Dedrei se opinie oor Brissie??

[Riekie]

Hey Dee, hoe was jou LSD na Brissie toe gewees? Vertel, vertel!!!.... Ons wil ALLES hoor!!

[Guest Sunshine Sister]

Howzit.

Ja, I have also been wondering how it all went and what you have to report on the subject ! Eagerly awaiting your thoughts / opinions and experiences.

Love

SS

[Dedrei]

I will get down to writing our experiences tonight, just been a bit hectic. Very tired and sitting with flu as well. Only got in bed 01.30 Monday morning.

Watch this space....

[Dedrei]

What an exhausting weekend!!!!

We arrived bright and early Thursday morning at 8.10am and took the Airtrain down to the Gold Coast where we stayed for our 4 days. This train was so amazing, we felt like we were flying over Brissie in it, was really cool getting a view of the city from above street level. Next stop is our meetup with our hostess for the weekend, Qld girl. What can I say, she is a stunning person and so helpful! Then we were off to Springbok foods Shop in Coomera somewhere I thinks. Got some good biltong, $36 worth, , but anyway, and some other goodies, total bill $140. Yeah I know, we must be crazy, but coming from Cairns, we just love having all these SA goodies right infront of us.

Then we went to go pick up our car rental, boy was this fun.... We had a really bad skedonk, some 1990 Toyota of some sorts, but was all good fun and part of our experience. Hubby was just worried that the clutch was gonna go any second. Then we just had a drive around gold coast and the beaches.

Had a really nice cozy braai with Qld girl and familly, really fantastic lady with a really infectious laugh. I totally love her

Friday, was set out for our big trek to Australia Zoo, home of Steve Irwin. First we just stopped at hubby's visit to a local dealership to chat to a guy there and he was quite impressed with hubby, but they have never sponsored or know much about 457 visas.

Well we had some fun on our way to the zoo, was about a 2 hour trip, in morning traffic on the big bridge on Gateway Mwy, can't remember the name. Bumper to bumper and we are so stressing about the cars clucth that is gonna fail or something, but we made it in one piece there and back. Was really nice there, can see that Steve spent a lot of dollars on his place and very commercialised I'll say. Finished our day off with some nice Nando's.

Saturday was our trip to Brissie. We had such a headache after driving around Brissie, that roads are just enormous and too many of them and too many roundabouts. Went up Mt Cootha, what an amazing view of Brissie and surrounds. Had some lunch there and drived down to South bank to catch the City Cat up the river. Brisbane is really huge. and the river and all the parks are truly amazing. The fact that you just hop on the City Cat(amaran) up and down the river is just amazing, public transport... speachless.

Then we went to Queens Street mall, just to have a look and experience the inner city as well. What an experience. We were awestruck by the different types of people, different cultures, was just so nice.

Sunday was our day for browsing suburbs in Gold Coast and our lunch at Mike's Kitchen. Was just so unreal eating at Mike's in Australia. Really felt like we were back home and had some nice cheese sauce and mushroom sauce for hubby. He said now we can move here, the mushroom sauce has his approval.

We also went up Mt Tamborine for the full view of GC and was just amazing. Our flight back home only arrived 23.35, so we only got in bed like 01.15, so we are really trying to catch some sleep.

To some up what we thought of Brissie/Gold Coast

• The people are much more friendlier than in Cairns
  
• The different cultures is a major plus, haven't seen any other culture than Japs in the last 3 months and I totally jumped out of my skin when I saw a muslim in traditional dress.
  
• The fact that we feel more at home and welcome, and part of something in GC and Brissie than here in Cairns
  
• We love the size of Gold Coast, not too big like Brissie and not too small like Cairns
  
• Browsing shopping centres we have found the locals to be really more welcoming and so friendly, people are more willing to help you and you hear thank you's a lot more from people
  
• The accents aren't that bad as in Cairns, you really struggle to understand what they say here and down south it seems they have a lot of British influence in their English and it sounds "normal" to us.
  
• People are just generally better dressed this side of Queensland, not just in GC, everywhere we went.
  
• Must say nothing beats the beautiful greenery we have in Cairns, don't think there is any other place in aus that is as green and as beautiful as here.
  

It all comes down to us being originally from Cape Town and are "stads japies", these Outback Jacks in Cairns are not for us.

We love GC and are looking at moving down South currently and will keep you posted on our progress.

Big shout out to Qld girl, you really made us feel at home and thanks so much for all you help and support and showing us around.

Just hope I remembered everything I wanted to say and will post some arial shots of Brissie and GC soon.

[chatterbug]

Great Stuff Dedrei! Glad you loved it - I must say I thought you'd like it more! Now for the next big move! Good luck!

C'BUG

[Dedrei]

Just to add another thing that I forgot.

We totally loved getting cold again for a change. Was just so refreshing and made us just feel more at home. Love the cold of winter. First time we had to wear our warm tops. Heaven...

C'bug, we really loved the place, might not sound like it above, was half a sleep while writing it. It gets our thumbs up :ilikeit:

Can see that hubby has that sparkle back in his eyes, so that's good!

[Queensland Girl]

Its true-its true! I SAW the sparkle at the end of the visit- and just knew!

The GC/Brissie will have some new "inwoners"soon!

How good will that be!

[JohanK]

I am glad for you Dedrei i think if one makes this move you must be happy were you live. Hope you can get there soon.

[Dedrei]

Hi julle

Hierso is die aerials van Brisbane van Mt Cootha af en Surfer's Paradise in Gold coast.

Enjoy!

[Guest Jules]

So glad to hear you and hubby enjoyed it here! I hope things go smoothly for you and you can move down here soon.

Love

Julie

[Bob]

I've retired now and a man of leisure, so when I popped round to see a Pommie mate of mine Monday last week, he told me that he'd scored a job in Currumbin, a suburb of the "Gold Coast" (which is the area on the map between the outer subs of Brisbane city southwards to the New South Wales border some 80 kms away.)

He asked if I'd like to "come for the ride", as he had to shift one of his two Land Rovers and 17' caravan to Queensland and look for a place to rent / buy while the sale of his place in Adelaide was going through.

He'd spent two years in Adelaide.

I hadn't too much to do, other than the washing and the vacuuming of the house, mopping our wooden floors once a week and digging up the vegie garden for the spring veggies to go in. . . . . . not a tough decision!

I rang the missus at school . . . . she teaches three days a week . . . . and booked the return flight for A$120 which would take 2 and 3/4 hours back to Adelaide on Saturday.

After two days hard driving across the east of South Australia, top of Victoria and up thro' New South Wales to cross the Queensland border at Goondiwindi ("Gun-der-wind-ee"), we made it thro beautiful rainforest of Australia's "Great Dividing Range" (where the rivers flow east to the coast, instead of west into the River Murray) and eventually dropped down onto the Gold Coast.

I hadn't been to Queensland for 15 years, since taking my family up to the beaches north of Brisbane to the "Sunshine Coast" for a month.

The Gold Coast had heaps of "development" in the way of jobs and building projects on the go, but the areas close to the lovely sandy beaches were obviously very "touristy" with the hamburger shops and neon lights everywhere, a gigantic Jupiter's Casino like in Las Vegas and 30 storey beach apartment blocks all over the place. . . . . great for a week or two holiday, but not everyone's ideal place to bring kids up and send them off to school!

There is a fast moving Motorway going down the whole length of the Gold Coast to the N.S.W. border from Brisbane, and the "inland" side of the Motorway, rather than the seaward side, had some pleasant suburbs and seemed a more "liveable" spot to choose to live for a family.

Wages were higher than in Adelaide . . . . hence my mate's move to Queensland . . . and the whole two or three days there driving around with him in the Land rover scouting for "nice" schools and homes was an interesting exercise for someone not into that experience . . . . made me see things like housing block sizes, shopping centres and schools from a different perspective.

Rob will get on famously up on the Gold Coast and I wish him well.

I have told him the most important bit of information too, that anyone shifting there needs to know . . . . the Gold Coast will have its own Rugby League team in Australia's National Rugby League (N.R.L.) from 2007.

What more does a bloke need in life??