New Year, New Adventure

It's been almost one week in Brisbane now - well, it feels like a whole week but really it's just five or six days now.

Despite a bit of jetlag, (we've been getting up between 4 and 6), we've seen some beautiful and amazing things this week. To start off, is our pool, in which I know we'll spend lots of time.

Then, we went to the beach in downtown Brisbane,

Southbank (like a big amusement park/water park/man -made beach near the river and the city centre - we took the city ferry to get there),

Redcliffe beaches (about 4o minutes drive from our house), Mount Coot-tha which has views of the city and a gorgeous botanical gardens,

And today, the koala sanctuary - a present from Auntie Ang and Uncle Ron.

No, we didn't make it to midnight for New year's eve last night, but we were up at 6 am and Adam went for a run. That is probably a first. We're up now, though, as the Canadians prepare to celebrate New Years in about 18 minutes. We will raise a glass!

The running paths near our house are awesome, and running before 7 am is not at all lonely. In fact, it must be the best time of the day to get out there.

A lot of people had told us that Brisbane reminds them of Calgary, but we don't really think so. In some ways I think of Vancouver, and in others San Francisco (specifically, the hills - I'm glad we have an automatic transmission!!) It's cool that there are a lot of local businesses. Today, we stopped at a "fresh food market" we had seen yesterday, just a few minutes from home. It turned out to have not only great prices on produce, but also beautiful local and imported (mostly Italian) delicacies. I've just finished a great snack of herbed cheese, lemon olives, basil/cashew dip and crackers by the pool side...oh and of course some Australian wine to accompany it!

We also bought a tent yesterday, which we are going to take up the Sunshine Coast a couple of hours to a place called Noosa. It's reported to be very beautiful. We'll let you know how it goes.

Until then, wish us luck with staying on the left hand side of the road!

xo

Jules