Gold Coast to Brisbane

Day 34
Wake early with the exciting prospect of the Mudgereeba show.
An agricultural show which is (as reported by the locals) 'The best on the coast'.It's just down the road from the family home so a short stroll and were in.
They've got everything here, from a puppeteer, wood chopping and cutting, Mudgereeba kung fu society, cakes and vegetable competitions and of course farm animals.

They do have rides on donkeys but far more popular are camel rides around the showground, big buggers they are as well.

After a sausage sizzle we head back to finish packing up Polly and to say goodbye to the folks (Thanks for feeding us).

On to Brisbane just over an hour up the road and to Nicky's house, which is an old 'Queenslander' A house on stilts with verhandas all the way around.

A quick stop to meet the flatmates (Gerorgia and Corey) and the two dogs (Harvey, who we have met before and Trudy).
A quick hello and we are off out in the car for a quick drive around the hood which includes Carmens old address on Springhill, the Breakfast creek hotel  where they do this new stuff 'Beer off the wood'.

I imagined a wooden drinking machine and thought we were settling in for a right session but was slightly dissapointed to find that it basically means beer out of a wooden barrel! (what a novelty).

Parked Polly in the garden and were off out for Dinner in china town followed by Cocktails at the sky bar and then everybodys favorite Karaoke.. Much the same set up as any karaoke but we kept having microphone malfunctions (Which would have never happened at DDD). Then as a measure of how drunk we were its into the Beat nightclub (An old favorite of Peters ;-])

This was followed by Mc Donalds on the way home, where having learnt my lesson previously i didnt even think about getting a family box.

Day 35
Hungover, Nicky takes us all on a magical mystery tour of Brisbane, very good it was too. We were driven through New Farm, the City, way up to Mount Cootha where we had great views back over the city.

Then back down through Paddington for a Steak at the Breakfast creek hotel (all roads in Brisbane seem to lead to that pub!)
Not a $10 mind this was a $30 monster accompanied some more of that new fangled beer off the wood (hangovers were left up the mountain i think).

Day 36
Monday morning so everyones off to work and we take the city cat (Ferry) from one end of the line to the other, meandering through the city and up to the university. We got chatting to the ticket lady who was more than helpful and ended up chatting to us for the entire 1 1/2 hour journey! Finally got off at South bank, Brisbanes cultural precinct and strolled through to GOMA and the Queensland museum.

Crossed the river to see a very helpful (at the time) national park man, who gave us loads of leaflets about the whole of Queensland.
Thought it was high time for a beer so stopped at the Belgian beer cafe and a further beer at eagle street pier before getting the ferry home.
Nicky cooked us a beautiful home cooked meal and we looked through all of the brochures given to us earlier only to find that 3/4 of them were 4WD only and so not much use to us at all....

Day 37
Cycle tour of Brisbane today so off on the ferry again to New Farm park and a converted Powerhouse come cultural centre.

The kids are on holoidays from school at the momment so it's packed and we don't stay long.
We had a route planned from a book of cycling tours but when we get going we reliase that quite a few paths were washed away in the floods and have not yet been rebuilt so its detours all over the place but that did mean we got to go through some nice suburbs and some great houses (Lots more old Queenslanders and some good modern buildings) We Follow the river through the city and through the botanical gardens after which we cross over the Goodwill bridge and stop for lunch Which turned out to be an expensive affair.
Continued following the South side of the river around and Kangaroo point and back up and over the 'Story Bridge' (I know they've got the spelling wrong but thanks for trying Brisbane)

Back down through New Farm to new farm park and the ferry home.

Tonight we have the double excitement of Yatla (Legendary) pies and the drive in movies (My first ever drive in!) Of course its old hat for Carmen and the girls and they regail us with tales from when they were kids, sitting in the boot with the back door open in their pyjamas and duvets.
First stop was the infamous pie shop and we were all salivating with anticipation.
Whilst they didnt have the same variety as our earlier encounter with Freddo's pies they made up for it in size, taste and accompanyments. The mash was good the mushy peas were very good and you get a good serving of gravy on the top. Far too big to be handled we were issued with plastic knives and forks which were compleatly useless, the knife couldnt really cut the pie and the fork couldnt really pick it up. Somehow we managed to eat the pies and drove just up the road to the drive in (Yatla has it all!)

Its brilliant, almost as i has imagined and is doubly special as there are screens at both ends of the field showing two different movies (Soemthing even the girls havent seen).
You switch off your lights and drive into the field, where you park on your own private little hill next to a little pole with a light on. Some of the poles have speakers on them to hang on your window but we simply tune the radio in and as if by magic the films soundtrack is on the radio (blind peole could live next to the drive in and listen to films every night for free!).
There is a small building in the middle of the field done up like an American diner with life sized models of Elvis and Marilyn (Monroe not Manson) and we all opt for choc tops (Ice creams dipped in chocolate) and bags of sweets. What i also hadnt really thought about the drive in is that once everybody is in their cars and the lights are off you are pretty much in your own little world and can get up to all sorts under the pretence of watching a film! (I should add that there were 4 of us in the car and there were no 'all sorts').

We were in for a double bill and so it was Carmen and I in the back for the first movie, the lights went down and the film started.
Now im not saying it was a bad view in the back but with two of us vying for position and the rear view mirror in the way i felt like asking for at least 30% of my money back...
However for the second film we swapped places and we were in the front. Now this was a lot more like it! full view of the screen, speakers blaring. Amazing.
If you are ever in Yatla of an evening you could do a lot worse than dinner at the pie shop (Bring your own cutlery) followed by a movie at the drive-in.