We had a glass of champagne as we boarded and I had a seat by the window. Take off was really good and as it was so clear I had a lovely view of Auckland.
I watched Julia and Julie and enjoyed it very much and in between I had a lovely meal of canapes, then a duck breast starter followed chicken breast, fresh asparagus, potatoes and garlic pure - all very good. A dish of fresh fruit salad and then the most delicious chocolate mousse with raspberry sauce. White wine to drink followed by coffee and a chocolate. all served on china plates and real knives and forks. Just managed to get to the end of the film and we were ready to land. These planes have a camera underneath and you can watch the landing but I was too busy looking out of the window.
We landed at 6.45 and had cleared immigration and collected our bags and were in the car on the way to the hotel at 7.02 and arrived at the hotel at 7.20 all very impressive. It was very nice having the car and driver waiting for us all courtesy of Emirates a very nice limo it was, too.
The weather was very humid and once we had checked in and unpacked what we needed for one night we set off to have a look at Brisbane. We found our way to the river and enjoyed a nice walk alongside. When we came back we took a wrong turn and it took us a bit longer to get back to the hotel! When we did a nice cold beer was called for. We were by this time very tired but felt we couldn't really go to bed at 9.00 but it was the time difference that made it hard - it was midnight in NZ and we had had a busy day!
I slept well but woke when Jon got up to go to the loo and I said What time is it? and he said 5.30 and I said What? 5.30 in the morning? And then went back to sleep. Three hours time difference seems to be worse than 12 hours.
We had a good cooked breakfast and as we couldn't pick the car up till 12.00 we went out down to the river again with a view to going on one of the many ferries. We bought a ticket to go on the River Cat and you can also use the buses and trains for a whole day, really cheap. The River Cat goes a long way up the river which we did and then we went all the way back and down the other way. In all we were on it for two hours and although it was cloudy we got very red. It was lovely to see the city from the river and there are some lovely houses along the way. We also saw the South Bank area which has a big wheel and all the arts and museum things there. Brisbane River runs through and snakes through the city with many twists and there are lots of bridges across the river. The centre has some really tall, modern buildings but there are also many old brick built buildings which we don't have in NZ.
It was then back to the hotel to collect our cases and we got a taxi to the car hire office. We asked for a map expecting a small map of the coast but instead we were given a huge book that was the size of Yellow Pages and apart from being a map is the telephone book. It certainly wasn't the size to fit in the glove box and there is no way you would want to walk off with it. I found it quite hard to use and so we made do with a tourist map I had picked up at the hotel and we found our way out onto the Sunshine Coast M'way. It was much busier than NZ but driving felt the same as in NZ.
The motorway was not like a UK motorway as some parts were just two lanes, other parts one lane in each direction and they have crossroads!!!!!! I'm glad we didn't have to use one!
The journey to Mooloolaba was good and took about an hour. We were very hungry by the time we got there and went for lunch before looking for our apartment. We both chose a burger with Turkish bread and salad and really one would have been enough to share so we were a bit stuffed. I don't usually eat burgers but this was very good and thick and juicy. While having lunch we saw a man ride past on a scooter with his dog sitting between his legs and the dog had goggles on, it looked really funny! The waitress was really nice and started to chat to us and it turns out she is a Kiwi and over in Oz since Nov to end of Jan when she goes back to uni. We didn't know it at the time but the place we had lunch was right below our apartment block. Across the seafront are lots of apartment blocks with shopping malls and bars underneath and the entrance to the apartments is usually at the back or the side.
On our way back to the car we had a tropical shower that lasted all of five minutes but we got quite wet as the spots were huge. We checked in and our apartment was on 8th floor with lovely views of the ocean to the front and the wharf to the side, you could even see Brisbane 98 kms away. The kitchen area was bigger than the kitchens in some houses and we only ever made coffee in it. There was a laundry area with washer, dryer and sink all behind what looked like cupboard doors.
We went out for a walk and later had a cup of tea before going back to unpack and get ready for dinner. We walked to the Wharf area and found a restaurant called 'See' which served lots of seafood. It was lovely and cool inside and overlooked the marina and the canals.
After having such a big lunch we really didn't feel like a huge meal so on the advice of the lady waitress and the lady who looked like the manager we chose the seafood platter which was supposed to be for one but was an awful lot of food. On it was a Moreton Bay Bug (this is like a big crayfish or maybe a mini lobster, shame about the name!) which was very good, oysters, smoked salmon, coconut crumbed prawns, tiger prawns, calamari, snapper, chips and lots of fruit like melon and passion fruit. We had a good crack at it and did very well but we did leave the chips. How one person could eat all that I don't know!
After a rest we had pudding which was a sharing dish of six different puddings but small portions of each - brandy basket with macadamia nut ice cream and strawberries, sticky toffee pudding, creme brulee, rum and raisin ice cream, vanilla ice cream and kiwi fruit all really, really good.
We bought a jar of decaf coffee on our way back and had coffee back at the apartment.
Mooloolaba is much bigger than we thought it would be and nosier than we are used to.
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