29.04.2014 - Brisbane - Noosa

It was time to say goodbye to Tash and thank her for spending the time with me and letting me stay at
her place. She dropped me off in Brisbane city on her way to work, which was quite early and so I had
some time to sit at the river in the morning sun to wait for my rental car pick-up. I really enjoy sitting next
to water, watching it flow by and watching the people going to work or doing workout.
At 10AM I picked up my VW Golf and stopped at Aldi (unlike in NZ they have Aldi in Australia, Aldi South
of course) to buy some food and water for the travel. I can't get used to the look of a German car with the
steering wheel on the 'wrong' side, it just doesn't look right.
After driving for about an hour I made a stop at the Glasshouse Mountain, Australia can look quite European
or even Kiwi like in some places. It took me about 2-3 hours to get to Noosa with some small stops in between.
The apartment in Noosa was lovely and the Landlord a really relaxed guy, a Kiwi in fact. Had a nice chat with
him and he showed me a video of the Hamburg Wonderland toy trains. He would love to go there one day.

After getting into shorts and t-shirt (finally it was warm enough to get even me to put those on) I went down to
the beach and walked around there for a while. Felt really good having sand under my feet and the waves
coming and going.
I also saw some white pointers, really I couldn't complain about the view (let's see who get's that :D ).

28.04.2014 - Brisbane

Natascha was awesome and took a day off and so I got a personal tour of Brisbane. Even so it was raining
from time to time we hopped on a boat and did the Brisbane-River-Cruise. I always like doing boat tours,
especially when just being somewhere for a short time, cause it gives you a unique perspective of a city and
you also get some information about the city you wouldn't get by just walking through it.
After the boat cruise we headed for the city centre cause I needed an Australian SIM-Card and we also wanted
to go up the city hall watchtower. It was a lovely view from up there and the small museum in the city hall was
nice as well. We then got something to eat in a food court and drove to the Koala sanctuary afterwards.

Well Koalas are really lazy and relaxed animals, in fact they hardly moved at all but managed to look cute even
in the most ridiculous positions. The sanctuary was basically a small zoo with almost every native Australian
animal. There were Dingos, Cassowary, Flying Foxes, Opossums, Emus and of course Kangaroos and two
Platypus!
We walked into the Kangaroo corral flanked by to Emus, weird feeling walking right next to these huge birds. At
the far end of the corral were at least 20-30 Kangaroos lying around or eating. You could go up close and feed
them. They were not shy at all and seemed to be really friendly and cute ... as long as you feed them. Natascha
was holding a bit back with the feeding and so that Kangaroo was really demanding. I on the other hand
seemed to manage better and all those little buddies I feed were happy.

We ended the day with some yummy sushi and went to bed early.

27.04.2014 - Wellington - Brisbane

First day of my adventure to Australia and the Cook Islands. The day started early cause my flight left Welli
at 7AM. Jörg was so kind to drive me to the airport at an ungodly hour. Thanks mate! After almost hopping
on a wrong plane the journey was a smooth one. I arrived in Auckland on time and even though my plane
there left with 15min delay we arrived 15min early in Brisbane. Makes you wonder what the plane usually
does in this half hour.
At Brisbane airport Natascha and Richard picked me up. It's been about 9 years or so since I have seen her
the last time and it was wonderful seeing her again. It was almost like we've meet just last week and not 9
years ago at the Uni. Fantastic to know people like that!
After we had a Currywurst for lunch at a German cafe/bakery I got a nice tour through Brisbane, up to the
lookout with a nice view over Brisbane and after that a small nature tour.
Natascha's housemates were really nice as well and there Staffordshire Terrier Astro guarded me while
unpacking my bags. After talking a lot about whats going on in our life's and the good old times I went to bed
and fell asleep right away.

Haven’t been doing much the last weeks but making mixes and listening to music on the weekends.
Lazy times!

Well and planing/booking flights and hotels for my trip to Australia and the Cook Islands. Only three
weeks to go. :)