Bye Bye Brisbane

In the last 4 months, we have come to love Brisbane and its residents, made new friends, celebrated parties, spent many hours by the pool, and discovered a second home for ourselves.

Laser tag with Chloe

Our room in Petrie Terrace with Punam turned out to be a great find. Lots of space and a large terrace with a great view for ourselves. And we definitely shouldn't forget the restaurant 'Tibetan Kitchen', above which we lived, where we always had delicious meals. :) Punam, her friends, our roommates, and some colleagues have become like a second little family to us. So the goodbye was a bit hard.

Financially, we are hopefully well-prepared for our upcoming journey through the rest of Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. Not only have our regular jobs contributed to this, but also the occasional favor for Punam and Co. The job search was a bit difficult at the beginning. After a week, Kenny found a job as a tiler and shortly after that, Krissi started two jobs as well. During the week, she worked at Burger Project almost every lunchtime, and on the weekends, she usually served guests at the pub and restaurant 'Lord Alfred', which she really enjoyed. She met nice colleagues there who also liked to go out with her outside of work. (we have left out other short-term employments of Krissi here for the sake of brevity)

Meanwhile, Kenny developed a liking for tiling. First, he helped with the construction of the restaurant 'Mercado', where both the floor and the walls and bar counters were tiled. He was mainly involved in grouting according to his colleagues. The mosaic tiles in the restaurant created a great picture in the end. When this project was finished, he continued to help his colleagues with tiling in Pimpama, where a sports bar with a restaurant was being built. There, too, thanks to Kenny's help, there were beautifully tiled floors and walls in the end.

When we wanted to leave at the end of October, Punam convinced us to stay a while longer to renovate a shower in one of her houses. The shower's waterproofing had a leak, causing water to flow into the ground floor below. Together, we renewed the shower including the floor and walls. We poured concrete, tiled, and installed the new shower. The result looks good and we are proud of what we have achieved.

On Monday, November 12th, we packed all our belongings into boxes again and successfully stowed them in the car. Our first stop was the Daisy Hill Koala Sanctuary. Here we learned a lot about the cute animals and were able to observe four koalas under care up close. Although these are now doing better, they unfortunately cannot be released back into the wild due to trauma or consequential damage from illness and injury.

Immediately afterwards, we went to a free campsite in Beenleigh, right by a small lake. The first night back in the car was surprisingly comfortable and restful.

On Tuesday, after waking up, we went straight to Pimpama. We checked out Kenny's work there since the restaurant is already open and Krissi wanted to see it too.

Since it was quite windy, we decided against the beach and went to Mount Tamborine instead. The first attraction was the so-called Gallery Street. A whole street filled with small shops, restaurants, and especially ice cream cafes. For lunch, we finally had a homemade BBQ again. A sweet cat kept us company for quite a while here, and we tried out Kenny's birthday present, an Aero Ring.

We then decided to go for a short hike to Chase Witches Waterfall. Unfortunately, it was quite disappointing as there was hardly any water flowing. (Maybe we are a bit spoiled by now) Our highlight was seeing a large iguana again.

We spent the night at a campsite right by Mount Tamborine in Canungra. It was located by a beautiful little stream.

On Wednesday morning, we were woken up by loud birdsong. After a long and cozy breakfast in the sun and by the sweet little stream, we went to the supposed highlight and tourist magnet, the Curtis Falls. There was a short walkway through the touristy rainforest, and the waterfall was also quite nice. ;) We were lucky to have a moment alone between two tourist groups at the waterfall.

After that, we went to Cedar Creek National Park. Here, 3 swimming holes promised some cooling off. At the beginning, Kenny didn't dare to go into the water because it was quite cold and the ambient temperature was not that warm. But he was convinced again by the opportunity to jump from a rock into one of the swimming pools.

We are currently sitting in a small park in Beenleigh, charging all our devices. The ducks next to us are quacking for food in the lake, and numerous white cockatoos are flying screeching and chasing each other through the air. We want to spend the night again at the free campsite in Beenleigh.

In the next few days, we plan to go to Gold Coast, Byron Bay, and continue heading south.