Brisbane to Surfers Paradise

From Noosa we were very close to Brisbane, so we went for a drive to the Glass House Mountains first and stopped off there for lunch. These are 13 mountains that used to be volcano plugs and as a result they are odd shaped, but beautiful and they surround you from the lookout point.
We then drove into Brisbane on the search for a caravan park, but had no luck finding one, so drove into the city to the information centre. We were gone for all of 20 minutes and had to pay 12 dollars for parking... we were not impressed. We finally found the only caravan park near the city centre and this was 4km outside and the owner told us that the council is trying to shut them down and won't let them put any signs up, which explains why it was almost impossible to find them.
On the Saturday we packed a picnic and walked into the city. It was really hot, but any time one of us complained about walking we reminded ourselves that we were saving 12 dollars an hour on parking and that walking is both good for us and a nice way to explore the city.
We didn't see much damage from the floods and the city was really lively and nice. After some window shopping and walking through the parks and along the riverfront, we headed back to our campsite for some much needed dinner and a nice bottle of Aussie wine for me and ice cold beers for Colin.
On Sunday we met up with an old school friend of mine that I haven't seen in 16 years. Natashia still looked the same as she did when she was 10 and she told me I did too. It was great to catch up and we had a really nice lunch and did lots of chatting.
After 1 more night in Brisbane we headed to the Gold coast and stopped off in Surfers Paradise.
We were expecting a little beach town and instead we found a mini city of skyscrapers and hotel chains, but without being as busy as a city. We walked around and then had some lunch on the beach before finding a spot for the night and then came back into the centre to book tickets for the Wet n Wild water park.
We got up early so that we could spend maximum time at the water park and also hoped to miss the crowds and queues for the rides. Our favourite, but also the most scary ride, was the Tornado where we sat in a big round rubber boat and then got slid down a tube that went almost straight down into a massive funnel where we then got slid from side to side while clutching on for dear life. Colin went down backwards so couldn't gauge the drop and I went face first so could see the hilarious expression on his face... seriously priceless! There were a few other rides where you also have a massive drop and it feels like your heart stops for those few seconds until you know you're "safe" again. We also did some racing rides where Colin and I were side by side and we raced to the bottom. As I recall, I won most of them, but Colin will probably tell you different. It was such a fun day and we only had to queue once.
We spent 1 more night in Surfers paradise and next we go to Byron Bay.