road trippin': to brisbane, qld

At the end of July, Shane and I got our stuff packed for our road trip, up north, to the Airlie Beach in the Whitsunday Islands. We stopped at a few places along the way and back, which we did in about a 2 weeks time. It was a bit of a rushed trip trying to fit in as much as we could in the 2 weeks but we had an amazing time, and it was our first trip together. If we had more time, we probably would have went all the way up to Cairnes but there's always another time for that.

On the road! Shane with his mo after our weekend in Brisbane and Rainbow.

So, I'll be breaking this into a few posts and first up is our weekend in Brisbane and camping at Rainbow Beach..

We left Old Bar at about 8:30 am on Friday, July 29. Went to Taree to get a few things for our trip and filled up. The day's destination was Brisbane, Queensland, which was about a 7ish hour drive. We got some pies from Fredo's along the way and I tried a Kangroo pie, which was my first time trying kangaroo meat. It wasn't too bad because it was ground up and had lots of sauce had a tiny bit of a gamey taste though. I got to see The Big Banana at Coffs Harbour on the road haha! They have this thing in Australia where they have "Big Things" all around the country. So the big banana is an example of one of the many big things! I also saw The Big Prawn in Ballina and Taree has The Big Oyster haha.

Fredo's Pies. So many choices, so hard to choose! Roo pie on the right. 

The Big Banana at Coffs Harbour

The Big Prawn at Ballina

We stopped at Byron Bay for a couple hours for a late lunch (it's about 5 hours north of Old Bar) and the weather was just a bit average, it was cloudy and a bit rainy. We had our late lunch at Burgerporto and they had delicious fries. We walked around the main street and did some shopping and went to check out the beach.

Delicious chicken burger from Burgerporto

A few pics of Byron Bay

Then we were back on the road. We got a call from one of Shane's friends and he was asking if were going to Splendor in the Grass (music festival), which was about an hour out of Brisbane, but we didn't even know that was on. If Shane would have known Splendor was on we would have left Thurs night to go to it. Anyways, we got to, Shane's friends, Ian and Tess' place at about 5pm had a few beers, ordered some pizza and chilled out. Driving for long periods of time gets to you.

The next day Tess and Ian took us around for some sight seeing. We did a nice scenic walk around the water, Botanical Gardens, Queen Street Mall, across the bridge to the other side and back around. Then we went to a beer garden for some drinks. After, on our way back we stopped at a nearby pub by their house for another drink and put on a few bets on the races.

Skyline of Brisbane

Walking through the Botanic Gardens

Another view of the city

Treasury Casino & Hotel, Brisbane Square, Over the bridge looking back at the CBD

Tourist bikes, foot bridge (pedestrian bridge), Queen Street Mall

On the bridge looking at the city, there's the Brisbane Wheel on the Promenade.

Clem Jones Promenade

Ian and Theresa, our gracious hosts for the weekend!

Had lunch at Plough Inn after our walk. Shane got a massive lamb shoulder.

Trying to make some money on his didgeridoo

Had a few drinks at the Breakfast Creek Hotel

Kids' game room

It was Shane's friend, Josh's birthday party that night so we went back home and got ready to go out. We went to a really cool, and huge pub Eatons Hill Hotel, and we had a really great time there. They have a dining area, where they had a kids room with video games (great idea to keep the kids entertained), and dining area was separate from the bar and dance area, there was also an upstairs which I only found out about the next day haha. Didn't really take many pics, we were having too much fun ;)

Night out for Josh's birthday

I really enjoyed the brief time we had in Brisbane, during our sight-seeing walk, I got a good sense of a very chilled out and relaxed vibe from the place. There's a lot of art and culture here and it's a big city without being too overwhelming like Sydney can be, also the weather is always beautiful up here. Definitely would love to come back again.

On our way out of Brisbane we visited the birthday boy at his place. Hung out for about an hour and then we were off to Rainbow Beach for night. It was a good 3 hour drive, and we drove past many tree plantations. It was really neat to see because the trees were all neat and aligned! We camped the night at Inskip Point, camping ground, about 15 minutes out of Rainbow Beach and found a really great spot right on the beach in between some trees. Waking up the next morning to the beach and waves, with the sun just risen, was simply beautiful and memorable. I've always wanted to camp on the beach and my first time couldn't have been any better than that experience.

Our little camp setup

Camping at Inskip Point at Rainbow Beach, and waking up to this.