Day 119 - Brisbane

I left Byron bay yesterday noon, after waving goodbye to the 7 guys I share the apartment with (bye smelly boys, bye dirty dishes and piles of empty beer cans and pizza boxes in the kitchen every morning) and swapping my books at the book exchange.

Marc and Helena were also leaving on the same day. Fortunately most people were staying in Byron for xmas, so we had the mini bus to ourselves. It was a 1 hr drive to surfers paradise, where we were picking up some more people, and because we were running late, we stopped off at a beach on the way.

It was a lovely beach, and the white sand was so fine that it squeaked as we walked over it, and I was shaking the stuff out of my clothes for hours afterward.

Naff beach picture



After we picked up the lot form surfers paradise (4 brits, 5 canadians), we had a suprise - we were going zorbing! Zorbing is a crazy thing invented by the Kiwis (no surprises there) that involves climbing in a huge inflated ball with water in it, and rolling down a hill. Marc, Laura and I volunteered to go first...

Rolling down the hill



Climbing out




It was so much fun, 6 seconds of the ball bouncing/rolling down the hill and us 3 sliding around inside and laughing our socks off. After it finished we decided to be 'speed bumps' i.e. lie in the path of the oncoming ball. That was also funny, like getting whacked on the back by a huge beach ball (which is, I suppose, essentially what was happening)

The Zorb ball team photo



We arrived in Brisbane at about 6. Brisbane is the capital of Queensland, and the 2nd largest city, in terms of area, in the world. It sucks a bit if you don't have a car, but there is still quite a lot to do: I want to go to the koala sanctuary, the zoo and the dolphin resort. I can't wait to hug a Koala - cuuuute! But today I'm going to be all active and go to the gym - need to work off the yoghurt and pancakes I ate for brekkie.