After a few hours on the road it soon became clear we were nearing Brisbane as the traffic got busier and busier. With us in a race against time to get to the camp site before the reception shut at 7pm, traffic was the last thing we needed. However, after some slightly confusing directions from me and my sat nav and some last minute lane changes by Gareth we made it with only about 10 minutes to spare! Luckily the campsite was on the outskirts of the city so we had probably missed the worst of the traffic. We got greeted by a very Welsh accent belonging to a very friendly lady who gave us lots of information about the area and explained how easy the buses are to get into the city. We quickly got set up and set about cooking tea.
 
After being woken by lots of parakeets and a few black clouds, we got up and set about getting into the city . We had decided our first priority was to sort out a few jobs which had been hanging over us for a little while now: fix the ipad which had somehow locked itself, pay Matt's speeding ticket which now only had a few days left of the 28 you are given to pay it and see about fixing Gareth's underwater camera which seemed to have sprung a leak whilst being 30m under water and had now stopped working as it had got lots of salty water in it.
 
The ipad got sorted no problems with it just being a case of resetting it, which neither of us knew you could do, we then discovered we'd forgotten to bring Matt's speeding ticket so that was still at the campsite and Gareth couldn't get his camera looked at as he'd need to find someone right out of the city. So not quite as a successful morning as we'd hoped!
 
With it now being pretty hot, we treated ourselves to a quick ice cream and we headed down to the river to get on a ferry tour. These ferry tours are free if you get on it within 2 hours of buying your bus ticket, so we thought we'd take advantage of this . Not knowing if we had even got on the right ferry as a rather grumpy man informed us that the ferry was free anyway and didn't quite understand what we were trying to ask him to find out if we were in the right place. We soon realised we may as well be talking to the seagulls outside and just got on as it was free anyway so what did we have to lose?! 
 
The ferry took us down the river and under Story bridge (Brisbane's iconic bridge which you can climb!), further down the river then back up again giving us several nice views of the city. As we returned to the stop we got on, we were confused as to whether that was the end of the trip and we needed to get off again. We asked the grumpy man and he sharply replied, "Why would get off now when you've only done half the tour?" Fair enough! He then proceeded to shoot down a young girl of about 6 or 7 who was rather excited about going to the Queensland Cultural Centre, saying, "Well yeah that's a museum!" Maybe a job involving face to face customer service isn't really for him?! We carried on the tour seeing all the rest of the city along the river then decided to get off at the South Bank Precinct . From there we could then walk along the other side of the river and back across the bridge as part of a walking tour in Gareth's Lonely Planet book. 
 
The walking tour covered lots of interesting places: 
Old Government house - which was opened in 1862 as the administrative base for Queensland until 1910, when the newly founded University of Queensland took over the premises. It reopened in 2009 after being renovated and now contains an art gallery.
Botanic gardens - this is actually the second oldest botanic gardens in Australia and was originally used as a vegetable garden by convicts!
Parliament House - completed in 1868, it was designed in French Renaissance style by an architect who beat off other designs in an architectural competition.
Cathedral of St. Stephen - early settlers funded the building of this cathedral in 1874 and interestingly the architect who designed the adjoining chapel also worked on London's Houses of Parliament.
City hall - this is a relatively new addition to Brisbane's architecture, having been completed in 1930 . It houses the Museum of Brisbane which contains a display of both contemporary and aboriginal art and ceramics.
General post office - originally built between 1871 & 1879 on the site of the barracks for female convicts, this building continues to operate as central Brisbane's main post office.
ANZAC Square - this is an attractive park which houses Brisbane's war memorial including wall plaques and tributes to those who gave their lives in war.
 
We finished the tour about 4pm so we decided on booking a table for dinner later as my Mum had offered to treat us all to a nice meal for how we all dealt with the dramas of crashing the van and getting the new one! After asking a couple of strangers in the street for recommendations of restaurants we ended up booking at The Caxton. We then headed back to the camp site to get changed. Halfway through getting ready, we decided that the place we had booked was going to be more like a Weatherspoons than a fancy meal out, so we quickly canceled that table and booked another at Cha Cha Char . After booking this we then noticed online that it was about $60 for a steak so with our drinks and things we were looking at over $100 each. This was way too much to spend, so we quickly cancelled that as well! With it now being nearly 7:30 and us all being a bit stressed about the situation we decided to leave our nice meal out until Sydney or Melbourne. So beans on toast and a can of beer on a picnic table it was! We were quickly back to reality!! 
 
The next morning we got up early again and headed back into the city. This time armed with Matt's speeding fine. Gareth had chosen a few museums he wanted to look in but we didn't fancy this so we went our separate ways. After sorting out the speeding ticket, we went for a walk around to find our postcards and souvenir magnet. We then went over the bridge to look properly around the South Bank and find the lagoon that people had recommended. After a while walking round we went back to the lagoon with an ice cream to lay in the sun and relax as we had found out there really wasn't that much for tourists to do in Brisbane unless you go to the galleries and museums . Gareth had finished his tour by now, so came and joined us and after an hour or so in the sun, Matt spotted some lads who he did the Yongala dive with playing in the lagoon. After checking a few times to make sure it was definitely them before calling out in public he went to say hi. This was Sam and Nathan, the lads who had left their food bag at the Yongala and we had delivered to their hostel for them in Airlie beach! After a quick catch up, we headed for the train station to go to our friends Natalie, Chris and Sam's house for a BBQ and drinks. 
 
We already weren't really loving Brisbane and the public transport system was doing nothing to help our opinion, what with the grumpy ferry man and now the most confusing train ticket system ever invented! After 5 minutes of trying to work out the machine, we ended up asking the girl in the queue behind us as by now the queue getting quite big. She didn't really know either but tried her hardest to help! We ended up with some kind of ticket, but I'm not convinced they were the right ones! Nevertheless, we managed to get all the way to where Natalie & co . were living where Chris came and met us and walked us to their apartment (via the bottle shop of course!). We couldn't believe how lovely the apartment was, they were renting it furnished and that made it feel so homely with all the little ornaments and nicknacks about! Then when we stepped out onto the balcony we were taken aback by the beautiful view of the city. We had a really lovely evening catching up with them and hearing about what they have been up to since we last saw them and the food was absolutely delicious! Natalie works as a nanny for a very rich family and her boss is a bit of a shopaholic when it comes to food so most of the meat was from her. As you can imagine it was all top quality and there was so much!! Once it got late, we ordered a taxi to take us back to the campsite as none of us fancied working out the ticket system again, especially now after a few drinks! 
 It was a really lovely evening, thank you Natalie, Chris & Sam! Xx
 
The next morning, we got up and packed up the van before checking out and setting off on our journey to the Gold Coast, first stop Surfers Paradise!
 
Looking back at our time in Brisbane, it never really stood a chance! None of us are city lovers, we much prefer to be near a beach and sea! And after travelling along the coast, stopping at one beautiful beach town after another, heading into the traffic and hustle & bustle of a city gave us a bad first impression! Brisbane would probably make a great place to work if you are looking for an office job but with very little history or places of interest, there isn't a great deal for tourists.