Gold Coast Apartment 
We decided to try and find someone that had a room for rent to stay with instead of staying in a hostel. We ended up finding one in Surfer's Paradise. It's not too far of a walk to the main area of the town and to the beach. The guy that owns the place is rarely here. He works in Brisbane, so leaves at 6am and doesn't get back until around 7pm. It basically feels like we have the place to ourselves.

This morning, we headed out so Joe could try some more surfing before the sun got too hot. It wasn't great, but he still was able to catch some waves and have some fun. Since then, we've basically been at the apartment getting some work done. Nothing too exciting.

-Miranda


Australian Coot and young with Iguana watching from the water in the Botanic Gardens in Brisbane.

Sunset view of the place we're staying (we're on the 11th floor).

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Gold Coast 
We ended up leaving Brisbane and talking the train south to the Gold Coast. We found a hostel here and are staying for maybe a few days.

This morning we walked to "Surfer's Paradise" to check it out. We rented a surf board so Joe could play in the waves some. Unfortunately, we picked a bad place to start. He was basically in a river and spent basically all the time paddling. When we moved to a different area, he was definitely more successful. I went out and played some, but I've mostly decided that surfing isn't for me. I really don't like getting beat up by the water. :)

-Miranda

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Train to Brisbane 
Yesterday, we left Katoomba and headed back towards Sydney. Unfortunately, as soon as we got off the train, Joe wondered where his jacket was... He had left it in the kitchen at the hostel. Whoops. At least it was the blue Columbia one instead of the nicer wind/rain jacket. Hopefully we'll be sticking to warmer areas so he shouldn't need it.

Anyway after finding lunch, we headed back to the train station to decide what to do next. Our general plan was to head to Brisbane, but we couldn't decide if we should do a hop-on hop-off bus or train. After looking at maps and prices and thinking about it more, we decided to just take the deal they were offering and take the train straight to Brisbane. We had no idea where a good place to stop would be, plus we just don't have enough time to see 'everything'. There looks like there's plenty to do around Brisbane. I'm sure we'll be kept busy.

The train left at 4:12 yesterday and arrived at 6:30 this morning. Since then, we've been wondering parks and trying to decide on a place to stay. Lots of parks around, so it should be fun.

-Miranda

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Hiking 
We spent the following day working and relaxing around the hostel since it was raining. However, on Wednesday, we headed back out for a hike. This time, we went down a different staircase and worked out way back to the "Great Staircase". The walk was gorgeous with some pretty waterfalls along the way.

There is a veggie and fruit shop next door where the prices don't seem too bad. We found dinner of gnocchi and veggies, which turned out super delicious.

Today, we decided to take the train to Blackheath. From there we walked about 7k down a road to a spectacular look out. We had heard the "hanging rock" was there, so we searched for that, which was just a short trail away. We climbed out onto it to get an amazing view of the valley. A bit freaky, but very neat. The walk was tiring, but we finally didn't have to walk up or down any stairs.

We were thinking of going out for dinner, but then Joe mentioned making nachos. So, we found corn chips (surprisingly, Doritoes makes plain, salted chips), some beans, cheese, lettuce, olives, an avocado and a tomato. They were super yummy. :D

-Miranda


A better photo of the same type of parrot.

Purty waterfall.

The hanging rock. Joe is on the left. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good photos of it since I can't see what I'm taking a photo of. :)

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Blue Mountains 
This morning we got up, packed and headed for Central Station. We rode the train to Katoomba and found a hostel to stay at. Unfortunately, their private rooms were all booked, but the dorm we're in is really quiet. Their internet is free and they have free breakfast in the morning, so that will be a nice change.

Once we got set up, we headed to Echo Point where the start of walks into the valley and into the national park are. The hike really wasn't long, but you had to walk down stairs that went down the valley wall. They were super steep. There were apparently 900 steps. That was just going down. The trail was very pretty and had a view of a gorgeous waterfall.

From there we reached the place to head back up the valley wall. We could cheat and take the sky tram, but we decided to take the Furber Stairs instead. There were some beautiful sites along the way, so even though it was pretty tough, we're definitely glad we went that route. Along the trail we ended up seeing a few parrots. They were bright red with blue on the tail, head and wings. We also got to see (and hear) Black Cockatoos. Very fun.

After we completed the hike (it took us 3.5 hours), we headed back into town to find dinner. The Thai restaurant we found was very good. They didn't include rice with their meals, which was a little odd, but it was still delicious.

-Miranda


A view of the Three Sisters. They're a main land formation in this area of the park.

A small section of the stairs on the way back up. Some of the stairs were metal, but most were carved directly out of the stone wall.

Some more stairs. If you click on the photo and then look near the patch of sunshine, you might be able to see two red spots. Those are parrots. ;) That's what I get for breaking my camera.

An amusing sign telling us which way the trail goes.

Another view of the Three Sisters while the sun was working on setting.

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