2015/03/20-21) … after the fast drive up north, the slow way back has begun. Noosa was the first city on the list with it’s National Park on the Headlands. I heard some recommendations todo the coast track, which i combined with the track inland back to the carpark. Very nice track, along the coast, Tea Tree Bay, Hells Gates to the beautiful Alexandria Bay beach where almost nobody was present. The sun was burning down and my camelback on the half way already empty. Positive that the inland track back was in shade but that helped just a little bit. The cold showers at the car park helped to cool down and relax before starting to make my dinner and write again. My broken display in mind and it’s repairing costs in mind, all plans for staying at an proper campground or hostel were canceled and replaced by sleeping in a tent or in the car. Glad that tonights spot for the night had some grass and camping wasn’t prohibited.
Brisbane and the Apple store was the main focus for today. On the way down, the Australia Zoo was directly located next. This is the zoo where the famous Steve Irwin aka. The Crocodile Hunter worked before he died due to an attack by one. My sister and me was always watching in TV his show. I was really sad about that i couldn’t go in due to changed budget, but a low-budget alternative was just next to them. The Glass House Mountains and the ideal thing for hiking. The highest with the best view, Mount Beerwah, was closed because of continuously and dangerous rockfalls. Mount Ngungun, a small one was open and also had some nice views to the surrounding nature. At the top lots of people was hanging around, literally, they were hanging on ropes and doing abseiling. I would preferred the way up and down on the rope, but some of the participants was obviously not in the shape to get up there. After the hiking exercise it was time to head to Brisbane. Checking my online toll account displayed that i already had used $30 on the day of arrival, so that i used in my navigation system “no toll roads”. I arrived in the city but with lots of stops and traffic congestions at the same parking spot where i parked on the day of arrival.
I fed the meter for 1,5 hours and went to the Apple store to get my phone repaired. Of course i had to wait about 2 hours till i got my spot at the Genius Bar. So i went back to the car and though about what todo. Sitting in the car i thought about taking a ride with the cat, but to where and having my timer for the repair in mind. I stayed with the idea of finding a hotspot near the Apple store and write there. Again i fed the meter, now for the maximum time of 3 hours. It started raining cats and dogs, within seconds. My place for writing was now moved inside of the Apple Store. Very interesting if you sit there and have time enough to watch the people and employees. Everything has to be accurate, the product boxes, the iPads, the MacBooks, the chairs at the Genius bar. In every free second the employees have, they are adjusting something to be perfect. You might get the idea that Apple could be a “German” company. Also very nice to watch was the introduction of Garage Band and what cool stuff the man did with it.
After i got my iPhone fixed, yay, i straight went back to the car. But what was that? A white paper behind my screen, saying i have to pay $85 for parking in meter space when meter was expired. This wasn’t true, i had paid a second time and even if the 3hours maximum time counts from the first time parking, it was within the limit. I arrived at about 12:05pm, was back at the car at about 1:30pm and the ticket was at 1:48pm, so it was paid. Bad luck i thought, maybe re-paying is not allowed, but then this intelligent meter should had said and declined the second payment. Anyways i wrote an official dispute and requested an explanation, with my German contact details. Let’s see what will happen and when they answer.
The areas near big cities have no spots to stay for a night for free, so i had to drive a while. In the meantime it had started to rain again with thunder and lightnings, so the only option for sleeping was in the car. Now i had more time to think about the fine. $85 for invalid parking? Holy! I thought about parking tickets in Germany and how funny they are, they costs “nothing” compared to this basic one. Germany, your parking and speeding tickets are a joke, definitively too low. The rain drops hammered on the roof, but i’m used to that sound and felt asleep easily…