooth music and also recharge compatable phones just sitting on top of this glorious table.

We took a Taxi to Southbank to see the Markets & street art.

Also at the Southbank is the Epicurious garden.
A community area where fruit, herbs and vegetables are grown, and sold on a few days a week.

Some of the street art on offer include:

Finally, a big shout out to Maxine and Neil, for their patience, laughter and putting us up at their place.

We have arrived home to Busselton safe & sound @ 5.40pm. Thanks to Rob & Rose who picked us up and had some grocery essentials for us. How thoughtful of the.
It was a big day at the office for us both. Our trip started at 6.45 am for the travel leg. After a Caroline uber/driving us to the airport. Thanks Sis. The plane flight from Brisbane was delayed 30 minutes as a passenger boarded then decided not to fly so the airline had to find the passengers bags and offload them, then repack the remaining passengers luggage. We turned our clocks back during flight 2 hours to get back to WA time.
Lucky we had time in between our bus pickup time. We had a smooth flight. Upon entering the WA boarder with our G2G ready we were met with a posse of Police checking all of the passengers G2G passes. 50 passengers were allowed to exit the plane at any one time. Ian & I were met by one Policeman who said, Ian wasn't allowed in with that jumper. It was his Man City jumper. The Policeman was a Liverpool supporter. With our passes all in order, he had no choice but to let us into WA. We had a brief wait till the South West Coach lines bus arrived to take us home. Chris our driver got us safely back to Busselton without a hitch. Rose & Rob kindly brought us home. So after 13 hours travel we are very happy to be home.
Have a great week everyone!