OK what can we say other than we never not enjoy our time in Brisbane. Can highly recommend hiring a few bikes in the city gardens and hitting the fantastic cycle-ways of Brisbane, well organised, plenty of room and ease for non-experienced riders. It was Lu's first baby seat experience and tells us the investment of new bikes, seats and helmets will be worth it along the way.
Grab yourself a pair of Teva's, no I'm not working for the company, these are the most comfortable walking shoes so far. Well worth the cost, the manipulation with your teenagers who claim they are not "cool", but believe me after the arguments, within a few hours of a warm day they will realise as jake did they are in fact "cool".
keep plenty of change handy, Brisbane has little or no free parking, not that we could find. I hear you can get discounts if you eat and park in the big parking centres, we didn't find any, the street parking is at least $3.20 per hour, which adds up for a full day out and worth parking out of the city and using public transport, travelling cities is never cheap, but shop around for alternatives.
The petrol was worth keeping a track of. It varied in locations by over 10c per litre. We managed to find 1.08 at Enoggera if you buy milk and bread, staple with a family !!! and as we have headed nth to Bundie it has been pretty cheap, especially when you compare it to NSW. You can't do without it, but why waste money better spent on memorable experiences than spitting out the back of the car?
Kids are hanging in there, late night trips don't work well - permanent note, need to be more organised. Being able to stop whenever to sort out minor disagreements and find "lost forever" items helps, as well as setting a few ground rules.
We invested in seat organisation packs for each of their seats, which seems to give everyone a little territory of their own and keep things together. We are yet to purchase another digital camera, which I believe will aleviate the "sharing" of the cheap digital camera for the kids. I know sharing is all part of this trip, but there are some battles we can win and some we just can't and sibling rivalry has been widely accepted for thousands of years, we are not going to evolve that far in one trip around Australia - oh...yeah...pray as well who knows it may help?
Keep handy a few fuses for the car and who knows what else could blow when someone forgets to turn off the power converter in the car to power up the small things (eg Mum's laptop !!!), it gives off a nice bang and shorts out the cigarette lighters and dashboard lights.
whilst the containers were annoying previously, I can now see why I thought they would be a great idea and unloading at Bundaberg was with great ease, then finding what we needed, the school work box, which seemed to be hidden towards the back etc and much easier to keep track of everyone's things.
we finally found a cheap trailer lock - Bunnings just under $30.00 to keep the trailer secure, as well as a few padlocks, chain for the basket on top etc, feel better now jumping out for a few rest stops and knowing everything will be as safe as we can get it.
time- out - take it when you can get it. I'm still the early bird and take this time to catch up with everyone. Not sure how this will change after we leave behind friends and family who are great support and company.....
We called into Oz Zoo and whilst it took us 5 minutes to decide to spend nearly $150 for the entry for a family of 5 (under 3 for free), we would do it again in a second next time around. The message about conservation and lessons for children about wildlife were well worth every cent. Especially for those heading up north, the safety tips regarding those species at the top of the food chain gave the kids food for thought. I have never seen a Zoo which looked less like a Zoo, so clean, well thought out, the inspiring landscaping and imagination into the presentation and lay-out of the entire complex requires a whole day to enjoy the best. We arrived a lunch and wished we could have stayed longer and will certainly return in the near future.
I gather the wet season is on the way, we've had nothing but drizzle, then sunshine, then drizzle, then rain since arriving 3 days ago in Bundaberg. Will venture out a little, get down to Fraser, get off the road a little and take in a few sites. Will probably stay now until Thursday which will be time to have Jake's stitches checked and hopefully taken out, then take it easy until he is back to his normal self (does that happen?) then who knows where...stay tuned
