We had a wonderful 10 days holiday on Brisbane (mainly) last week. We drove from Sydney to Brisbane – which is about a 1000km drive, we didn’t drive all the way though. On the way up, we stayed overnight in Coffs Harbour and on the way back we stayed in Nambucca Heads. The drive was very pleasant, it was quite scenic drive on big roads with minimal traffic. We tag teamed the drive, very thankful that Lina could drive. We thought we could’ve gone all the way in the future – but we took a conservative approach as we haven’t done that long of a drive before.

We lived in an Airbnb accomodation in Algester – which was very pleasant. We lived in a 2 storeys brand new house – we lived in the upper storey, the owner live downstairs. Our host was very friendly and accomodating – and again the property was really good – we got 3 bedrooms, the boys were very happy with having their own rooms for a week.

Our primary aim of going to Brisbane was to look at suburbs that might buy a property in. And I think it was a fruitful visit from that point of view. We also managed to travel around in Brisbane city a bit, visited South Bank and Fortitude Valley – I immediately taken by the city (compared to Melbourne for instance which was a meh for me – no offence Melbournians).

One of my personal highlights of the visit was visiting our 2 friends – one of them is our old friend from church. He is a pastor now in church in St Lucia. It is always good to see a brother in Christ and how he stays faithful and seeing his passion for the Lord and the opportunities in Brisbane and UQ in particular.

Then I visited and stayed with old friends from high school. I was floored by their welcome and hospitality. It was super nice catching up and talking about all things especially the good old days. We haven’t seen each other for almost 5 years yet it doesn’t feel that we are apart that long (if that makes sense). As a plus – our boys had a good time with their girls too.

Few interesting things happened on Friday, had a job interview via Google hangout in the morning – which was unexpectedly long about 45 mins and thank God I got the position (notified few days ago). After that we drove down to Gold Coast, had lunch with fellow property investor – which was an enlightening conversation. We then drove to Main Beach to have a swim – the weather was warm and beautiful and you can’t go to Gold Coast without swimming of course.

That’s when the low point of the holiday happened. We swam (or played in the water I guess) near a bridge in the beach (which Lina already warned that it’s not a very good idea). We did try to play a bit further from the bridge – but somehow Matt at some point went a little bit too close to the bridge and got carried away by the current towards the bridge unable to make his way back. When I saw him in trouble, I went to him straight away, I was walking towards him and when I got close to him, I suddenly realised my feet were off the sand bed – which meant there was a steep drop, no wonder Matt was in trouble. I was quite panicked too at this point – I managed to get to Matt and tried to make my way towards one of the pillars of the bridge as it seemed to be easier swim rather compared to going back.

We held on the pillar for a bit (which seems like forever) – shouted at Jeremiah to get help – people must have noticed by then. Few blokes came over to help us and we were saved. Thank God that Matt is ok, I got cuts on my arms, legs and chest from shells on the pillar – but it’s ok, as long as everyone is saved in the end – thank God.

Thankfully the rest of the holiday was pleasant. Went to a couple more of open houses on the next day, then we went to Sirromet winery – had a late and pleasant lunch with my high school friends and their girls. We stayed at their place – had a long chat until late. We went to their church on Sunday then we went to Gold Coast for lunch at George’s Paragon (really nice seafood) – after that we had afternoon coffee and it was time for us to bid Brisbane goodbye as we started our trip back to Sydney.

It was a memorable holiday – I am liking what Brisbane has to offer.